Identifying and Managing stress

What is/are your pacifier(s)?

I'll start this post with a story.  One that many of you might relate to. 

I chewed tobacco for 10 years of my life.  One day I got out my can of Copenhagen and someone mentioned that I was reaching for my pacifier.  I stopped and thought about that.  When we were babies we would get stressed and our parents would reach for our pacifier to calm us down and reduce our stress.  That wasn’t harmful to our health.  What is/are your pacifier(s) now?

Eat?
Drink?
Smoke?

Exercise!
Meditate/Pray!
Be quiet and listen!

The first list is easy, it doesn’t take much effort and all three choices are unhealthy for your body and your mind.  They cost a lot of money which I imagine contributes to levels of stress.  They also make life more difficult for those around you.  
 
The second list takes some initiative on your part.  These days it’s tough to be quiet, to meditate, to eat well, and our society tells us it’s difficult to make time for exercise too.  Be the boss of your own body and don’t let society tell you how to care for yourself.

I’ve used both lists to manage the stress in my life and let me tell you the second list is much more rewarding and sets up
those around you for success as well.  
 
The focus this week is on stress management.  If we stop and think about it, stress manifests itself in a number of ways.  Stress is a tricky thing to figure out. 
 
Let’s listen to our bodies as it relates to stress.  How does it show up, what makes us feel overstressed, how can we learn from that and find more productive ways to deal with stress.  Those are all great questions to get the conversations with ourselves going about
identifying stressful situations, causes, and also ways that we choose to deal with stress.

I understand that we all have different things, situations, people that influence the amount of stress in our lives.  I challenge you to identify them, reduce their presence, and explore ways to mitigate their influence on the way we live our lives.  We are all capable!

**Action - Please contact me ([email protected]) with ways that have worked for you to identify and reduce the effects of stress in your life.  I run ultra marathons.

In Health,

Jon Howard – Husband and Father of 3 | Ultra Endurance Athlete | Owner – Training Edge Sports