Wellness Wedesday: The Wellness of Voting

November 01, 2016 in women's health, mind body, Mental health, health, Consumer Awareness, connectivity

November 8th is election day in the US. This has been a frustrating season for us. It is tempting to throw up hands and stay home.

However, there is a healthier way. It is engagement.

I spent a total of 1 hour and fifteen minutes on my voting this evening. I had a voter information pamphlet, mostly for the texts of our local initiatives. And I had the internet. I read the websites of each candidate on the ballot and it still only took that short amount of time. I learned a great deal, and was reassured that there are some well qualified new people running for various local and state offices. I came away with the impression that issues are not really as complicated as I first thought. And, happily, the candidates in our area seemed to portray their beliefs and planned policies clearly for all to see. That made my choices easier, especially when I saw things I did not like.

At the family Halloween party, we had an interesting debate on the morality and utility of voting. Some argued that voting is a moral imperative. Some argued that it was symbolic only. Everyone acknowledged that voting meant the most if voters are informed. Everyone acknowledged that voting is no substitute for community engagement. For example, we concurred that the real way to influence elections is to help with campaigns and fundraising. This can be by way of real campaign events, or online.

Voting gets you in touch with the issues. Your vote is just one of many, but you mean something in your community, even if you are having conversations about national or international issues. Ideas spread beyond mountain ranges and across oceans.

Voting is a hard won right, but we must keep to the spirit of the original voters who uniformly knew about their issues. Voting means learning and voting means conversations… conversations that spread. So learn all you can and add your voice to the conversation.

To be or feel powerless is one of the worst forms of mental and physical stress. This election has made people feel powerless. We are not powerless, especially if we are willing to learn, participate and help.

Wellness Wednesday: The Art of Preparation

April 05, 2016 in women's health, social life, productivity, prevention, Parenting, mind body, Mental health, health, family, fitness

Why discuss preparation in a health blog ? Preparation is an antidote to what ails us.

Preparation is key to overcoming health challenges like obesity, poor nutrition, lack of fitness, chronic disease, and bad habits.

Tax day is April 15th and tax season has prompted my focus on preparation. There is a lot of stress going around associated with tax preparation, and not just because money needs to be paid. There is stress because some people leave their preparations for taxes for the last minute.

The opposite of preparation is procrastination. Check out this older post on procrastination:

Curing Procrastination

Procrastination increases stress, undermines self - confidence, and undermines relationships at home and work.

It decreases performance and effectiveness at completing any goals, including those associated with health.

There is a common misconception that preparation and goal meeting is about will power and discipline. On the contrary, preparation is about the realization that goal meeting is hard. Because goal meeting is hard, we need preparation which is easy. Said better, preparation is what makes it manageable. Preparation, not will power, is the key to success.

Let’s dissect or “ unpack" preparation, so you can see what it really is:

Having optimism that your goal can be achieved.
Taking the time to fully define your goal.
Frankly assessing where you are at the present moment, so that you can see how far you have to go.
Breaking down your goal down into parts. These subsections of the main goal, and not the whole goal, get divided according to the SMART goal criteria. Each of these subgoals must be:
- specific
- measurable
- attainable
- relevant
- and time bound.

That is what will make them, if not easy, then attainable.

To learn more about SMART goals, read here :

New Years Resolutions

Three Ways to get Ready for the Week

The Importance of Inspiration

Sometimes preparation itself is daunting. However, when the ask of preparation itself is broken down into segments, it is easier to face. And, crucially, starting with plenty of time ahead will take enable you to spread the segments out so you don’t have to do too much at one time. With preparation the hard becomes easy and the stressful becomes empowering. Try some today !

Wellness Wednesday: Curing Procrastination

July 29, 2015 in women's health, social life, sleep, productivity, prevention, Parenting, mind body, Mental health, family, communication

Is procrastination an illness ? No. But it can affect your health. Let’s take a look at what it is, why it happens, and how to cure it.

What is procrastination?

Procrastination is putting off things that need to be done. How big is the problem ? About 20 % of people are chronic procrastinators and these percentages increase significantly during college. People who are chronic procrastinators perform more poorly in their family, in high school, in college, in jobs, and in relationships. This sounds like an unfortunate nuisance, but it is actually a health problem. According to many sources, procrastination creates stress which interferes with sleep, weakens the immune system and makes heart disease more likely. It is also very hard on mental health.

To understand why procrastination happens, we have to look deeply into issues like self control, self image, inner honesty, fear of failure and distress tolerance.

1. Procrastination may start as a form of silent rebellion against parents. This becomes a vicious cycle as adolescents avoid parents in favor of friends, who do not hold them accountable as parents would.

2. Certain necessary tasks or even the idea of the tasks make people uncomfortable (distressed) , either because they dislike doing them or they are perceived as difficult or overwhelming. Those who cope with their feeling of dread or discomfort (distress) by avoidance may procrastinate, only making matters worse. Those who have poor coping skills or distress tolerance are likely to do other dysfunctional things to cope with life’s daily challenges and discomforts, such as abuse substances.

3. When people do not want to risk failure, they will subconsciously "arrange" to have insufficient time for a task, thereby providing themselves with a ready excuse for their suboptimal performance.

4. Procrastination is self sabotage. People procrastinate to fail in order to show others they have been mistreated, to “get back at them” or to acquire victim status. ( This is, by the way, passive aggressive behavior.)

5. Some people who procrastinate simply want others to pull up the slack in whatever it is that needs doing.

6. Some people who really want to succeed procrastinate. They deceive themselves about several things:

They will be more motivated tomorrow.
They have plenty of time left.
Their task will not be that challenging nor take that much time.
They will do better when they are feeing more motivated or inspired.
They think they do better under pressure.
They are talented enough to pull it off.

These are white lies we tell ourselves.

What can be done about procrastination ?

1. Procrastination is hard to overcome but it requires honesty with oneself and usually firm persistent guidance from others.

2. Strong feelings of interpersonal conflict should be evaluated by a qualified counselor.

3. Problems with procrastination in the setting of substance abuse should also be evaluated by a qualified counselor.

4. Simple methods to beat procrastination are as follows:

Fortify your will power and your distress tolerance with adequate sleep, healthy meals, snacks and regular exercise.
Become a list maker. Get a system which is either digital, paper or both and include reminders such as sticky notes or alarms.
Use SMART goals criteria for your list items. See more about SMART goals HERE. Nutshell version: SMART goals are specific,measurable,attainable, relevant and time-bound.
Overestimate the time it will take you to get something done.
Ditch perfection as a goal. It gets in the way of progress and accomplishment.
Divide large tasks into a series of small manageable tasks.
Practice mental “ time travel” to see how you will really feel tomorrow.

5. All of this requires self regulation. Practicing self regulation with small tasks has been proven to improve self regulation with big tasks.

Realize that self regulation is critical to healthy relationships and success in life. That should be plenty of motivation.
Pick several easy small tasks, and stick to them. Larger tasks WILL get easier as a result.
Yoga or meditation is especially good training for the nervous system where self regulation is concerned.
Be easy on yourself for lapses.
Pat yourself on the back for all successes.