Living in Humboldt is no guarantee of a stress-free life. We can suffer as much or more than someone living in the “Big City”. Did I mention long Humboldt winters full of rain?

Many of us get stuck in dysfunctional and stressful patterns of acting and being. Much of it is dictated by the fact that we simply give up and let go. We give into our moods, tiredness, burnout, and stress. We get snarky and we stop caring about how we are impacting on those around us. We sometimes just quit.

Our being stuck in poor ways of response can take many forms such as poor time management, burnout, light or severe depression, poor sleep, poor health habits, ‘stinking thinking’, and general malaise.

There is too much at stake to allow ourselves to get sidetracked from healthy living, thinking, and well-being to get stuck in a depressive rut, or become disqualified from life. Healthy living has to do with healthy goal setting, actions, and strategic planning.

Got (healthy) Goals?

We need to know where we want to go, who we want to be, and what we want to do before we know if we’re on the right track or not. We need to be fit. To exercise, receive proper nutrition and allow for quality rest so we can adequately deal with the stuff of life. If our minds and bodies are not in reasonably good shape, how can we possibly enjoy healthy thinking or even healthy relationships?

We are trained to do too much for too little and for way too long. The result is illness; physical, spiritual, and relational.  To get past this we need to learn how to let small stuff go and surrender things that we cannot control so we can begin to focus on getting unstuck in our personal lives. We need to control what we can.

Living and Thinking Healthy

Everybody wants health and well-being, but few of us are willing to pay the price for it. Managing stress, anger, depression, anxiety and everyday life is a pretty steep task. Healthy living has to do with the whole self: Spirit, Body, Mind, and Soul. If any of these are out of whack, so are we.

Other people are likely riding on your success and well-being. Why is it that it’s considered selfish to take care of yourself first to take care of those around you?  What good are you to those you love if you have a stroke, heart disease, cancer, or mental illness? You cannot fail to plan in the long term and see the whole picture. You must take care of yourself.

Plan Your Work And Work Your Plan.

Regular physical activity substantially reduces the risk of dying of coronary heart disease, the nation’s leading cause of death. Physical activity also decreases the risk of colon cancer, diabetes, and high blood pressure.  It helps control weight, contributes to healthy bones, muscles, and joints, and reduces falls among the elderly. Hey, even sex is better!

Fitness: Focus On the Big Three

Cardio—Conditions your heart, lungs, and muscles to work stronger and longer.  Cardio work outs build endurance and burn off calories.

Strength training—Builds muscles and increases endurance.  With leaner muscles, your body turns up the heat and burns fat faster.  Not only that, but when you’re stronger, you simply last longer and you get more out of your exercise sessions, thus burning even more calories.

Stretching—It helps you to do your cardio and strength training safely and without pain.  Loose muscles perform at a higher level and reduce the potential for injury.

Dealing with stress, Try exercise conclusion:

Physical Exercise In Mental Health Stress Relief

A variety of studies over the last decade are focused on the effects of exercise on the mind.  These result show that exercise helps to reduce depression and anxiety. It also can increase short-term memory and improve intellectual function.  This means that including breaks during your day could lead to enhanced productivity, greater time efficiency, and increased ability to handle stress; “Sharpen your saw.” These feel-good hormones help stimulate our bodies and give us a natural high; runners have reported this for years.

The following are some tips about starting and maintaining your own exercise program:

Start with walking. Walking is free and easy.  In addition to the mental health benefits, walking is a weight-bearing exercise and it strengthens bone and burns fat.  Running does the same. You must walk before you run… really.

Look for a nearby fitness center or community pool and join it. Make a three-time a week workout part of your personal schedule.  Replace your Monday, Wednesday and Friday lunch with a one-hour workout. The point is scheduling it and then do it..

Just do something – Even if it’s for 10 minutes.  Use the “10 Minute Rule” to get started: do 10 minutes of exercise, take a 10 minute break, and then do 10 more minutes of exercise.

You can do this. You gotta wanna and then just begin the habit of exercise. Build it into your life. You will be glad you did—so will your world.