With Mother’s Day approaching, I wanted to send a message to the mothers and grandmothers. It is time to put yourself back on the list. To allow yourself some time that is just for you. Too often, women feel it is their duty to care for everyone else in their life, while at the same time, neglecting the very one that keeps all the plates spinning, themselves!
Today it is time to reclaim your schedule. There are only so many hours in the day, and trying to add more things without taking something away becomes a burnout issue. It is good to visualize how you spend your time. Organizing a schedule is much like organizing a closet. There is room for only a certain number of items before it becomes too full to find anything.
So it is with your time. You need to visually see where all of your time goes. Whatever your issue is, it can be uncovered by keeping a detailed calendar or time journal. You can use this information to create changes that will allow you to chip away at problem issues.
You also need some room left to move things around. This is called margin. Margin needs to be built into your schedule. It is a REAL challenge to say no to back-to-back activities. Allowing a nonnegotiable time buffer between each activity will pay huge dividends when things do not go as planned.
No time for you? Then you need to prune from your schedule the activities that no longer bear fruit or reward you. They are there if you earnestly look. You must ask yourself, “Is this activity adding to my life, does it make a difference or is it really necessary?” Sometimes we continue an activity just because, we always have. Consider if an activity may have run its course in your life.
Begin this personal evaluation by creating a “What Matters Most” list. If an activity does not line up with your list, look for ways it can be removed. If an activity or duty does not bear “fruit” in your life, consider “pruning” it so YOU may grow! As your schedule is opened up, you may begin to add time for personal improvement activities that recharge your batteries.
Relaxation time and hobbies can help people become happier and more personally fulfilled. Freeing up time by dumping unproductive time-sappers will help you regain control of your life. You may then see the “fruit” of your better choices. Begin by doing what you can do—now. The roots you spread will affect your ability to grow.
Total wellness also includes your mental health. In order to safeguard your sanity, you must create healthy boundaries. Boundaries serve two main purposes. Just like a traditional fence, they keep out what you don’t want in your space, and keep safe what you do want in your space. For many different reasons, it is often difficult to set boundaries.
With the constant barrage of stimulus we encounter daily, it becomes necessary to filter the incoming information and emotions you are confronted with. Setting boundaries gives you the power to control the gate and allow into your life only what is useful and beneficial. It also gives you the authority to shut the gate on people, information, and behaviors that are harmful to you and your goals.
Creating personal boundaries is important when people make demands on your time. You need to have clear guidelines to measure against when deciding how to spend your time. By establishing your personal time boundaries up front, you will be able to make more beneficial and consistent decisions. You will have a clear-cut “yes” or “no,” based on whether the activity lines up with the criteria you have set for yourself. These should be based on your “What Matters Most” list and personal values.
It has been said that a man makes time for what a man wants to make time for. That is the truth. What does how you spend your time, say about you? Your challenge is to start creating a REAL desire for personal wellness improvement. When you really want it, you will figure out a way to make it work. Moms will sacrifice for things they want and for things they feel are important.
If you are not making time for yourself currently, then you are saying, by your actions, that you don’t feel you are important. It is time to realize that you will do everything, and care for everyone, better when you first learn to value caring for you own personal health. So start today. Put yourself back on the list and keep your appointments with your self-care activities. Everyone who loves you will thank you for it. “Cause if momma’s not happy, nobody’s happy!”
“Wellness Matters”
By Lisa Schilling RN
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Embracing Your Exertion and Recovery Cycle- Using It to Achieve better Health
“Wellness Matters”
By Lisa Schilling
We don’t easily change our nature in life. So it makes sense that your fitness type should match your natural bent. It is also important to understand your approach to exercise.
For years, people have been told to workout long and steady, aiming for thirty to forty-five minutes in their target heart range. However, there is REAL benefit from doing short (less than one minute) bursts of intense exercise, recovering, and then repeating that pattern (interval approach).
In fact, this cyclic form of exercise can have tremendous health benefits. An interval approach involves giving an all-out effort over a short period of time—like a minute. This short burst hits the fat stores more intensely.
It floods the body with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory benefit during the recovery phase. Inflammation has been known to cause multiple problems in the body. This is another reason to utilize these anti-inflammatory types of exercise.
Exercise is good medicine; the changes that occur in the body during the exertion and rest cycle are restorative. History shows that our ancestors ran from predators, chased their prey, and then rested. Our physiology evolved according to these bursts of exertion and complete recovery. A cascade of healing occurs during the recovery phase.
Planning adequate exertion and recovery time is a vital part of any wellness plan. Building these contrasts into your schedule is essential to your long-term vitality. Understanding this cyclic approach is important. Too often we focus on the exertion side of the equation and neglect the recovery side.
People tend to look at the body as a mechanical object. But the exertion and recovery approach looks at the body differently. The circulatory, endocrine, and muscular systems are all cyclic in nature, and this type of exercise enhances the body’s circadian rhythm.
If you ask someone, “Can you go hard for one minute, then rest?” most people are willing to try it. If, on the other hand, you say, “Go hard for forty-five minutes,” there is a less than enthusiastic response.
This short exertion followed by recovery approach, challenges our physiology and puts the highs and lows back into chemical and circulatory responses. It also can deter adaptation.
Another aspect of the exertion and recovery approach is creating sharp contrasts. Contrasts help to build healthy rhythms in our bodies. Cycles such as complete darkness followed by complete light, or being hot followed by being cold, assist the body’s cyclic nature.
The prehistoric hunter-gatherer experienced these extremes each day. Today our artificial temperature control and lighting put restrictions on this natural physiology. To achieve better health benefits, we need to equally alternate these highs and lows.
Exercise affects heart rate variability (HRV), which is the measure of time between heartbeats. It should fluctuate with every respiration. A loss of heart rate variability has been identified as a risk factor common to all causes of death. When you are young and the heart muscle is flexible, there is variance in beat-to-beat measure. As you age, chronic disorders set in, and you lose your HRV.
What these short bursts of all-out effort do is help restore that variability. It can be like “yoga for the heart” and acts as a homeopathic dose of exercise. These bursts are not enough to trigger respiratory fatigue, but are sufficient to generate the anti-inflammatory responses during the recovery phases.
Utilize interval walking to see increased results. For interval walking, check your pulse and take note of it. Add a short ten- to thirty-second “sprint,” followed by slower recovery walking. (“Sprint” is a relative term based on your fitness level—consider your best attempt to flee if the house were on fire!) Gradually build back to your brisk walk. Take your pulse again.
When your heart rate has recovered to pre-sprint levels, you may sprint again. You will benefit from the elevated heart rate even when returning to the slower pace. Follow this pattern regularly, and you will get more benefit for your time of purposeful movement!
By Lisa Schilling
We don’t easily change our nature in life. So it makes sense that your fitness type should match your natural bent. It is also important to understand your approach to exercise.
For years, people have been told to workout long and steady, aiming for thirty to forty-five minutes in their target heart range. However, there is REAL benefit from doing short (less than one minute) bursts of intense exercise, recovering, and then repeating that pattern (interval approach).
In fact, this cyclic form of exercise can have tremendous health benefits. An interval approach involves giving an all-out effort over a short period of time—like a minute. This short burst hits the fat stores more intensely.
It floods the body with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory benefit during the recovery phase. Inflammation has been known to cause multiple problems in the body. This is another reason to utilize these anti-inflammatory types of exercise.
Exercise is good medicine; the changes that occur in the body during the exertion and rest cycle are restorative. History shows that our ancestors ran from predators, chased their prey, and then rested. Our physiology evolved according to these bursts of exertion and complete recovery. A cascade of healing occurs during the recovery phase.
Planning adequate exertion and recovery time is a vital part of any wellness plan. Building these contrasts into your schedule is essential to your long-term vitality. Understanding this cyclic approach is important. Too often we focus on the exertion side of the equation and neglect the recovery side.
People tend to look at the body as a mechanical object. But the exertion and recovery approach looks at the body differently. The circulatory, endocrine, and muscular systems are all cyclic in nature, and this type of exercise enhances the body’s circadian rhythm.
If you ask someone, “Can you go hard for one minute, then rest?” most people are willing to try it. If, on the other hand, you say, “Go hard for forty-five minutes,” there is a less than enthusiastic response.
This short exertion followed by recovery approach, challenges our physiology and puts the highs and lows back into chemical and circulatory responses. It also can deter adaptation.
Another aspect of the exertion and recovery approach is creating sharp contrasts. Contrasts help to build healthy rhythms in our bodies. Cycles such as complete darkness followed by complete light, or being hot followed by being cold, assist the body’s cyclic nature.
The prehistoric hunter-gatherer experienced these extremes each day. Today our artificial temperature control and lighting put restrictions on this natural physiology. To achieve better health benefits, we need to equally alternate these highs and lows.
Exercise affects heart rate variability (HRV), which is the measure of time between heartbeats. It should fluctuate with every respiration. A loss of heart rate variability has been identified as a risk factor common to all causes of death. When you are young and the heart muscle is flexible, there is variance in beat-to-beat measure. As you age, chronic disorders set in, and you lose your HRV.
What these short bursts of all-out effort do is help restore that variability. It can be like “yoga for the heart” and acts as a homeopathic dose of exercise. These bursts are not enough to trigger respiratory fatigue, but are sufficient to generate the anti-inflammatory responses during the recovery phases.
Utilize interval walking to see increased results. For interval walking, check your pulse and take note of it. Add a short ten- to thirty-second “sprint,” followed by slower recovery walking. (“Sprint” is a relative term based on your fitness level—consider your best attempt to flee if the house were on fire!) Gradually build back to your brisk walk. Take your pulse again.
When your heart rate has recovered to pre-sprint levels, you may sprint again. You will benefit from the elevated heart rate even when returning to the slower pace. Follow this pattern regularly, and you will get more benefit for your time of purposeful movement!
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