Finding that Balance ..

So, this is something that I’ve not been so good at lately .. finding that balance.

A little background.

Over the past few months I’ve moved too many pieces to my life puzzle … I’ve changed my teaching schedule a bit (for the better) but have still been subbing way too often (I just don’t know how to say no..).

The big item is that I’ve searched, visited, found, and purchased my next home. Anyone who has gone through that knows that it’s a big undertaking. I’ve been trying to pack and purge the last 14 years of my life (OMG the closets are never ending ..!!)that are in my current home.

I’m now trying to meet, plan, and proceed with renovations that I want to do to the house before I move in. Next up I have to order the flooring, kitchen, etc that I want for the contractors to install, which is stressful.

Then, the fun part .. not .. moving houses. I am dreading that but I think I still have about a month or so before that happens. Next up I have to prepare my current house to sell.

Argh …

So .. to my point. Lots of moving parts but you know what, we all have them. We have troubles, stresses, positives, focuses, achievements .. so my ordeal is not much different than anyone else’s. life.

My downfall is that I have let the chaos take me on a bit of a whirlwind. I’ve slacked off on things that are important to me because I’ve been working on other things. Yes, those things (like packing and purging) ARE important but we have to learn to balance the needs with the wants .. or the end results may not be what we had hoped for.

What could happen?

Ah .. we could crash and burn out, losing all motivation for everything. Too much work, too much focus, and no breaks.

We could lose ourselves in the confusion, leading us to stop making progress because we’ve lost site of the end goals.

We could just stop caring just to ‘get it done’ … now the quality and efforts that we were maintaining will take a nose dive.

.. … well, none of that sounds good to me.

I’ve had moments where I’ve just needed a big nap. I look up and I lost hours of time. I have had moments where I’ve been completely unproductive, which does me NO good. I keep telling myself that ‘suck it up’ and soon you’ll be moved and you can get back to normal.

But I’m missing the point…

We add in curveballs all the time. We need to maintain our stance and adjust our swing a bit. Then take off running with the momentum we have always had.

Thanks for reading!!

Christina

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How Well Do We Handle Stress?

Stress .. it’s one of those topics that we sigh when we hear. No one enjoys being stressed out and I’m not sure if anyone is really an ‘expert’ at handling their own stress.

I am fortunate to have a relatively low stress life but, at the same time, when stress arrives I let it get to me initially more than it should.

So what are some easy things we can do to eliminate stress in our lives?

• Get some Zzzs … a rested mind is a healthy mind. In today’s world we go go GO and have an excessive amount of electronic stimulus. We need to rest our brains and our bodies.

• Give yourself extra time. Do you have a meeting, an appointment, or something with a time commitment? Leave 5 0r 10 minutes early in case something unexpected occurs (like a car wreck on the way there). Plus, if you arrive early it’s nice to just sit for a minute 🙂

• Determine the root cause of your stress and figure out the appropriate way to resolve the issue. Upset about a relationship? As much as you may dread having that talk, you may realize that it needs to happen to get past the issues. Over-committed? Determine what it will take to get your life back to a reasonable state. Take a moment, think about the problem, and determine the best solution for it. We get so caught up in the ‘stress’ that we don’t stop to think about our way out of it.

• Take a deep breath or go for a walk. Sometimes just counting to 10 and breathing helps to calm our emotions.  Sometimes walking away for a second helps us to find the right perspective.

We’ll talk about more later on but, for now, I know I’m going to work on ways to handle my stress better since my work life is starting to become more stressful at the moment!

Thanks for reading!

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How Can We Work Out at Work?

The American Institute for Cancer Research recommends that we “break every hour of sitting with 1 to 2 minutes of activity” because they have found a correlation between physical activity levels (or lack there of) and cases of cancer.

Yea .. that’s definitely reason enough to get me up and moving a few minutes during the work day.

But I mean, we’re at work .. what can we actually do, you ask .. Quite a few things actually.

Have stairs? Once an hour get up and walk them, one full round. At the end of the day you’ve probably walked them 8 times. Not bad .. and your legs will love you for them!

Skip steps while you’re walking them .. add a bit of challenge to those stairs!

Stand up and just stretch .. get the blood flowing again and make it count!

Find something heavy around your desk area and do bicep curls.

When you’re taking a phone call, stand up and march in place, do calf raises, stretch, or just stand there.

If nothing else, get up from your desk once an hour and walk for a minute or two. Step away from the stress, catch your breath, and clear your head!

Walk during lunch! If you like to read learn to multi-task. If I can do it so can you!

These are simple, easy things to do but you can always step it up a notch by picking an exercise and just doing it for a minute. Push ups, jumping jacks, cardio lunges, or anything to get the blood flowing!

Yes, some days I being clothes to work and during my lunch I’ll go into the library and knock out a 20 minute high intensity workout circuit. I just make sure to leave enough time in order to clean up afterwards. But, I will say it’s fun and gives me so much energy that carries into the afternoon!

I have also been known to walk the steps for 40 minutes during lunch .. and that .. is WORK!

Don’t be shy .. people will only look at you weird the first time .. 😉

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to follow me on social media!

Follow @joschmoblo

Follow @_findingfitness – my blog’s twitter