From the regular, ongoing stress that comes from living in a complex, high-impact culture to specific life events that knock us for a loop, when the negative effects of non-stop stress accumulate, they damage our health physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Paying attention and recognizing when we hit stress “hot spots” is the essential first step. The second step is to take action to reduce and better manage stress. The following are simple daily practices to help you maintain balance and get back to well-being at particularly stressful times.
1: Breathe. Deeply. Especially when you find yourself irritable or angry.
2: Find stillness. Your bedroom, a park bench, your car—where you can be quiet and restful. Go there when you need to. Meditate.
3: Relax. Take a bath, nap or shower. Sit in the sun or shade. Get a massage. Do nothing.
4: Watch what you eat. Don’t over or under eat; drink water; eat fruits and veggies. Easy on the sugar, caffeine, fatty foods and alcohol.
5: Get it out. Talk to trusted friends, a coach or counselor. Write in a journal. Pound a pillow.
6: Say no. Remember the Lesson of the Oxygen Mask. If you don’t take care of yourself first, you’ll have no well to draw from for helping others.
7: Get physical. Exercise, walk, play a game, dance, sing, garden.
8: Try something new. Change your perspective with new people, new ideas, new activities, new beliefs.
9: Smile and laugh out loud. Force it at first, if necessary. It’s impossible to stay negative or burdened with a grin on your face.
10: Have fun. Don’t forget to take time to play, be creative and do things that nourish your soul.
Author’s content adapted under license, © 2008 Claire Communications
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About djwlifecoach
I am retired from 40+ years of helping individuals and teams build lives and organizations they love. One of the great joys of my retirement from professional practice is having greater bandwidth to donate my professional and creative talents to support and promote animal and social welfare charities.
During my 30 years as an organization transformation consultant, I served as a senior partner in four of the world’s largest, most prestigious global professional services firms. In 2005, I took a five-year sabbatical to find healing and peace because non-stop work had taken its toll.
My recovery from burnout led to finding my purpose guiding others on their journeys. As a board-certified coach, author, consultant, radio host, Reiki Master and EFT/tapping practitioner, I share hope, possibilities and empowerment with the world.
111419 DJW Sid CH Pet Corner Photo ShootI help clients achieve rapid, extraordinary, sustainable results by connecting who they are with what they do, a connection often lost through stress and the sheer busy-ness of daily life. Courageous self-awareness and unconditional self-love lead to honest choices based on priorities that nurture you and those around you on a journey to wholeness.
Decades in coaching, consulting, change management, organization development, human resources and mixed media artistic expression honed my business sense, professionalism, creativity, intuition, leadership and communication skills. The result? Practical tools that help you become more insightful, creative, committed, productive and fulfilled.
Even the most dedicated and hard-working individuals can shift from frustration to a sense of futility when their values, passion, work, and lives become disconnected. One of the problems with not taking care of our health is that the effects of ignoring it are often slow to show up. We continue to juggle family responsibilities, work and finances until we lose ourselves, waking up one day 50 pounds heavier in body and soul—no good to ourselves or anyone else.
I love working with people who are ready to take life-changing action to make their dreams a reality. At each moment, you have inside you all the wisdom you seek to choose your life and your way of showing up. Limiting thoughts, beliefs and feelings can block you from moving forward. An absence of love and concern for yourself can result in negative head talk that holds you back with discouraging messages about who you are and what you can do.
By listening and caring deeply, I guide you in connecting with your own inner wisdom. We identify the way you’d like to live. We determine what’s blocking you and release you from the hold those blocks have over you—unleashing the positive energy that will fuel you forward. Together we develop a plan to move you closer to your heart’s desire.
My books, blog, radio show and signature coaching programs help individuals and organizations harness the transformative energy of love to turn unexplored possibilities into fulfilling realities and step into their greatness. What’s love got to do with it? Everything! My book, Choose Your Energy: Change Your Life! (Hay House/ Balboa Press 2013) shares my story and the stories of 10 of my clients along with my signature Discovery Framework.
For fun, I love reading, sewing, knitting, yin yoga, afternoon tea, opera and movies. I live in Williamsburg, Virginia with my spouse, Wilson Abney, and the cat who runs our life, Maisy Jane.
From the regular, ongoing stress that comes from living in a complex, high-impact culture to specific life events that knock us for a loop, when the negative effects of non-stop stress accumulate, they damage our health physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. Paying attention and recognizing when we hit stress “hot spots” is the essential first step. The second step is to take action to reduce and better manage stress. The following are simple daily practices to help you maintain balance and get back to well-being at particularly stressful times.
Choose Your Energy: Change Your Life! 