Category Archives: Stress Busters

Stress, Depression and the Holidays

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Stress and depression can ruin your holidays and hurt your health. Being realistic, planning ahead and seeking support can help ward off stress and depression.

By Mayo Clinic Staff

The holiday season often brings unwelcome guests — stress and depression. And it’s no wonder. The holidays present a dizzying array of demands — parties, shopping, baking, cleaning and entertaining, to name just a few.

But with some practical tips, you can minimize the stress that accompanies the holidays. You may even end up enjoying the holidays more than you thought you would.

Tips to prevent holiday stress and depression

When stress is at its peak, it’s hard to stop and regroup. Try to prevent stress and depression in the first place, especially if the holidays have taken an emotional toll on you in the past.

  1. Acknowledge your feelings. If someone close to you has recently died or you can’t be with loved ones, realize that it’s normal to feel sadness and grief. It’s OK to take time to cry or express your feelings. You can’t force yourself to be happy just because it’s the holiday season.
  2. Reach out. If you feel lonely or isolated, seek out community, religious or other social events. They can offer support and companionship. Volunteering your time to help others also is a good way to lift your spirits and broaden your friendships.
  3. Be realistic. The holidays don’t have to be perfect or just like last year. As families change and grow, traditions and rituals often change as well. Choose a few to hold on to, and be open to creating new ones. For example, if your adult children can’t come to your house, find new ways to celebrate together, such as sharing pictures, emails or videos.
  4. Set aside differences. Try to accept family members and friends as they are, even if they don’t live up to all of your expectations. Set aside grievances until a more appropriate time for discussion. And be understanding if others get upset or distressed when something goes awry. Chances are they’re feeling the effects of holiday stress and depression, too.
  5. Stick to a budget. Before you go gift and food shopping, decide how much money you can afford to spend. Then stick to your budget. Don’t try to buy happiness with an avalanche of gifts.Try these alternatives:
    • Donate to a charity in someone’s name.
    • Give homemade gifts.
    • Start a family gift exchange.
  6. Plan ahead. Set aside specific days for shopping, baking, visiting friends and other activities. Plan your menus and then make your shopping list. That’ll help prevent last-minute scrambling to buy forgotten ingredients. And make sure to line up help for party prep and cleanup.
  7. Learn to say no. Saying yes when you should say no can leave you feeling resentful and overwhelmed. Friends and colleagues will understand if you can’t participate in every project or activity. If it’s not possible to say no when your boss asks you to work overtime, try to remove something else from your agenda to make up for the lost time.
  8. Don’t abandon healthy habits. Don’t let the holidays become a free-for-all. Overindulgence only adds to your stress and guilt.Try these suggestions:
    • Have a healthy snack before holiday parties so that you don’t go overboard on sweets, cheese or drinks.
    • Get plenty of sleep.
    • Incorporate regular physical activity into each day.
  9. Take a breather. Make some time for yourself. Spending just 15 minutes alone, without distractions, may refresh you enough to handle everything you need to do. Find something that reduces stress by clearing your mind, slowing your breathing and restoring inner calm.Some options may include:
    • Taking a walk at night and stargazing.
    • Listening to soothing music.
    • Getting a massage.
    • Reading a book.
  10. Seek professional help if you need it. Despite your best efforts, you may find yourself feeling persistently sad or anxious, plagued by physical complaints, unable to sleep, irritable and hopeless, and unable to face routine chores. If these feelings last for a while, talk to your doctor or a mental health professional.

Take control of the holidays

Don’t let the holidays become something you dread. Instead, take steps to prevent the stress and depression that can descend during the holidays. Learn to recognize your holiday triggers, such as financial pressures or personal demands, so you can combat them before they lead to a meltdown. With a little planning and some positive thinking, you can find peace and joy during the holidays.

Wander Indiana – Covered Bridge Festival

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If you are in need of a taste of Indiana countryside, push away from the desk and escape to visit the covered bridges west of Indianapolis.  The Indiana Covered Bridge Festival is a two-week event offering an opportunity to tour more than two dozen covered bridges in the countryside near Turkey Run State Park.

Image result for indiana covered bridges

http://www.coveredbridges.com/events/parke-county-covered-bridge-festival

8 Steps for Healthy Living

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WebMD asked experts in diet, fitness, vision (and more) for their top tip for healthy living this fall. Here’s what they suggested:

1. Let Beans Be a Part of Your Diet

If you do one thing to improve your diet this fall, eat 3 cups of beans each week. Besides being a comfort food, beans add flavor and texture to soups, chili, and casseroles. They’re also a great salad topper.

Beans are rich in protein, iron, folic acid, fiber, and potassium. So pick a bean, any bean — lima, black, garbanzo, pinto, or others — and enjoy.

2. Defuse Stress With Friendship

Fall is a good time to come back together after the summer scattering of vacations and busy schedules — a great time to relax with friends.

Soothe away stress by making contact in person or by phone with someone you care about, someone you haven’t talked to in awhile because life got in the way. The positive emotions will make you feel good, and when joy and stress meet up, the joy wins out.

3. Be Tender With Your Teeth

If you do one thing to improve your dental health this fall, turn over a new leaf by ditching habits that are hard on your teeth.

4. Have Fun With Fitness

Improve your fitness this fall: Try a less-conventional workout to spruce up your regimen.

Break out of your fitness rut by taking a ballroom dance class or a mind-body workout such as yoga, Pilates, or Tai chi. You’ll be energized and more likely to stick with it.

For additional tips see:  https://www.webmd.com/women/features/8-fall-steps-for-healthy-living#1

 

 

Health Benefits of Having a Routine

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People are creatures of habit, and routines offer a way to promote health and wellness through structure and organization. Having a routine can greatly improve your health.

the health benefits of having a routine

Many people who don’t have any type of routine suffer from:

  • Stress. No routine often means having the constant worry of “when will I get it all done.”
  • Poor sleep. Without a daily routine at work and/or home, you may find yourself playing catch-up with yesterday’s to-do list. If you’re always behind on what should have been done the day before, you’re likely also staying awake worrying about what didn’t.
  • Poor eating. Unhealthy diets (like eating lots of fast food) become the norm if there isn’t time scheduled for grocery shopping. Quick, unhealthy substitutes become the next best food option.
  • Poor physical condition. Working out usually requires some advance planning.
  • Ineffective use of time. Often, no routine means you simply run out of time, leaving things undone and not making the most of your time.

Routines can be fun and don’t need to be boring. Their health benefits will make you wonder why you didn’t start one earlier.

Some ways a routine can help include:

  • Better stress levels lead to improved mental health, more time to relax and less anxiety. A lack of healthy stress management techniques can put you at greater risk for heart disease and negatively impact your overall health.
  • Better sleep will leave you refreshed. Your daily routine influences your quality of rest. Your sleep schedule and bedtime habits affect your mental sharpness, performance, emotional well-being and energy level. It’s best if you can maintain a consistent time for waking and going to bed.
  • Better health is a result of just a little extra planning. Set the alarm a little earlier and you’ll have time to exercise and eat breakfast, fueling your body for the day. Even a quick (and healthy) breakfast will get you energized. Whether you like to just go for a run or go to the gym for a bigger workout, it’s important make time for exercise.
  • Good example setting will encourage others to try a routine as well. You demonstrate its importance and the positive effect it has on health, motivation and self-esteem.

Everyone is unique. Not everyone requires a fully scheduled day to reap the health benefits of a routine, so make the choices that work for you, knowing they’ll only make you healthier and more efficient with your time.

http://www.nmbreakthroughs.org/daily-health/health-benefits-of-having-a-routine

Crawfordsville “Great Amazing Race” Coming Up

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https://www.greatamazingrace.com/

THE GREAT AMAZING RACE 

Sponsored by Southmont High School Soccer Club
“Raising funds to support soccer-related activities at Southmont High School”

Saturday – August 4, 2018                Race starts at 10:00 am & 12:30 pm
Milligan Park, 910 Mill St, Crawfordsville, IN 47933

10:00 am RACE
9:00 am – Check-in Opens & Pick Up Race Packet
9:55 am – Course & Rules Review
10:00 am  – Race Starts (waves begin every 10 minutes … kids teams, then adult teams)
11:30 pm – Race Completion & Awards

12:30 pm RACE
11:30 am – Check In Opens & Pick Up Race Packet for 12:30 Participants
12:25 pm – Course & Rules Review
12:30 pm – Race Starts (waves begin every 10 minutes … kids teams, then adult teams
2:00 pm – Race Completion & Awards

Teams can choose start time (10:00am or 12:30pm) at respective Check-In on race day.

​​For race details, visit our home page at www.GreatAmazingRace.com

 

Three Simple Ways Parents Can Practice Self-Compassion

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Do you beat yourself up for being a bad parent? There’s an alternative. Recent research suggests self-compassion may be a resource for resiliency. Explore these three small acts of kindness to build compassion for yourself.

By  | April 24, 2018Parents hugging child

When was the last time you beat yourself up for a parenting failure?

Perhaps your daughter got a D+ on the math test—and you regret some harsh words. Maybe you’re telling yourself that you bungled advice to your fifth-grader about how to handle an annoying classmate. You couldn’t keep your promise to attend your son’s music recital—and there’s a voice in your head telling you that you’re a terrible parent.

But there’s an alternative to that harsh self-talk: self-compassion. According to researcher Kristin Neff, “self-compassion provides an island of calm, a refuge from the stormy seas of endless positive and negative self-judgment.” As she defines it, self-compassion entails three components:

“First, it requires self-kindness, that we be gentle and understanding with ourselves rather than harshly critical and judgmental.”

“Second, it requires recognition of our common humanity, feeling connected with others in the experience of life rather than feeling isolated and alienated by our suffering.”

“Third, it requires mindfulness—that we hold our experience in balanced awareness, rather than ignoring our pain or exaggerating it.”

How is self-compassion related to parenting?  A recent study found that self-compassionate parents of adult children with developmental disabilities tend to have lower levels of stress and depression. In a 2015 study of parents of kids with autism, self-compassion is linked to more life satisfaction, hope, and re-engagement with life goals. Another study found that self-compassion may act as a shield against internalizing stigma—the negative evaluations and feelings others have about parenting children with autism.

A recent study found that self-compassionate parents of adult children with developmental disabilities tend to have lower levels of stress and depression

A new study by Amy Mitchell and colleagues provided Australian mothers with self-compassion resources and exercises, such as imagining how you would support someone else, remembering that you are not alone, and giving yourself a small act of kindness. Mothers who used the resources reported feeling more self-compassionate compared to mothers who did not—and they were less stressed and more satisfied with breastfeeding after the intervention.

Taken together, these studies suggest self-compassion may be a resource for resiliency and a protective buffer against both internal and external criticism. Can parents learn to be more self-compassionate? Of course.  Here are three steps you can take to build compassion for yourself.

1. Take routine self-compassion breaks

During the exhaustion and confusion of being a first-time parent, you may wonder how they even let you leave the hospital with the baby! Why isn’t breastfeeding magically easy? Where did you put the diapers? I stink! When am I going to be able to take another shower?

Those are the moments when you might try to take a self-compassion break. What does that look like?

First, accept the moment of suffering with a statement like, “This hurts.” Next, acknowledge that other first-time parents have felt this way—probably every first-time parent in the history of world! Last, offer yourself kindness, such as by saying, “May I give myself the compassion that I need as I try to care for my baby.”

Of course, it’s not always possible to take a break when you’re struggling to calm a weeping toddler. In that case, take a moment after the crisis has passed to give yourself a few kind words. Neff also recommends putting your hand over your heart, as a gesture of comfort toward yourself, or even giving yourself a hug. That might sound strange—but try it. See if it helps.

For additional examples and tips:  https://www.mindful.org/three-simple-ways-parents-can-practice-self-compassion/

 

Relaxation Class (Barter School Indy) July 5

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DESCRIPTION

Are you stressed out? Is stress causing you to lose sleep, feel anxious, or even causing physical pain? You can use your breath and simple but effective visualizations to help relax into the moment, release tension in the body, and aid you in feeling less stressed.

In this experiential class, you will learn and practice a few different tools you can add to your own relaxation toolbox, including breathwork, guided imagery, systematic physical relaxation, movement, and essential oils. While this class will utilize some techniques often taught as part of meditation classes, this session will not have any attachment to religious or spiritual teachings or beliefs, and is welcoming to all.

This will be about simple and accessible relaxation techniques. This class is also not a medical or psychological intervention, nor is the instructor offering it as such.

REQUIRED – BARTER ITEM:

To attend, students must bring at least one of the following to class, as payment to your teacher:

  • Incense (resin or stick type)
  • Ground coffee (earthy, darker coffees are my favorites)
  • Games (Board games, card games, etc)
  • Unscented candles, any size or shape
  • Your favorite spice or spice blend
  • Monetary donation for Barter School Indy
  • Someting else (contact the teacher directly to coordinate a different barter item)
  • CLASS VOLUNTEER – Every class needs 1 volunteer. This acts as your barter item. To secure the class volunteer spot, email us at barterschoolindy@gmail.com ASAP.

Barter School Indy runs on barter. Each teacher prepares their own list of barter items, and each student must bring a barter item to attend class. Questions or concerns about barter items? Feel free to contact us at barterschoolindy@gmail.com.

TEACHER INFO:

Darren Chittick

Darren is the pastor of The Church Within in Fountain Square, and he has a background in practicing and teaching meditation, massage, Reiki, and aromatherapy. He holds a third-degree black belt in karate, and has also studied Tai Chi. He’s a knitter, printmaker, and gardener, as well. Darren lives in Brookside neighborhood with his husband Frank and an immortal cat named Sparrow.

darren.chittick@yahoo.com

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/relaxation-techniques-tickets-47351365208?aff=ebdssbdestsearch