How to prevent stressful situations

We can all benefit from less stress in our lives. Here are some tips to reduce or to maintain low stress levels.

• Get up 15 minutes earlier in the morning.
• Prepare for the morning the evening before.
• Don't rely on your memory - keep a notebook.
• Laugh - often!
• Make duplicate of keys.
• Practice preventative maintenance.
• Do one thing at a time. It is a myth that a person can multitask well.
• Plan ahead.
• Don't put up with something that doesn't work. Also works with relationships..think about it.
• Give yourself time.
• Always set up contingency plans...cause you never know what will happen.
• Relax your standards.
• Ask questions.
• Learn to say NO.
• Unplug your phone. I've lived without a phone for about 2 yrs now and it was great. I've used email for my main mode of communication instead, replied at my leisure, never felt pressured. I now have a phone for business purposes, I rarely use it for personal reasons. I don't mean to permanently unplug your phone but turn it off when you really don't need it.
• Don't procrastinate.
• Simplify, simplify, simplify.
• Count your blessings.
• Walk 1 km daily in the fresh air and natural light. Exercise such as walking helps you cope with stress and depression. Have a happy frame of mind while you do your walk. Build a happy place in your mind while walking but make sure you avoid stepping in doo-doo.
• Go for a relaxation massage once a month. You will feel like a million dollars.
• Take a bath using a cupful of Epsom salts or bath crystals 2-3 times weekly. This will remove toxins and acidity from your body. Good for arthritis and sore muscles.
• Rub your whole body with olive oil 1 hour after the salt bath. The oil feeds your muscles and tissues.
• Rest recharges your batteries. During the sleep state, your body and mind rebuild and heal.
• Wear and live in the colours of the spectrum. Good colours build your health.
• Wear natural fibres rather than synthetic ones, especially next to your skin. Natural fibres allow your skin to breathe.
• Use positive thoughts! If you are positive, you attract the positive. Use love, praise, and kindness in your thoughts, especially about yourself as healthy. Talk about your health, not about your sickness. The more often you build the health thought, the more likely that it will become a reality. If you have a hard time with forming positive thoughts...fake it until you make it.
• Sunshine is healing. Be out in the sun before 11am, after 3pm for the healing rays. Use suntan lotion of course.
• Sounds also affect your health. Listen to music that makes you feel good. It will build your energy. Remove unpleasant sounds.
• Breathe deeply using your diaphragm...you have 2 huge lungs...use them all.
• Drink water in small amounts at a time, often during the day. Remember, your body is mostly water.
• Learn to listen to your body, it holds incredible wisdom, and no one knows it better than you.
• Define your own stresses. Move towards understanding the role of stress for you.

Smart versus Mini Cooper

A friend and I were discussing the cars we would like to get for our travelling massage therapy businesses. She is in love with the Mini Coopers and I love Smart Cars. Problem: the size of them would make it difficult to shove folded massage tables and other equipment in them. We both agreed that when we would be going shopping, we would bring a table in with us. We would tell the salesmen that if they can find a way to fit the massage table in the cars without damaging car or table then they would have a done deal.

Have you ever seen the size of a Smart Car? The Mini is a heck of alot bigger. Well here I was wondering if someone would be able to build me a rigid carry case for massage table to fit onto the back of the Smart Car like a bike rack when I came across different styles of limousines. Yes limousines. You see they make limos from all kinds of cars now. So I went in search of the Smart Car, Mini Cooper limousines. This is what I found:



The Smart Car looks like a can! I don't think I'll go with the Smart Car then...maybe it'll be better if I just strap the massage table to my back as I ride my motorcycle!

Some interesting links you may enjoy:
Oddee.com: 15 of the World's Strangest Limousines.
www.smart.com: home of the Smart Car.
MINI.com: home of the Mini.

Failure is not an option

The last 20 or so months my entire world has been school. I had made a scary decision to leave my full-time work that paid quite nicely to go and live the student life to start a whole new career. That meant living in poverty in the basement of a friend's house, living on $25 a week on groceries all the time paying for the car, gas, insurance, rent and other expenses. I was lucky to get a line of credit at the bank that covered the tuition but I was on my own for the rest. Mental or what?

I just finished school recently and graduated. Now I have to attempt the provincial exams which if successful I will be considered a Massage Therapist. Cool huh?

I was motivated to write this blog post because there is a student in our class who is extremely negative and it.finally.got.on.my.nerves. She had just completed her exams and was telling everyone that she thought she failed it. I asked her why she thought that, she replied that she didn't have time to study because she had to work. This coming from someone with 3 jobs and who really doesn't HAVE to work all 3 to survive. She then continued with "I think I'm going to do something else instead". Some of us explained that with the amount of studying, sacrifice, emotional and financial investment with this program the exams were worth taking again if she failed them.

To be honest, the exams are not easy. The school runs comprehensive exams that mimic the exams we would be facing at the provincial level. They include a 100 multiple choice exam (on anything taught within the last 20 months) and a frightening practical exam. This practical consists of 7 stations: treatments, technique, 2 assesments, remedial exercise, consent and patient history. You have 10 minutes in each station to do what you have to do and hit all of the provincial standards. Easier said than done when nerves come into play.

Once you pass those, your name gets sent to the province where you will get the joy of going through them all over again. The thing is, the provincial exams are expensive and you don't want to fail them.period.

So here we were, waiting to get our results, and this one was complaining that she was certain she failed her exams. Not good for morale for the rest of us and frankly this was a story we had heard from her all year. A good friend of mine had missed it by 1% the passing grade is 70%, the school had forwarded her name to the province just the same, but she volunteered to do the school exam once more for the experience. I was there for support as we studied together and hearing that chick say she was going to fail finally.got.on.my.nerves.

Well my friend came out with a big smile on her face, she passed. The chick went in, came out and said she failed the exam. She then decided she didn't want to continue to be a MT and didn't want to do the school's exam a second time.

"You spent so much time studying, sacrificing for 20 months and now you are going to give all of that up!" several of us said.

She shrugs, "I don't think I'm going to continue with it now".

Then I got pissed off and my mouth opened, "Stop being so negative. You know everyone fails its OK but don't let pride get in your way and do the exam again. How much studying did you do?"

"I was working all week" that meant she barely studied.

"You didn't need to work all your shifts, some of us switched, cancelled and begged out of work so we could study for the EXAM OF OUR CAREERS!"

She shrugs and begins the negative talk again.

I put up my hand "Stop, I don't want to hear anymore, you are too negative, programmed yourself to fail so you're putting blocks in front yourself so you can blame them if you fail." I know, I know it wasn't the nice thing to do but I couldn't let her negativity get me down as I had to psych myself up for the provincial exams.

I've been down the negative thinking path and its a nasty spiral. Very difficult to get out of it. You have to reprogram your thinking, that's like catching the wind with a fishing net. You consciously have to change each thought to a positive one, or take a short cut and fake being positive until you become positive - it worked for me :P

So for the next 9 days, I will be studying like mad with my friend for the June 10 provincial practical exams. Our motto is FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION.

Some articles to help with negative thoughts or feelings

gocomics.com: never underestimate the power of a good comic. My favorite is Calvin and Hobbes.
Overcoming negative thinking
Negative thinking
Mayo Clinic: Positive thinking: Reduce stress enjoy life more.