As we approach the New Year, we always promise ourselves improvements if not change for the better.
I’m sharing with you some of the articles I find useful in this world where we have to cope with a lot of toxic elements that are not our own making but we are compelled to deal with.
This article, “Harnessing good stress” is from MSNBC:
“Stress is not always a bad thing — it’s what you do with it that’s key. Here are some ways to avoid the pitfalls of pressure overload:
— Think of the glass as half-full. We can’t make stress go away, but we can change how our brains react to it. An optimistic look at life can give more of a feeling of personal control and help limit the elevation of stress hormones.
— Focus on the task at hand. An unexpected deadline at work or home can give a burst of hormone-related energy, but don’t feel you have to do everything at once. If you feel overwhelmed, say “no” to taking on more tasks.
— Fight the urge to be a superman or wonderwoman. You’re not perfect, so don’t expect it from others. Prioritize and be realistic about work deadlines. Don’t hesitate to ask for help.
— Exercise. Regular, moderate exercise helps make your body more resistant to the negative effects of psychological stress.
— Meditate. Try to think of pleasant moments or nothing at all. Just 10 minutes to 20 minutes of quiet time can relax you and increase your tolerance to chronic stress.
— Be alert to stress clues. Frequent colds, cold sores, backaches, headaches, difficulty thinking clearly, irritability or insomnia are signals that your body and immune system are suffering from too much stress.”
To those who, like me, have so many things to do and so little time to do it, sleep is a luxury. This reminder to myself maybe useful to others too.
Six reasons you need a good night’s rest:
1. It maintains a strong immune system. Sleep deprivation compromises immune function and makes you more vulnerable to disease.
2. It slows aging. Too little sleep elevates levels of stress hormones and lowers levels of growth hormone, necessary for cell repair. In one study, young, healthy sleep-deprived subjects had the hormonal profiles of much older people.
3. It prevents diabetes. Sleeplessness increases insulin resistance, a precursor to type 2 diabetes.
4. It keeps you slim. When you’re sleep deprived, you have more of the appetite-stimulating hormone ghrelin in your blood and less appetite-curbing leptin, a combo that leaves you longing for junk food.
5. It helps maintain a sharp memory. Even one sleepless night impairs concentration and memory and can affect job performance.
6. It can make you happier. Insomniacs face a higher risk of depression, alcoholism, and suicide.
May we be able to sleep better in 2011.
We can’t avoid stress but we can try managing it. Life is too short to waste worrying about things we can’t do much about.
A good massage helps relieve stress.
Sa kapal ng snow at sa tinding lamig, hindi ako nakalabas at pumunta sa mall…to walk around…and do my exercise of walking. I go to the mall just to walk around…wala akong dalang pera (max is $10 to buy something to eat when I get hungry usually ice cream), wala akong dalang card to avoid impulse buying..pero kahapon after the snow storm…hindi linis ang lahat na kalye nakalimutan ko na ang mag ice skate..so I stayed home and nagbasa…salamat nalang nasanay ako magbasa,,,
…may aman pa ako sa comments ko sa itaas…naiisip ko tuloy noong nag Ondoy sa atin…I stayed home that day too..ang kaibahan hindi malamig…ulan lang ng ulan pero hindi malamig sa bahay…hindi kailangan magkumot ng makapal, hindi kailangan magsuot ng sweater pero like here kukot lang ng kukot kung ano man ang makakain sa bahay…but I will take the rain anytime…mahirap din ang buhay dito pag winter lalo na kung senior sixty cents ka na…stay at home ka na lang…wala namang mga Filipino na nagmamahjong dito sa building namin…salamat na lang sa TFC naka connect ako sa mga balita sa atin…
dagdag pa..Ellen next time you come around…come during the winter time so you will experience walking in winter sa Central Park…kung ayaw mo sa Central Park dito nalang sa Lincoln Park sa JC two blocks away…ma experience mo ang magligid ligid sa snow…
“May we be able to sleep better in 2011” …… paano?
Kung ganyan lang ang klase ng Pangulo …. papata-patay … puro dada lang … wala talaga.Lagi na lang tayo ng naka-bantay sa internet at ina-abangan ang masama ulit na magaganap sa atin …. ni wala man lang magandang balita na nababasa.
Papano mawawala ang magka-kurap sa atin eh mukhang pati pagbibigay ng parangal … gaya na lang ng Manila Filmfest …. ay may bahid ng pangungurap.
Papano??????????
Rose …. buti ka pa sa building ka nakatira at hindi mo na kailangang mag-pala ng snow … ako pagod na pagod na sa kapapala … ng yelo 🙂 🙂
Rose,
last monday, my niece is scheduled for section C delivery and there was snow all over the road to the hospital(Philly area)…and she was blaming my nephew for not getting a snowblower (my sister already gave them the money for the blower) so their good neighbour knowing the baby has to get out, did the clearing of the driveway with his machine and the baby was delivered on time and i also was able to go back to Toronto on time as my sis took her turn baby sitting the other girls…mom and baby doing alright and is she ever pretty…now I can sleep cuz been driving for 10 hours straight.
… Once two friends and I (tres Marias) spent a wintry weekend sa cottage by the lake in Torono…we took with us a lot of food, wine (siempre) and did a lot of walking sa snow…we had so much fun..we wanted to prove to ourelves and to other friends na kaya namin…at ang sarap ng tulog namin..what with the food and the wine…at pagod sa paglalagay ng logs sa fieplace..
…ang gsnda gandang tingnan ang snow kahapon now putik na ang dinadaanan namin…
ever tried walking in the woods in a wintry evening? reminds me of Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping in the woods…”
Here’s one of my favorites, by Henry David Thoreau
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary, I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to five a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a srange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the bhief end of man here to ‘glorify God and enjoy him forever’”
Kung ganyan lang ang klase ng Pangulo …. papata-patay … puro dada lang … wala talaga.Lagi na lang tayo ng naka-bantay sa internet at ina-abangan ang masama ulit na magaganap sa atin …. ni wala man lang magandang balita na nababasa.
wala naman talaga tayong nagustuhan na presidente…meron ba? ika nga we can’t please everybody…ang mahalaga, meron pa ring mga taong gumagawa – di kagaya nating talagang puro dada sa internet wala namang ginawang tulong…kung minsan mas mabuti pa nga yung mga nasa gobyerno kahit magkamali man, sila talaga ang gumagawa…
mas mabuti nga yung nagsasalita “dada” kung anong nasa isip niya kaysa yung pilit talagang patahimikin and nagsasabi ng katotohanan – may mga iba dyan binibili pa nga ang newspaper company (literally) para manahimik, yung iba naman nag organize pa ng “ad boycott” para malugi yung newspaper company na hindi “mabait” sa kanila…tama ba yun? tsk, tsk, tsk…
The real loser, winner in ad boycott
By Jose Ma. D. Nolasco
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:45:00 12/19/2010
MANILA, Philippines—The biggest threat to humanity, according to renowned psychologist Albert Ellis, stems from the irrational demand of certain people that others must absolutely treat them well. These people are a danger, Ellis warned, because in extreme cases they regard those who treat them unkindly as rotten individuals who deserve to be zapped.
Think Sept. 11, 2001, when a bunch of madmen that Ellis may have been referring to slammed two hijacked planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York because America would not agree with their fundamentalist dogmas.
Think July-November 1999, when the Philippine Daily Inquirer faced its gravest crisis ever—an advertising boycott spearheaded by no less than President Joseph Estrada, who raged at the newspaper’s stories of graft involving him, his relatives and his cronies.
“Galit ang Presidente sa inyo … Paluluhurin niya kayo (The President is mad at the Inquirer … He’ll bring you to your knees),” a businessman close to Estrada told PDI president and CEO Sandy Prieto-Romualdez as the Inquirer teetered on the brink.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20101219-309772/The-real-loser-winner-in–ad-boycott
…and the rest is history, albeit an unkind one…bottomline, it couldn’t have happened to a better man…
I woke up very early CA time so I got the time to make dalaw at Ellenville before kalapampagin ule ng mama-in-law. 🙂
Happy New Year everyone! May we start 2011 with a meaningful bang bang!!!
for me the best way to kill stress is a daily morning walk inside a controlled climate mall, where i can listen to my favourite music while doing the walk, start slow, then brisk, and slow down to cool down to finish and hit the coffee shop for a good breakfast. And then be ready to face the day of more problems and issues and have the strength and stamina to work them out.
And for immune support, I found that Vitamin C with Zinc can prevent cold attacks. I am particular with Ester C brand, as it is very gentle on the stomach.
Sleeping is enough when you wake not feeling groggy..it could be 5 hours, less or more…too much sleep is just as bad.
Woke up this morning after sleeping a full sleep.It felt good.
I didn’t wake up half asleep just to make it to my morning appointments as what happens most of the time.
To sleep better, do not sleep bitter.
Sharing something that I saw from our Bulletin Board. The exercises mentioned are supposed to complement a “full sleep”. My contribution to this topic.
Use “Powerful Rest” to Improve Your Life
How to Restore Your Energy Without Sleeping
Matthew Edlund, MD
Center for Circadian Medicine
In Dr. Edlund’s view, lying around on the couch or sleeping are classic examples of passive rest — which has value, of course. However, Dr. Edlund’s primary focus is something else — the pursuit of active rest. This includes activities and exercises that he describes as “restorative in that they rebuild and rewire body and mind… let you retune and reset… and consciously direct your body and brain to be more capable of doing whatever you want to do.”
A common mistake people make is to consider active rest as little more than engaging in “fun activities,” such as the things we all tend to do on vacations. But that view is incomplete, he says. In fact, active rest is not just fun — it contributes to longevity and health by creating a better mood and balance in your life as well as reducing stress. In Dr. Edlund’s mind, that is why it should be a regular part of our lives.
Dr. Edlund has identified four life areas that provide opportunities for active rest and offered a specific exercise to experience and enhance each of them…
For the complete article please click here: http://www.bottomlinesecrets.com/article.html?article_id=100002758
Thanks Guido for sharing the link to this useful article.
Please refrain from posting the whole article. An intro and the link are enough.
I asked Swiss-based Fil-American tenor Arthur Espiritu how he copes with extreme weather changes considering that his work and lifestyle requires a lot of travelling. Like last December, he was in tropical Manila one day and the next day he was in snow-covered Paris.
His answer:
Thanks Guido for sharing the link to this useful article.
Please refrain from posting the whole article. An intro and the link are enough. – Ms ellen
Straaaaayk Two!!! Nakow, perl pare ko namumuro na ako! Baka mamaya baka di pa matapos ang 2010 eh strayk out na ako! Medyo kinakabahan na tuloy akong magpost. Pero sa totoo lang Ms Ellen napansin ko rin ang iba na link nga lang ang pinopost kaya lang di ko naman ma-edit na ang aking post kaya sorry na lang ulit! Pasensiya ka na, kasi nasa Kinder pa lang ako dito sa blogsite mo eh! ;8)) I am a quick learner though, and whatever you say goes!
Ikaw naman Guido, ganun lang yun. That’s what editors are for. ‘Yan ang trabaho ko.
Thanks for being game about it. We enjoy your comments/inputs in this blog.
5. It helps maintain a sharp memory. Even one sleepless night impairs concentration and memory and can affect job performance.
This is true. It also affect one’s driving.
As in previous years my New Year’s resolution is not to let anything interfere with my sleeping and eating habits…thus I avoid eating pork and red meat..and stay on chicken and fish…eat a lot of vegetables and fruits and drink plenty of water and orange juice…and of course milk..breakfast is hot chocolate and pandesal…sleep at least 6 hours a day…kaya “kutis” kamatis pa din kahit senior sixty cents na..I don’t use soap either except made of rosemary and olive oil…
ito naman ang secreto ng isang kasama ko sa Senior Citizens ng Holy Rosary Church (JC)…when interviewed by a local newspapers on his 92nd birthday…ang secret daw niya “coffee and cake” for breakfast, lunch and dinner and in between too…minsan pa na hulog siya sa escalator at ang sabi ko sa kanya sa paghabol niya sa isang babae… (nakita niyang nadudulas)…cww? (coffee, wine and women?) tuba puede seguro particularly the first one taken in the morning…ktb (kape, tuba, babae)
Ellen,
Arthur Espiritu’s advice is right on and should be taken seriously…like washing hands frequently and if this is not possible a bottle of hand sanitizer as alternative should always be at hand. I already mentioned about the benifits of vit c with zinc for absorption from my own experience and when in cold weather it is always better to be over dressed than under..can always take some outer clothing off and all terminal points of the body should be kept warm..they easily get frostbitten…