Overwhelmed? 5 Ways to Find Peace in Less Than 5 Minutes...
I’m not sure if you are like me, however, I can’t keep track of
how many times a day I have so many thoughts popping into my head of things to
do, people to call, groceries to buy, e-mails to send, clothes to wash, dishes
to clean...you get the point! All of
these daily thoughts that come in and out of our brains on a daily basis can
send us into overdrive and make us feel
overwhelmed and often anxious about our lives.
I am a follower of Oprah and faithfully read her magazine. Often times I come across articles that help
me find easy ways to relieve these feelings and many other stresses that I come
in contact with in daily life.
October 2013 issue of O Magazine had an especially interesting
article that helped me put all of these overwhelming factors into perspective,
and 5 easy ways to find peace in less than 5 minutes! I wanted to share these interesting tactics
with you:
1. During Rush Hour: Pop a peppermint - What helps a frustrated, worn-out
driver (besides vanishing traffic?)
Researchers at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia found that
pumping peppermint-scented air into the cars of ticked-off commuters helped
decrease their anxiety and fatigue.
Stash a bag of peppermint candies in your glove compartment to help you
keep your cool in honking traffic or during a hectic commute.
I have found this useful in more ways than just in the car. Being a dentist, I often times will have more
than 1 place I need to be at a time. Nothing
makes me more anxious than knowing people are waiting on me. Therefore, I keep a stash of peppermints at
my office to help! Try it in one of your
stressful and anxious daily moments! It works!
2. While Trying to Get Dinner on the Table: Stop Listening to the
6 p.m News...at 6 p.m.
The oil in your wok has started
to smoke, your dog is barking to go out, the vegetables you were planning to
stir-fry are too old to be edible—and Brian Williams has nothing but bad news.
It's important to stay on top of current events, but you're not helping anyone
by catching up during one of the most frantic times of your day—least of all,
yourself. Exposure to media coverage of upsetting events can not only spike
stress levels, but it can also make you feel worse physically, found a 2012
Israeli study that assessed 55 chronic-pain patients before and after a local
three-week missile attack. Participants who watched more television reports of
the attack said that their stress was more acute and their pain felt more
intense. Your best bet: DVR the news to watch when the kitchen's closed for the
night and every last fork has been washed and put away.
I can’t count the number of
times I have been trying to get dinner ready for my daughters at a reasonable
time and been caught listening to the evening news. Trying to do both at the same times often
ends up with me getting frustrated with dinner or worse my lovely daughters,
when my focus should be 100% on them. I
have set my recorder to capture the news each day and if time permits I will
catch up on it once the girls have gone to bed.
I find that I don’t watch as often and know just enough to keep me from
getting too anxious regarding all the worlds unsettling situations.
A few years ago, Linda Stone,
a high-tech exec-turned-adviser and consultant, noticed that she was holding
her breath whenever she sat down at her computer. She observed more than 200
people using computers and smartphones and found that the vast majority of them
were doing the same thing—forgetting to inhale (or taking shallow breaths)
after logging on. Stone, who calls this phenomenon "screen apnea,"
says it can trigger the body's fight-or-flight response, increase anxiety,
interfere with digestion and, when doing it day after day (while never really
making a dent in those 3,000-plus emails), compromise your overall health and
immunity. You can see the value of a technique to stay calm and clear-headed as
you file and delete. Stone personally had success with Buteyko, a form of
diaphragmatic breathing—which is what Anne Marie Albano, PhD, director of the Columbia University Clinic for Anxiety and Related
Disorders, says is one of the best and most effective
stress-management techniques. There are many different types of breathing techniques,
but the vast majority of us will benefit from making sure that we simply exhale
for twice as long as we inhale. Stone regularly pauses to ask herself if she's
breathing, and then she takes a break to inhale, exhale and stretch.
This one is probably my
favorite, because I can use it in almost any situation when I start to feel the
unsettling anxiety slowly set in.
Breathing techniques have been found useful in so many cultures and in
so many different situations. Yoga is
another great tactic I can use to wind down! Try it!
Shoppers spend 16 weeks, on
average, researching cars on the Web, reports the trade magazine Wards Auto, and by the end of that time, they're often more confused and overwhelmed than when
they started. One way to make the drawn-out process seem less
daunting: Eat trail mix while you read reviews and weigh options. Recent
experiments have shown that the simple sugar glucose (which is found in
raisins) can counteract the negative brain changes wrought by decision fatigue
and keep your impulse control (ooh, retractable door umbrellas!) in check.
Buying a car is one of my most
dreaded tasks. Thankfully it’s not a task I endure everyday. However, next time I do, I will most
definitely be eating healthy snack and not making hasty decisions during the
process.
We usually make one of two
mistakes when we dash out for a breather, says Susan M. Orsillo, PhD, author of
The Mindful Way Through Anxiety: We waste
mental energy trying not to think about our to-do list, or we continue to worry
about our workload—by complaining to a coworker or calling our spouse to vent.
Both types of response effectively cancel out the break, leaving us still
frazzled when we return to our desk. Instead, Orsillo suggests taking a
meditative break. Leave your phone and your coworker behind, and find a quiet
place to stand and actively observe the world around you. "You'll feel
renewed and slightly rested in just a few minutes," she says. Trying to be
in the moment, as easy as it sounds, can actually be pretty challenging.
Orsillo suggests practicing at times when you don't have as much on your plate,
and she offers step-by-step audio meditation exercises at
mindfulwaythroughanxietybook.com. (If you can't get outside, try the 7-minute Mindfulness of Clouds & Sky meditation
at your desk.)
I find this tactic to be very
helpful. Living in a world where we are
constantly accessible and trying to “keep up” with our smartphones and other
wireless devices, our brains never have time to really decompress during breaks
from work. I have become accustomed to
checking my phone for emails, texts and missed phone calls / voicemails, every
time I have a small break. Instead I
should be taking a few minutes to not think about these tasks. I had to start slow and try to take two
5-minute breaks a day. You would be
amazed at what 10 minutes of relaxing can do for your brain each day!
My goal in sharing these tips
with you are to put them to use in your daily life. Even if you don’t directly relate to the
situation given in the examples, you can easily incorporate the strategy into
one of your daily tasks. One important
place I encourage you to use these tactics is in the dental chair. Dental anxiety is the #1 reason people put of
dental cleanings and restorative dental work.
Maybe one of these tactics can help you overcome your fears, and I
promise. I’ll help you through them as
well!
Dr. Jill Wade
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