How much walking does it take to see health benefits? Studies suggest 150 minute per week to drop your chances of death and heart disease by 20%.
Working out regularly can extend your life, ward off heart disease and various cancers, rebuild the muscle and bone strength lost with age, and reduce levels of anxiety and depression.
Perhaps best of all, you can start to get all those benefits just by deciding to regularly go for a walk.
Margarita Tartakovsky has an interesting article where she explores work-life balance flaws. In it she champions work-life satisfaction instead of balance.
Consider the three key categories. Loflin breaks his life down into these areas: work, self, and relationships. He regularly asks himself honest questions about each area to understand his satisfaction. He shared these examples:
- Work: “What did I do to move a project forward today? If I used my time like I did today for the next 30 days, would my business grow or shrink?”
- Self: “Did I start my day in such a way that it provided me with the physical, emotional, and mental energy I needed? Am I a better person because of the choices I made today?”
- Relationships: “Did I do my best to be an encouragement to everyone I interacted with today? Did I do my best to grow at least one relationship today?”
This is a great read, well worth your time. You can find it here.
In his Article, The Value of Mini-Vacations author Jamie Gruman PhD. explores the benefits of mini vacations as oppose to one long vacation per year. He makes the point that you get the same restorative value from a mini vacation as a long vacation, but if you take mini vacations more often you get a longer benefit. So, instead of a week long vacation, you take 4 or 5 long weekends a year.
I ran across this little gem recently. This author cut out sugar for one month and found amazing results. She not only halted the belly bloat she had been experiencing, but also found her acne stopped cold. There is also results that link sugar consumption to inflammation in the body. I am willing to give this a try. I will be updating with my results later.
Because I’m human — and my last name is Sugar — living 100 percent without treats really wasn’t an option. I found ways to get my sweet fix without it affecting my face (or my stomach). I discovered how to bake with bananas and dates, making desserts that are just as sweet as using white sugar, and I can still get my chocolate fix by using cocoa powder in recipes. Ice cream is easy — I just make nice cream using frozen fruit.
Here is a link to the article by Jenny Sugar. What a great name.
In our busy loud world it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain focus. Here are some great ideas to help maintain your focus form Suzanne Kane and PsychCentral.
Like what you read? Read more about it here.
Is it possible to become more likable? This author says “yes.” Your words become your reality.
“You are what you say.” Fair or not, what you communicate to others can lead others to make assumptions about your character — a concept called spontaneous trait inference.
Are you having trouble just being with yourself? This article might have some help for you.
Step One: figure out if you are an extrovert or introvert.
Step Two: Ease into it.
Step Three: Reflect on your self-reflection.
Is it time to move on in your life? Time to start fresh? Kick the hurt and pain of the past away? This article can give you 5 ways to begin. My favorite, and one I have a hard time with, Forgive.
…forgiving yourself may be an important part of this step as well, as sometimes we may end up blaming ourselves for the situation or hurt. While we indeed may have had some part to play in the hurt (see step 2), there’s no reason you need to keep beating yourself up over it. If you can’t forgive yourself, how will you be able to live in future peace and happiness?
Ran across this little gem in my RSS feed this morning. Here is the skinny.
Most people agree that procrastination is not good, but is it always bad? This article list 10 reasons procrastination is good. Here are some highlights:
1. Procrastination helps you learn to manage delay.
The ancient Greeks knew a thing or two about living the good life. In fact, Greek philosophers highly valued procrastination, as much as stating that it is good to learn to manage delay. Of course, there’s a significant difference between active and passive procrastination, where the former can be considered good and the latter — just sitting around doing nothing, for example — is decidedly in the category of bad. Knowing when to act, even though that may mean delaying action, is good advice.
2. Procrastination provides time to reflect on what’s most important.
You need time to think about what matters most in life. Not in the sense that you’re contemplating weighty philosophical issues, simply what’s most important to you. By taking your time to think through some things – or think of nothing at all so that your mind can clear, you’ll discover the kernels of importance that reside in your mind and heart. Then, you can act accordingly.
3. Much better decisions may result from procrastination.
Rushing in to deal with this or that task, project or item on your list of things to do doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be done well or provide any meaningful satisfaction for their completion. You might also find yourself accepting projects and tasks that aren’t right for you, that you’re ill-equipped to handle, shouldn’t do because they’re someone else’s responsibility, or it’s simply not the right time to get started on them. Just because something is on a list is not always a green light to work on them. By procrastinating, your decision may be better informed as a result.
4. Prioritization may be the offshoot of procrastination.
If you’re putting off things, procrastination could help you jumpstart prioritizing. This is helpful to get rid of unnecessary tasks, things you might have begun that weren’t worth your time, at least now.
5. Cooler heads prevail when you procrastinate saying you’re sorry.
While you might feel pressure to apologize when you’ve wronged another and anxious to get it over with, if you push yourself to do it immediately, who knows what might come out of your mouth? This is a case where allowing yourself time to think carefully about what and how (and perhaps where and when) you’ll issue the apology will result in a better, sincerer apology. Even if it’s taking an hour or so and breathing in and out deeply, you’ll be in a calmer state of mind and your tone of voice and body language will be more relaxed.
