Posts

5 Simple Steps for Stress Reduction

Friends, do you know we are in a crisis? And it’s very likely that this crisis has shown up on your doorstep or even entered your own body. The World Health Organization has dubbed stress the health epidemic of the 21st century. If not properly dealt with, stress WILL adversely affect your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health.

As a business owner, mom of 6, ministry leader and wife, I’ve been faced with my fair share of stress. When I am not aggressively abiding in Christ, stress has the propensity to overtake me. I’ve been beaten down by being overwhelmed, anxious, fearful and irritable. And in those moments, I’ve come to see that I don’t like those feelings. I don’t like being edgy and frustrated. It is downright sickening to be plagued with aches, pains and tension headaches caused by stress.

So what can we do to combat it? Consider employing these simple steps.

  1. Awareness. Bring awareness to your body. Are you clenched so tight that your shoulders and ears have become one? Is your brow furrowed? Are you clenching your teeth? Listen to your body. It’s talking to you. If your body parts are tense, command them to relax.
  2. Just Breathe. Literally. You know about lack of sleep but what about lack of breath? Most of us are depriving ourselves of deep, cleansing breaths. Deep breathing slows the heart rate, lowers blood pressure and invites calmness. Go ahead. Give it a try. Just as God breathed the breath of life into the first man, invite Him to breathe afresh in you today. I talk a bit more about breathing in another post I did on STRESS.
  3. Meditate. Whatever you think about constantly is what you are meditating on. Since you’re meditating anyway, be sure to FOCUS those thoughts on things that are true, lovely and of good report (Phil 4:8). If you find yourself consumed with toxic thoughts, arrest them, cast the down and replace them with the truth of the Word.
  4. Atmosphere. Do your physical surroundings promote peace or chaos leading to stress? Clutter and disorganization can create a stressful environment. Enlist help if you need to, in order to create an orderly environment. Bring calm into the atmosphere with the use of essential oils. Two of my favorites for whoosah are clary sage and lavender.
  5. Get Out. Yes, as in get outside. Just today I invited my husband to break his normal routine and to join me in sitting for a while at one of my favorite wildlife preserves. He said his time there was amazing. Being outdoors is so good for you. When God created man He placed him in a garden (outdoors) to connect with creation and to have dominion over it. Lower your blood pressure, sharpen your mind, boost your energy and MORE just by getting outside. And when outdoors feel free to take your shoes off, stand in the grass and exhale as you give God thanks for fresh air, for being root and grounded in Him, for keeping the earth spinning on it axis and for loving you all at the same time. He is truly an amazing God!
  6. BONUS ONE….Since I did list breathing as a stress reduction technique in an older post, I wanted to give you a bonus pointer and that is to watching your eating. What you consume directly impacts you so try to choose foods that work in harmony with the wonderful design called YOU. Avoid processed foods and consume foods that are nutrient dense, wholesome and are what God created. Eating this way fuels your body and brings clarity of thought while consuming unhealthy foods can make you feel bloated, sluggish, and raise blood pressure among other things. And that alone can certainly cause you to become even more stressed.

So what’s currently stressing you? And what wellness practices do you use to combat it? I am here praying in advance that you employ the simple strategies listed above. Be sure to come back and let me know how they worked for you.

As always, it is my prayer that you’ve been Inspired to Live Fully!

/1 Comment/by
,

5 Ways to Reduce Stress

“Relax! You’re wearing your shoulders for earrings.” This amusing quip was relayed to be by a friend. And she is absolutely correct. Some days I feel I carry the weight of the world on my shoulders so to counterbalance the weight I hunch my shoulders. Needless to say my trapezius are well defined.

pods

But I have taken her words to heart and have implemented the following strategies to manage stress; for indeed the Lord encouraged us to cast our cares on Him because He cares for us. Please pause with me as you carefully consider these 5 ways to reduce stress.

 

BREATHE

Slow

Deep

Intentional

This type of breathing slows the heart rate and reduces stress. As you breathe deeply, consciously move down your body relaxing your eyebrows, shoulders, and limbs all the way to your toes. Feel your muscles relaxing as you supply your entire body with much needed oxygen.

pence pond geese

Breathe so deeply that you feel your ribs expand. You will feel the difference. I think so many of us have gotten used to breathing shallowly, short puffs in and out that deep breathing is foreign.

 

Now do it with me.

 

Deeply inhale through the nostrils until you feel your ribs expand. Hold a few seconds, and then release your breath slowly out of your mouth. Now do it again. With each inhalation thank God for the breath of life and with each exhalation release whatever is causing you stress. Visualize it leaving you. Mmm. I did that with you and I’m already feeling more relaxed.

 

The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life. Job 33:4

 

 

EMBRACE THE NOW MOMENT

 

What peace awaits right before your eyes? Stop and take a look. As I type this I’m listening to the bird symphony being conducting right outside my window.

All love, joy, peace and beauty can it be found in this moment. A child’s smile, an encouraging word shared with a co-worker, buds on the trees, the sweet tart taste of a green apple; our daily lives an inundated with beauty but we must slow down enough to appreciate it. For more on embracing the now moment, click here.

 

Be still, and know that I am God. Psalm 46:10a

 

DSC_0363

 

EXERCISE

When you exercise, you release endorphins that improve your mood. Studies have also shown that you get the added benefits of better sleep, released tension and improved self-esteem when you exercise so get some exercise in today. Even if you don’t regularly exercise, start where you are. A 10-minute walk up your street and back practice that deep breathing technique and you WILL feel better.

 

 

BE PROACTIVE

You know some of things already that stress you, so cut them off at the pass. If rushing in the morning causes stress, see what you can do the night before to facilitate a smoother morning. At night you can partially prepare breakfast, pack lunch(es), pack bags, tidy up fill up on gas. All these little things contribute greatly to reducing your morning stress.

 

Some stressors are out of your control. Someone cuts you off when driving or you’re the victim of identity theft. While you cannot control that, you can choose to respond versus react. Reacting is giving way to your emotions and impulses and letting them drive your behavior. When you react you are generally operating out of fear. Responding is when you pause before taking action. You take a deep breath then DECIDE how to best move forward given the information you are confronted with.

 

DSC_0360

 

HAVE FUN

Life can be so serious. Life can be so intense. But please, give yourself permission to LIVE! I’ve had to come to terms with this over the last few years. From my rising to my setting, I am serving people. The mental, physical and emotional demands on me are great. To meet those demands, I would sacrifice doing things that bought me pleasure. Then when I finally would do something pleasurable, I would feel guilty because of it. I had to ask God to help me with that. And He told me I had carried out this self-imposed suffering. I was torturing myself. Through prayer, He helped me free myself and I can now do something pleasurable without the guilt. While my schedule does not permit me to engage in the things I deem pleasurable very often (i.e. I’d love to be on the beach everyday) I have committed to doing things I enjoy. So what do I like other than the beach? Typing these posts while sitting in a coffee shop, exercising in a group or class, browsing in a bookstore, having dinner with a friend.

 

How about you commit to doing something this week simply because it brings you pleasure?

 

A study by the American Psychological Association reports that only 37% of us feel we’re effectively managing our stress, so that leaves more than half of the population then debilitated by the issues of life. And many common methods of distressing are ineffective and tend to make you feel worse afterward like:

 

~Eating

~Drinking

~Watching TV

~Surfing the Internet

 

These usually leave you not only with the initial stress but now bring added guilt. So instead of doing those, join me in breathing deeply, embracing the now moment, exercising, being proactive and having fun and let’s cause of stress to dissipate.

 

For more on managing stress, visit the following links:

Know You, Manage Your Emotions 

Tips for Less Stress

Stress Free Steps

http://www.health.harvard.edu/topics/stress

 

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

 

As always, it is my prayer that you’ve been Inspired To Live Fully!

 

Happy to connect with friends at Life Giving Linkup & Purposeful Faith

/4 Comments/by
,

My Last Breath

As I sit and watch the rise and fall of my chest,

 

I wonder…

 

How many more breaths do I have on this earth? I made a comment to one of my children the other day, and it got me to thinking. I said, “I’m tired of wasting my breath. I keep asking you to do the same thing every day.”

 

Indeed, I do believe I am wasting my breath talking to him yet again about that messy room but that’s a story for another day.

 

I do believe that our breaths are numbered. If God has numbered the hairs on our heads and knows when we lose one single strand, he who’s given every snowflake a unique symmetrical design, he who causes the sun to rise and set every single day…yes he knows how many breaths each of us will take on this earth. And while I am here I want my breaths to count. Surely I do not want to waste my last breath.

 

He breathed into our nostrils the breath of life.

 

Every inhalation and every exhalation is a gift.

 

We inhale, our lungs fill up and little hairs, cilia keep dirt, mucus, and bacteria from invading our bodies. Oxygen in the air is taken into the lungs then carried through the blood to your cells. Every single cell in the body needs a continuous supply of oxygen and breathing supplies that need. Then we breathe out waste.

 

By the age of 80 you will have breathed nearly 600 million breaths. Just imagine…600 million breaths. Something we do so mindlessly. Something we take for granted. Something we put so little effort in. But God shows us that great and mighty things occur when he breathes.

 

 

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. Genesis 2:7

He breathes LIFE

 

And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” John 20:22

He breathes SPIRIT

 

Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them over; but there was no breath in them. Also He said to me, “Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.”’” So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army. Ezekiel 37:8-10

He breathes RESURRECTION

 

He has breathed these very things into you. But what filter is His fresh wind coming through?

 

Is your filter like this cabin air filter?

Cabin Air Filter

It cleans the air that comes into the interior of your vehicle. It catches dust, pollen, debris and other airborne material. It is recommended that it’s replaced every 12,000-15,000 miles but many have gone YEARS without changing it. You may even have some signs that the cabin air filter needs changing: smelly musty air, reduced airflow and noise.

 

When we breathe in God, we breathe in fresh wind, not recycled, stale cabin air but life giving air. He supplies the fresh wind and he’s equipped us to take that fresh wind, filter it and use it to oxygenate our lives.

Pence pond

Even in breathing in fresh wind, our cilia trap all kinds of dirt and debris. Our hurts, pains, frustrations, worries, anxieties, cares and concerns can block and cloud our filters. The fresh wind is now stifled. The air is now coming through the clogged filter of our heart. It can feel like we are being choked. We are being starved of pure oxygen and without it we’ll perish. There are signs of stifled breathing and if we are paying attention we can recognize them: lightheaded, fatigued, anxiety, memory loss, irritability, sleeps deprivation and more. Oh, Father let us not be an oxygen-deprived people. Let every breath be breathed as if it were our last. Deep. Full. Cleansing. Healing.

 

Thank you Jesus that we can clean the filter and breathe without impediment. All it takes is a washing in the Word. My beloved Dyson vacuum was making lots of noise. I was in a near panic as this is a much need tool in my house and a costly one at that. My husband suggested, “check the filter.” And he was right. The filter is washable and needs cleaning every three months. It had surely been longer than 3 months since I’d last cleaned it.

 

We take out the dirty filter of lies, wounds and negative beliefs and replace it with the pure oxygenated truth of God’s word.

 

BREATHE IN

Peace

Joy

Love

Patience

Kindness

Goodness

Faithfulness

Gentleness

Self control

Wisdom

Strength

 

 

BREATHE OUT

Frustration

Irritability

Impatience

Annoyance

Aggravation

Jealousy

Envy

Malice

Hatred

Judgment

 

I breathe you in God. Breath contains water. You are the river of living water. You are LIFE. There is water in your breath. On a cold day, you can see your breath, as the water vapor in your lungs becomes a small cloud when pushed out of your mouth. Oh the joy of being a kid and making shapes, rings and things with my breath smoke. Thank you God that you remind us that there is life sustaining water even in our breathing.

 

When He utters His voice—

There is a multitude of waters in the heavens:

“He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth;

He makes lightnings for the rain;

He brings the wind out of His treasuries.”

Jeremiah 51:16

 

Join me in breathing deeply today friends as we breathe Him in. When I was just 18, my mother took her last breath. I had seen her a few days prior and she gave no indication that she knew her breaths were numbered. Even.as.she.took.the.very.last.breath. Did she realize the end was imminent? When I’ll take my last breath, I have no idea. But I have purposed to live life embracing the now moment, knowing that the next breath could very well be my last so I ought to make it count.

 

2015-01-16 14.33.44

SLOW

 

DEEP

 

PURPOSEFUL

 

BREATHING

 

Breathing is a time of refreshing.

 

Every breath is a celebration of life.

 

Don’t waste it.

 

As always, it is my prayer that you’ve been Inspired To Live Fully!

/8 Comments/by
,

For the Rest of My Life

“Excuse me…but…um.  Do you know you have your pants on inside out and backwards?”, he said.  This kind man had pensively approached me while at my son’s Cub Scout meeting to share this news.  I can only imagine his embarrassment at having to break this news to me.  And sure enough, my pants were on inside out and backwards.  And no, I had no idea.  

You see, I had run myself ragged; staying up way too late to tinker, tweak and fine tune the appearance of my soon to be launched website.  Yet my life necessitates that I wake up early so it was a recipe for disaster.

And what would drive an otherwise put together, A-type personality to be out in public with her pants on backward and inside out?

NO REST.

For a moment I had gotten away from properly caring for my temple through rest and I suffered because of it.  I had a headache that lingered for over a week and was out in public looking disheveled (To my defense, I had changed abruptly out of my exercise clothes and hastily grabbed a pair of pants off my closet floor in the dark to race with all 5 children in tow to arrive at Cub Scouts on time).

Proper care of the temple requires nourishment, exercise and REST. Forsaking rest is one of the greatest ways we can sabotage our health.

Rest is defined as: Refreshing ease or inactivity after exertion or labor.  To be free from anxiety or disturbance.

As a mother of 5 young children, I am constantly ‘ON’. I asked God to show me, outside of sleep, what are other ways I can get rest? He answered me saying,” look to these windows of opportunity to turn ‘OFF'”:

~morning quiet time before my family wakes

~peaceful solitude during/after lunch without tv, phone or social media

~a quick snatch early evening even if it’s just gazing out the window or walking slowly to the mailbox and back

~in the evening before bed more peaceful solitude.

Maximizing on these rest opportunities fills me with peace, helps me remain calm and keeps me balanced. It gives my brain an opportunity to give thanks, file my thoughts, and refocus if necessary. These mini siestas are crucial to overall health and wellbeing.  And while they are short snatches of time, they are enough to create room for me to BREATHE.

In her latest book, Breathe, Priscilla Shirer digs into the concept of the Sabbath rest.  She says, “The Sabbath is a pause, a stopping point, a decision to take a break from buying or gathering or producing or accruing or doing or working. It’s the Spirit empowered choice to stop and enjoy God.”

Jesus Himself urges us to CEASE activity and REST.  In Mark 6:31 He says, “Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while”.

So what can you do today to ensure you come aside by yourself and rest a while? Tell me by commenting below.IMG_5448.JPG

/6 Comments/by