A Simple Life Blog Recommendation

Photo by Laurie Beggin

I recently discovered a wonderful blog called A Simple Life. Below is a snippet of one of her posts. They are always helpful for me and I wanted to share this blog with my readers: I highly recommend the fist exercise and the plants! With gratitude, laurie b. P.S. I thought this might be helpful for all of us on ELECTION DAY! keep calm and carry on........(wink)

http://mlizcochico.com/

Between work, home and family, I am so sure you barely have time to breathe. Juggling all these can really be stressful, you need to relax. But how? Here are some simple ways I found to help you fight stress.

You can grab a moment of instant calm when you gaze at something blue. The color is automatically associated with serene feelings that come with being out in nature like the sky or the ocean.

Chew a gum. Rhythmic, repetitive actions like chewing a gum trigger our body’s natural relaxation responses, slowing our heart rate, breathing and brain activity. Believe me, it’s really effective. I used to chew a gum during finals when I was still bowling. It helped ease tension and made me feel more relaxed.

Form a fist. Kenneth Pelletier, Ph. D., suggests clenching your fists tightly for five seconds, then open them. Doing so will relax you instantly. According to him, when a muscle tenses as much as possible, it becomes able to de-tense completely.

Sing your heart out. Singing makes you breath deeply. It helps lower the body’s blood pressure and heart rate, therefore, decreasing stress.

Make someone’s day. Do something good and be kind to others. A good deed produces a rush of “feel-good” chemicals in the brain which helps boost your mood.

Plant some calm. A green environment can keep stress at bay. Studies show that women who kept plants at work had less anxiety. Plants give as a mental break from negative feelings that often lead to stress.