“The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.”
~ William James
Good morning friends! I hope this finds you enjoying a peaceful & relaxing Saturday. It sure is a beautiful one here on St. Thomas today …
So did you spend some time yesterday creating your Sanity Saver Toolkit ⁇
I for one took my own writing to heart. Spencer was out of the house early yesterday morning to go and finally get my car registered And it turns out I’m fortunate I didn’t go, as my radiator hose had a small leak in it, and the car overheated. So while he was busy taking care of that for me (thank you Spencer!), I made breakfast, and decided to get dinner prepped.
It’s not the first time that I’ve realized: Having to cook dinner at the end of the day is one of my stress triggers.
My energy is often waning by 5PM. So I really don’t know why I’ve decided to adhere to the societal norm of preparing and eating my “biggest” meal at the end of the day.
Prepping dinner right alongside breakfast has a number of advantages:
1. I’ve set myself up for success: Meaning, there is much less likelihood I’ll simply skip dinner altogether.
2. I’m only washing dishes and countertops once a day (instead of having to clean up two messes)
3. My kitchen is clean in the morning, because sometimes I’ll leave cleanup until the morning.
4. When my energy is waning, I can use this time for less active activities, like reading or an afternoon meditation.
5. It’s better for my health.
According to our organ clock, 7PM is not the best time to be putting alot of food in our stomachs. 7AM to 11AM is. This is when the stomach and spleen are active. Between 3PM and 7PM, the water meridian is active that relates with the bladder and kidney meridian and organs. This is a natural siesta time of the day. You may notice an energetic change around 4PM. It is the most non-productive time of the day !!
So I made a commitment that over the next 5 weeks. I plan to adjust my schedule to allow an extra half hour in the morning to prep dinner along with breakfast. As well, I’ll be choosing lighter & easier, 30 minute meals to prep (outside of Thanksgiving of course!!)
As I thought a bit more about other stress triggers, I was drawn over to a site this morning, Stress.org. There is an interesting little chart for self-assessment, which lists out 43 of the top Stress Triggers.
http://www.stress.org/self-assessment/
I’m happy to say that I have very few of them. And to again give thanks to the study of a Buddhism, yoga and meditation, which have helped me immensely change my internal dialog.
The site also lists out 6 Thought Patterns of the Chronically Stressed:
1. Automatic Negative Thoughts.
Seeing everything from a “glass half empty” mindset. Learning to identify our habitual patterns gives us the opportunity to mindfully choose the thoughts that will more effectively serve our purpose and save our energy.
2. Unpracticed Positive Thoughts (3:1)
Negativity is a strong set point, so developing positivity takes lots of practice.
Research shows that we need three positive thoughts to balance the power of one negative thought. Exceeding this 3:1 ratio is key to happiness, productivity, and effectiveness.
3. Catastrophizing
Making mountains out of molehills.
4. Globalizing
Allowing a small failure in one supposedly isolated arena of life to spread self-doubt into other domains. It often creates far less stress, takes far less energy to deal with the “real” situation.
5. Resentment
Here, instead of predicting mayhem in the future by catastrophizing, we lose energy replaying the past, still wanting to rewrite history.
6. Should-ing
For most high achievers “should” is one of the most over-used words in internal dialogues. Just notice how often you use the word and ask yourself if a reframe might save some energy, reduce your stress.
How about you ⁇ Do any of these thought patterns sound familiar ⁇ Make it a point today to have mindfulness work for you. Watch the inner dialog, and see what you can do up the positivity …
I hope you have a wonderful, stress-free day!! And no should-ing …
