https://secure.getmeregistered.com/get_information.php?event_id=127587
Category Archives: Stress Busters
Last 10/40 of Ways to Relax and Destress
30. Go Barefoot
This is one of the many ways to get in touch with nature as previously mentioned, BUT it has unique properties of its own. Walking barefoot outside might make you a hippie, but it’ll also helps you absorb free electrons from the Earth and has a surprisingly powerful antioxidant effect on the body, as explained here. If anything, however, going barefoot gives you a natural, spiritual connection with the Earth on which we live. Deep.
31. Sing
Bring out your inner Beyoncé. Pair this up with “dance like nobody’s watching” (see #15), and you’re set as a backup singer/dancer.
32. Treat Yourself
Go out for some froyo, splurge in that clutch bag, give in to a guilty pleasure. Treating yourself is just a reminder that life is good, and that you deserve to have a good time.
33. Scents Make Sense
Try out aromatherapy. Some scents, like lavender and jasmine. Check out this page for a more detailed list.
34. Do Your Research
It’s important to relax, but it’s equally important to understand what caused you to stress in the first place. Acknowledge whatever it is, as it may just be right under your nose.
35. Chew Gum
Chewing gum can actually lower stress! Pop one in your mouth, and you’re set.
36. Find a Relaxation Mentor
AKA, a positive role model who excels specifically in the field of staying relaxed. Find that one dude whose catch phrase is “take a chill pill!” (Not limited to people who grew up in the 90’s…) By looking to others who are good at being calm, you can also learn their tricks.
37. Be Spontaneous
Take an alternate route to work, spice up your morning routine, or take an impromptu trip to your favorite store. We’re so entrenched in routine, but a bit of spontaneity once in a while is good for you.
38.Forgive Yourself
Any weird emotional tension? Let it go by forgiving others and yourself. Staying in the past is not worth missing the future.
39. Breathe
Probably the easiest thing you can do, and it takes only a few seconds. No matter where you are or however difficult the situation at hand may be, taking a deep breath can calm you down.
40. Remember You’re Human
It starts with awareness. We all make mistakes. Let go of any perfectionist tendencies that may be dragging you down, and let go of any unrealistic standards that you set for yourself and fail to reach. So… Relax, remember you’re human, and go reap the harvests of life.
To find the other tips check out: https://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/40-simple-and-brilliant-ways-relax-and-stress.html?utm_content=buffer917eb&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Learn about Indy Greenways
Get Up,Move and Post!
The American Heart Association encourages you to get up, move and post to inspire others to move more!
An Architectural Outdoor Tour – Columbus, IN
Columbus, IN offers you a free outdoor experience of architectural delights.
How Columbus, Indiana, Became a Mecca for Modernist Architecture:
In the heyday of American industrialism, companies often shaped whole communities, serving as a town’s primary employer and economic driver. One of these so-called company towns, Columbus, Indiana, is home to Cummins Engine Company, a humble population of 46,000, and a disproportionate number of iconic mid-century modern buildings.
Located 50 miles south of Indianapolis, Columbus owns dozens of architectural masterworks by internationally renowned designers from the era. Eliel and Eero Saarinen, and more than a handful of Pritzker Prize Laureates, including I.M. Pei, Richard Meier, and Robert Venturi, began developing projects there with sudden regularity in the mid-1950s. Several of their building works are located along the city’s Fifth Street, otherwise known as the Avenue of the Architects.
An unlikely mecca of modernist architecture, it’s a place where banks, churches, office buildings, and schools (in short, the core of the city’s civic life) are also frequent stops along an architectural tour route trodden by thousands of design scholars and enthusiasts each year. The influential Indianapolis-based magazine Saturday Evening Post, noting the city’s curious character combination of small-town charm and design sophisticate, famously dubbed it “the Athens of the prairie” in 1964, an apt tagline that has held over the years.
For more information check: https://columbus.in.us/mobile-map/
Spring Outdoor Play: Making the Most of the Season
Springtime is ideal for outdoor play. After a cold, gray winter, the blue skies, new leaves, and warm breezes beckon everyone to come out and play for a while. In the excitement of a new season of growth, here are some activities to make the most of all that spring has to offer.
Rainy days:
April showers bring May flowers, but what kinds of play do April showers bring? Wet days are a challenge, but they are also an opportunity for special kinds of creative outdoor play. When it’s not thundering and unsafe, try some of these outdoor activities:
- Puddle play – splashing, floating, seeking for creatures, comparing reflections.
- Mud play – make the most of the wet mud while it’s there! It helps to have a backup set of clothes to get muddy in, and then just hose off at the end.
- Rain walks – waterproof gear and boots, or some umbrellas keep everyone (mostly) dry while exploring.
When it’s too cold or too thundery to be outside, try these rain-related indoor activities:
- Learn about and pretend to be wildlife who benefit from the rain, such as ducks, turtles, frogs, and salamanders
- Create watercolor paintings with the rain – experiment with putting papers out in the rain for a minute and then painting on them, or put them out after painting and see what textures the rain adds.
- Create garden collage artwork of pictures of plants that will grow in the spring and summer (with cutouts from plant catalogs and gardening magazines).
Warm, sunny spring days:
The best days of spring come with blue skies, warm breezes, and bright flowers and leaves. Try out some of these activities to maximize the pretty days of spring:
- Measure leaf growth, record when the buds open and compare different plants’ growth.
- Create art with flowers.
- Pick flowers to bring inside the classroom.
- Observe bugs and other creepy-crawlies.
- Watch for birds and learn about what kinds migrate through your region in the spring.
- Learn about baby animals (who are frequently born in the spring), with visiting bunnies, baby chicks, or ducklings.
- Take photographs – let the children take photos of their observations of spring with disposable cameras or kid-friendly digital cameras.
- Have a picnic day where all the day’s normal indoor activities happen outdoors.
Cool and windy spring days:
The changing seasons bring changing weather patterns and often, breezy spring days. Weather forecasts usually include a prediction for winds, which can be helpful when planning some of these activities.
- Play with the wind – bring fabric, ribbons, and wind catchers to play with outdoors.
- Make and fly kites – kites fly best with wind speeds between 5 and 15 mph.
- Measure wind direction and speed with the “wet” finger technique.
- Read some windy day stories outdoors.
- Make and install wind chimes and windsocks.
Gardening:
Spring is high season for gardening as the soil warms up and the days grow longer. Here are some ideas to get your imagination started on the many possibilities for spring gardening with children. These activities can happen in almost any weather – weeding a garden bed can be a lot easier right after a rain, for instance. For more thorough information and guides, the NLI Green Desk has multiple posts on children’s gardening, here.
- Prepare the garden for the season’s plantings, see the Early Spring in the Garden post for more.
- Start sugar snap pea seeds
- Build a mini green bean teepee
- Create newspaper pots and start seeds
- Plant strawberries
- Sow wildflower seeds
- Plant sprouts in the window to eat
- Serve spring seasonal snacks (sprouts, radishes, sugar snap peas, etc.)
Your Activity and Pet Health
Can Your Pet Help You Be Healthier?
Having a pet, especially a dog, may be good for your health and lower your risk of heart disease. From getting more exercise to lowering stress and blood pressure levels, the benefits of pet ownership may even help you live longer.
The Truth About Cats and Dogs
Walking for the Win
Most of the research has focused on dogs and physical activity. It’s no surprise that people who walk their dogs are more likely to get the recommended amount of physical activity than those who don’t.2 One study found that dog-walkers got an average of 30 minutes more exercise a day than non-walkers.3
Try these tips for being active together. Your dog, and your heart, will thank you!
- Go on a picnic. Pack some healthy snacks like fruit, veggies, mixed nuts, and plenty of water, including a bowl for your dog! Bring some fun toys like a frisbee or ball and play a game of catch.
- Cool off in the sprinklers. When it’s hot, grab swimsuits and sunscreen and run around with your kids and pooch in the cooling spray.
- Take a dip. If you live near a beach, lake or pool that is dog-friendly, bring your pupster along for a swim.
- Go for a walk. Participate in local fundraising walks (like the Heart Walk) or fun runs with the whole family. Check to make sure dogs are allowed. You’ll be getting active together while supporting a great cause.
- Park it. If your dog plays well with others, hit up the local dog park to toss a ball or just run with the pack.
- Play ball. Head outside anytime to enjoy some fresh air and a quick game of fetch or keep-away. Even if you only have 10 or 15 minutes to spare, you and your dog will get some exercise and bonding time.
- Walk home from school. If your kids can walk home from school or a bus drop-off point, bring the dog to meet them and walk home together.
Keeping It Real
Of course, we’re not suggesting adopting a pet as a cure-all for bad habits. The primary purpose of pet adoption or rescue should be to provide the animal a loving home and to enjoy the companionship. But if having a pet will help you move more, then it’s a win-win!
The bottom line is, whether or not you have a pet, being more active and less stressed can help you live a longer, healthier life.
https://healthyforgood.heart.org/be-well/articles/can-your-pet-help-you-be-healthier
How to Boost Your Willpower
Cheating on your diet or exercise plan? Struggling with self-control or impulse choices? Science shows that willpower can get depleted! Learn how you can strengthen it and increase your ability to resist temptation.
Willpower May Be a Finite Resource
Your willpower may be an exhaustible, finite resource. It may be used up over the course of a day in lots of tiny ways. This is called ego depletion.
Research by social psychologist Roy Baumeister and others suggests that if someone initially resists a temptation like warm chocolate chip cookies, the person is then less capable of resisting another willpower challenge or making a difficult decision.1,2
Translation: Doing something tough may use up some willpower, which makes resisting temptation super hard.
Ok, so what can you do about this depletion? Don’t fret, here are some simple strategies to level up your willpower.
Arrange things and make decisions when your willpower is sky high.
- Clean. Get rid of all the temptations. If all the junk food is gone you won’t have to resist later.
- Commit. If you have a plan with a friend for spin class, you won’t have to wonder what you’re doing later.
- Optimize. Change your timing for tasks, like grocery shopping right after a meal when your willpower is strong. If you don’t use your willpower to battle the cookie aisle in the store, you’ll have reserves for resisting dessert later tonight.
Boost your willpower in the moment it is being challenged.
- Postpone. “Not now, maybe later.” Saying a simple phrase like this can reduce your impulse to listen to that devil on your shoulder.
- Distract. Try distracting yourself to see if your impulse chills out. Giving yourself something else to focus on can calm the brewing willpower battle.
- Hide. Remove the temptation from your view or remove yourself from the situation. In the classic “marshmallow experiment,” even little kids trying to use willpower to wait for a delicious, squishy marshmallow had more luck if they simply hid it from their view. One kid sat on it to get it out of view! If a kid can do it, so can you.
Learn how to strengthen your willpower.
- Meditate. Yep, this one again. Even brief, 10-minute mindfulness meditations, done over time, can improve your self-control. The deal with mindfulness is you learn to bring your thoughts back to the present moment as they start to wander. And every time you do this, you’re flexing your willpower muscle.3
- Sleep. It always come back to getting enough sleep, we know! Studies indicate that getting enough sleep matters for your willpower, too.4 Healthy sleep can lower psychological strain, give you better self-control, and replenish self-regulatory energy. That’s all a fancy way of saying, “Get to bed!”
- Stop swearing. It’s not a joke. Baumeister suggests that challenging yourself to change a speech pattern, like using “hello” instead of “hey” or dropping that expletive and replacing it with something else, can help you learn to extend your willpower.
Excuse your setback and get on with it!
- Forgiving yourself for an oops moment frees up your willpower, so you can resist next time. It’s ok, you’re human, and you’re going to make mistakes.
In other words, using the first letter of each of these strategies, A-B-L-E, be able! Using your willpower doesn’t have to use up all your willpower.
Which willpower boost are you going to try next time you’re in a logic vs. emotion throw-down?
Self Defense Class Handout
Spring Thoughts…Best Kite Flying Sites in Indianapolis
Spring is good for kite-flying for three reasons: It’s pleasant outdoors, there’s usually a breeze, and the trees don’t have too many leaves. Leaves block the wind.
This, according to the Hoosier Kitefliers Society, whose members would know since they fly kites year-round, even in February on frozen lakes. (The next HKS event, a choreographed-to-music exhibition by internationally known fliers, is 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 30 in Shipshewana, Ind.)
What the fliers look for, optimally, are flat, grassy, open spaces.
Here are seven such spots, some of which are on private property, so you’ll need to ask permission:
Fort Harrison State Park
This is a former U.S. military base located on Indy’s northeast side.
Sahm Park
Plenty of room to let out the line here.
Garfield Park
Indy’s oldest city park, on the south side, in a part of town that’s getting increasingly hip.
Zionsville United Methodist Church
9644 Whitestown Road, Zionsville
Kite enthusiasts on Indy’s northwest side will want to try this spot.
Northwestway Park
This northwest-side open space also is a haven for disc golfers. It and kiting can co-exist.
Soccer field next to Colts Complex
If you fly here, you may get a glimpse of Andrew Luck or some other athlete coming and going.
Washington Township Park (near the amphitheater)
Fly your kite among people fishing in stocked ponds and playing sand volleyball.
https://www.indystar.com/story/life/2016/04/23/7-great-places-indy-area-fly-kite/81644726/