ENLIGHTEN UP! a blogSelf-awareness stories: lighting our way to clarity, contentment and resilience in a complicated world.
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ENLIGHTEN UP! a blogSelf-awareness stories: lighting our way to clarity, contentment and resilience in a complicated world.
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It’s important to understand what stress is, where it comes from and how to handle it. A certain amount of stress is normal and necessary. If we didn’t experience positive stress every second of the day, we wouldn’t breathe, our bodies wouldn’t function, our brains would stop working and we’d die. Unhelpful stress, whether from holiday activities and expectations or year round issues, is any event that interferes with our equilibrium on the physical, mental and emotional levels. It can make your upper lip curl, your stomach sink or your head explode with anger, anxiety fear or shock. Unhelpful stress can result from a variety of power sucking sources such as: Behavioral, Medical or Mechanical
Mental and Emotional
Chemical and Environmental
Social and Cultural (being seen as ‘other’)
No matter what unhelpful stress you may be facing, there are ways to manage it’s impact on your life. My suggestion is ESP – Eat Well, Sleep Well, Poop Well. Here are some ways to begin. Eat Well We all know (or should) the overall recommendations for eating a healthy balanced diet so no need for a lengthy discussion. I’ll just list a few and add one reminder. Eat Well to:
Be Sure to Include:
Limit:
Generally speaking, that’s good advice BUT we all need to take our own health, nutrition needs and digestion process into consideration as we make our choices. I have taken this advice to heart and last year I made an appointment to see a naturopathic physician. I was not surprised to find that I’m lactose intolerant – goodbye dairy - but shocked to find that cucumber and lettuce were close to the top of the ‘food sensitive’ list. That explained my digestive distress after eating my beloved salads. No worries, though, I just swapped out those two and added others. All is good. The point is that no one dietary guideline fits all human beings. To learn more about how to manage what you eat and what eats you, during the holidays, see last month’s blog post (https://www.bethgibbs.com/enlightenup/what-we-eat-and-what-eats-us-rest-and-digest) Sleep Well The problem of too little sleep and the quest for more of it, is acute. Twenty-seven percent of people in a new Consumer Reports survey of 4,023 U.S. adults said they had trouble falling asleep or staying asleep most nights, and 68 percent—or an estimated 164 million Americans—struggled with sleep at least once a week. Monica LeBaron, a sleep coach, says sleep troubles don’t start in the bedroom; they’re the tip of the iceberg and an indication that something else is ‘off’ in your life. Research gives us a few possibilities. They can include:
Because everything starts with the personal, the first step is gaining clarity about the root cause, or causes, of your inability to get enough sleep. Clarity is the foundation for making effective changes, and creating productive sleep habits. You can read more about this and consider Monica’s “5 Easy Steps to Falling Asleep” in her guest post. Poop Well Many of us experience ‘poop’ problems caused by occasional constipation. Given the changes in our daily routines during the holiday season, it’s not surprising. There are social gatherings with family and friends (functional and dysfunctional), changes in diet - more sugar, alcohol, fat and carbs, a decrease in exercise, along with the time-worn excuses; the gym is closed, the gym is open but I’m too tired, my to-do list is too long, etc. Then there is holiday shopping in crowded malls with loud muzak, and driving in heavy traffic, or dealing with crowded airports and long security lines. What exactly is occasional constipation? Occasional constipation is a reduction in the frequency of bowel movements and/or difficulty pooping. If your constipation is chronic, please seek medical advice. Energetically, constipation is considered a cold condition that requires heat to create movement. If you find yourself dealing with occasional constipation, try Seated Spinal Rotations and get in the groove for a smooth move! Contraindication. Seated Spinal Rotations are contraindicated for diarrhea. Instructions
I’ve been teaching this to my yoga students for years, and after trying it on their own, they say things like:
Here is one last thing to consider. Once you have filled your ESP well, consider helping others. If you donate to non-profit organizations that work to reduce the suffering and inequities in the world, consider adding organizations, like World Central Kitchen, Feeding America, or a local non-profit organization whose mission is to ensure that those less fortunate have enough to eat. Season’s Greetings and Happy Holidays!
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What we eat takes up a huge amount of space in our social lives and commentary. There are magazines, recipe books, television channels and self-help groups dedicated to helping folks manage the intake, quantity and quality of the food we eat. What eats us is just as important. How often have you heard the phrase, “What’s eating you?” When we eat, we consume. When something eats us, it consumes our thoughts, time, and energy. And usually that something is a difficult or troubling issue. The phrase is commonly used to ask someone why they look unhappy as in:
What you eat may be easier to work with; it’s physical. You can connect with what you eat with your five senses:
If you need to track what you eat, keep a food journal for a few weeks and you will have a clear and concrete picture of every food item you consume. What eats you, may be a bit harder to determine unless you have developed a keen sense of self-awareness. Generally, what eats us comes from relationships, work, finances, health, the environment and a variety of other soul sucking sources that includes the temptations and issues we will face during the upcoming holiday season. Although we may have similar experiences on the path to a healthy relationship with what we eat and what eats us, there are always individual rest stops, breakdowns and detours. Here are a few to consider. “Everybody is somebody’s lunch.” I don’t know where I read or heard that, but my understanding about life and my relationship with what I eat and what eats me is centered in that line. Years ago, I met the gardener at the New Age Health Spa in Neversink, New York. I was there for a weekend spa vacation. At meals, it was common for staff and visitors to eat together in the dining room. One day during lunch, the gardener told us he was quitting. We all wanted to know why. In so many words, he said that he loved his job, digging into the earth, feeling the dirt in his hands, working with the plants and vegetables and watching them grow. Then he sighed and told us that he was tired of hearing the lettuce scream when he picked it. It sounded strange then, but the scientists studying plant communication, had discovered that plants do talk. They make ultrasonic sounds to communicate stress. So the gardener’s experience may not have been as wacky as it first sounded. Anyway, there we were eating the lettuce in our salads and listening to him tell us what was eating him. We eat living things and when we die, living things eat us. As a kid, my friends and I sang this weird little rhyme with relish to refer to what eats us after we die. The worms go in and the worms go out The worms play pinochle on your snout Your tummy turns an icky green And looks and tastes just like whipped cream Imagine my surprise when I discovered this same concept in the Taittirya Upanishad, an East Indian wisdom tradition from 3,000 years ago! From food are made all bodies, which become Food again for others after their death. Now, I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about how I’ll be somebody’s lunch after I die but I do think about how I might be part of what feeds someone else’s angst during life on planet earth. Things like, how my actions and reactions might create discomfort or add to the normal dysfunction found in most families and relationships. This idea was the inspiration for a short story I wrote, titled ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.’ It was about Thanksgiving dinner with my family and how I was dreading the inevitable conflict with my brother, criticism from my mother and feeling like The Victim. Clearly it was one thing eating me. Once I looked at how my actions played a part in the family drama, I was able to approach Thanksgiving dinner with a different attitude that led to more enjoyment in what I ate and less emotional reaction to what was eating me. So, what to do? What we eat does have a relationship with what eats us. Our food choices are important. We are encouraged to eat healthy, unprocessed food when possible to improve our diets, our digestion and our overall health and well-being. As for what eats us; we can adopt a regular exercise schedule to reduce unhelpful stress. And we can develop self-awareness of our body, breath and mind to recognize our life triggers and find productive ways to manage them. This will be different for each of us and it has to be, because every one of our choices should be based on our personal needs and goals. It takes attention, clarity and self-awareness, to know what that’s going to be, to do what works, to stick to it for as long as it works and to be flexible about changing it when it no longer works. Self-Awareness Practice: Rest and Digest Unlocking the wisdom of rest and digest means paying attention to how you process what you eat and what eats you. As you practice this you’ll gain and deepen self-awareness, and move rest and digest from words on a page to skillful action in your life. You can start with this simple affirmation. “I take in and take on only that which I can digest.” This means making careful choices about what you eat and finding productive ways to respond to life and what eats you. Affirmations can set a positive intention for paying attention to a healthy physical, mental/emotional lifestyle. Affirmations are one of many tools you can use to work with what you eat and what eats you. This affirmation can be repeated silently or out loud. Or you can write it down on sticky notes and post them on your fridge, bathroom mirror, desk and dresser as a reminder of the intention you are working with. Here's wishing you success with your ‘rest and digest’ practice along with season’s greetings for whatever holidays you choose to celebrate over the next several months. |
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April 2024
AuthorBETH GIBBS started her yoga practice in 1968, four months after her son was born and she’s been practicing ever since. She currently teaches all levels therapeutic yoga classes for adults, and specialty classes for seniors in the Hartford, Connecticut area. Beth is a certified yoga therapist through the International Association of Yoga Therapists and is guest faculty at the Kripalu School of Integrative Yoga Therapy. She writes for the blogs, Yoga for Healthy Aging, and Accessible Yoga. Her master’s degree from Lesley University in Cambridge, MA is in Yoga Therapy and Mind/Body Health. Categories |
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Enlighten Up! a Blog
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