Leap Year

Its February 29th, a date that only comes along every 4 years. In honor of Leap Year (which isn't a holiday but kind of feels like it should be. I'm surprised hallmark hasn't gotten on that) today's post is all about the top 4 things (only 4 because its every 4 years that it happens. and because short lists are more readable) you can do with your extra day this year, to make your life a little less stressful.

1. Go some place beautiful for the day. Like to the park.
2. Take a nap. Take a couple! Naps are awesome.
3. Read a good book. While the stress relieving properties of this have not been specifically proven, to my knowledge, I am pretty sure it's effective. However, it is important not to substitute "good book" with "bad book." Boring books are ok (see number 2).
4. Stay hydrated. Remember to breathe. And take the stairs.

Happy Leap Day!

Something you absolutely do not want to do

Sorry, I missed Tuesday yesterday. I hope you had a Less Stress in the Office Day all the same. Today's tip is particularly helpful with office stress, but it doesn't stop there. So I think it is perfectly appropriate for a Wednesday. Here it is: do something you don't want to do. More specifically do something you have to do that you don't want to do. Put another way, don't procrastinate.

For example, I got in to work this morning to discover on my voicemail a message from a very angry man. He wasn't so much angry at me as angry in general (he made a point of saying that before getting on with his rant), but it was clear I was going to be the person who got to hear about it (and I did hear quite a bit about it in his 5 minute long message). Anyway, I am sure there are people out there who relish a good angry confrontation from time to time, but I am really not one of them. Confrontation is pretty much the thing I am worst at. But I had to call him back.

The way I see it, I had two options. One: call him back right away and get it over with. Or two: Put it off (and let the thought of the various ways our conversation could go linger in the back of mind all day while I actively tried not the think about it).

I tried option 2 for about 10 minutes but then decided to just call him. And, big surprise, I was very happy I did. As it turned out the whole thing went quite well and was nothing to be apprehensive about to begin with. But even if it had gone terribly, I would still have gotten it over with. And that's where the stress relief is at. It is so tempting to not do things we don't want to do. For obvious reasons. But the next time you have to do some dreadfully boring or dreadfully unfun or dreadfully dreadful thing at work, or at home, or anywhere for that matter, try just doing it. It's very old school Nike. And if you are like me it will relieve you of whatever stress the dreaded task was causing.

Walk more

I've posted about walking before. But it's such a good one I think it bears repeating. This time I am talking about walking not from the exercise perspective (although it is a lovely and convenient way to get exercise), but from the general overall feelings of energy and goodness perspective.

This weekend was rough for me. I got into town on a redeye on Saturday morning (I don't know why I do redeyes. In fact, this post should really just be about how one should avoid redeyes. They are awful. Consider it posted.) I slept for a few hours, got up, bustled about town to get ready for an event Saturday evening, and proceeded to go out until 3am-ish. Like you do. Needless to say I did not feel awesome when I woke up on Sunday. I spent most of the morning lying around without the energy to do anything productive. Even the food channel and golf weren't cheering me up. But it was a beautiful sunny day and eventually Pete convinced me to go for a walk around the reservoir. I was reluctant because I was so tired, but I went along with it. It made all the difference. When we got back I felt happier and more energetic and significantly less like a waste of space. It's so simple, but getting outside and getting fresh air does the trick every time.

I'm not sure why it works so well but try going for a walk next time you are feeling lethargic, tired, mopey, moody, or all of the above. Even though the couch might feel awesome (and in the case of my couch, it really is awesome. Seriously.), it's not a long term solution. The hardest part is getting your shoes on. From there on out its easy as pie.

A note on working too hard

Note: I have not confirmed that this is actually from the NYTimes. But even if its not true, the lesson is a good one. Enjoy your weekend!

Thanks for passing it along, Dad!

Cultivating Love

It seems appropriate to talk about love on Valentine's Day so that's what I'm doing. I don't mean the kind of love they talk about on Hallmark cards, or rather, not that kind of love exclusively.

Let me explain.

Yesterday an older man came into my workplace with a question I knew the answer to. He didn't have an appointment and I was in the middle of something else, so I heaved a sigh filled with some mixture of self-pity and self-righteousness and went and had a seat with him. His question was a relatively easy one and he was a nice man. We were done with our meeting quickly. I said nice to meet you and shook his hand and headed back to my office. But he wasn't done talking yet. He wanted to talk about Stress. I could feel my eyes start to glaze over as I nodded politely. I talk about stress a lot. I needed to get back to work. But then he said something that got me. He said, "when you really get rid of all your stress it is an amazing feeling. People who are truly free of stress are amazingly happy and full of love."

Holy crap. He was right. Here I was getting annoyed at a perfectly nice man who was only taking up about 5 minutes of my time. Is my time really that precious? Am I really too important or too rushed or too stressed to listen? I'm so not. So I unglazed my eyes and smiled and listened. It felt awesome. Love feels so much nicer than impatience.

I wish I could claim that I am entirely free of stress - that I have let it all go and I am full of only pure love. But I am clearly not. Even on V-Day. But I'm working on it. Its amazing what a difference it made just to remember that for a second. I went back into my office, put my feet up on my desk, and did my breathing for 10 minutes.

So in celebration of Valentine's Day, today's stress relief tip is to remember how nice love feels. Not necessarily love for a significant other, but love for everything. Love for the person who is sitting appallingly close to you on the subway. And love for the mittens that are keeping your hands warm when its super cold out. Love for the cold!

Happy St. Valentine's Day and thank you to the stranger who walked into my office and reminded me to cultivate love.

While I'm on the subject...

Another food related stress tip. Eat breakfast!

Here's a little breakfast related story. When I was younger, when stress was just something I had heard about on TV, I used to not be much of a fan of breakfast. I had to get up early for school and didn't have much of an appetite. But that didn't matter to my Dad. He would not let me leave the house in the morning until I had eaten something. Something with protein. So at the very least I always started the day with a nutrigrain bar and a glass of milk in my stomach (the milk was the protein. The nutrigrain was just filler). Let me tell you, I thought this was the worst thing ever. Being forced to eat breakfast. It was a travesty. But then something strange happened. I went to college and I kept eating breakfast (except for freshman year when I took advantage of the whole sleeping till noon every day thing). And now if I skip it it has a noticeable effect. For one thing, I am hungry by 10:30. But eating breakfast also helps me be more productive and generally smarter in those morning hours. Go figure.

So have a banana and a coffee. Or an omelet. Or a smoothie. Or leftover lasagna (my personal favorite). Or have a glass of milk and a nutrigrain bar if you don't have time for anything else. It will improve your day.

Hello!

Today in the the "What's News" section of the wall street journal they state that "An autopsy study of younger adults who died from unnatural causes found many had clogged arteries, suggesting that heart disease may be on the rise." Scary, huh?

But today is Tuesday! What on earth does this have to do with Less Stress in the Office Day?! I will tell you. Stress and food go together a lot of the time (of course there are the people who react to stress by not eating at all, but we'll save that for another day. That's not healthy either, though, just fyi). When you're stressed out not only is it hard to make time to make healthy food, but it is also easy to justify unhealthy food. For example, "I am having a crappy day so I should probably get myself a cheeseburger and fried for lunch. I deserve it." You do deserve it! Don't get me wrong, I love the french fry. But if that little justification becomes an every day thing you end up with the clogged arteries mentioned above.

So when your office is convincing you that you have been working really hard and ought to reward yourself with Wendy's just remember your arteries. They need a break from working hard from time to time too. So reward yourself with something a smidge healthier. Like a sandwich that doesn't have anything fried on it!

Note: I found that picture of fries on a website that suggests it as a desktop background. I don't know. To me that just doesn't seem right.

Have a Zen(ner than usual) Superbowl

Since its Superbowl weekend and all it seems only fitting that the New England Journal of Medicine would come out with a study detailing the dangers of stress in sports fans. Yup, that's right. Getting too pumped about your team could have dangerous consequences.

Technically, the study was looking at a different kind of football fans (the soccer kind), but I think its safe to say that people in homes around the US on Sunday will be getting just as riled up as World Cup fans do. And that, it turns out, can be dangerous for your heart. The study showed that viewing a stressful soccer match significantly increased the risk of a "cardiovascular event" - i.e. heart attack.

So if you're lucky, you really couldn't care less about the Pats or the Giants. But all you northeasterners be careful! Remember to breathe every once in a while as you're screaming at the TV.