Stress Archives - Page 5 of 5 - Be Well Solutions

Stress Less: Visualization

Visualization Do you ever find yourself mentally visiting a serene beach or favorite vacation spot when things get stressful? Visiting your “happy place” can’t help you escape all your troubles, but it might provide temporary relief from stress and anxiety. Even just imagining a peaceful setting is shown to convince the body and unconscious mind that you are in a safe, beautiful, and therefore relaxing environment. This practice is called visualization, and like other meditative exercises, it offers a distraction to redirect your attention from a stressor to something more peaceful. The goal is to learn how to cultivate a state of relaxed detachment where you can watch, but not become overwhelmed by, stressful thoughts and sensations that enter your mind. With time, quick thoughts of a peaceful setting can begin to act as a cue that brings about relaxing [...]

Tags: corporate wellness, stress, visualization|

Modern Meditation

What comes to mind when you think of meditation? Many people imagine cross-legged monks in Zen rock gardens. While this might be a great place to meditate, it’s probably not all that relatable if you live on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. Luckily, there are many places and many ways to meditate besides sitting in a lotus position for hours on end in silence among rock gardens. What is meditation? Meditation is a mind and body practice akin to yoga, acupuncture, and massage therapy. The goal is to connect mental focus, controlled breathing, and body movement (or stillness) to elicit relaxation. A typical meditation misconception is that you need to empty your mind and leave the world behind. But consider a different perspective. Instead of draining your brain, focus on filling it with love, gratitude, and compassion while [...]

Tags: body scan, breathing exercises, corporate wellness, gratitude, meditation, mindfulness, stress|

Namaste Calm

We all need a variety of strategies in our stress-busting toolkits that can effectively activate our body’s natural relaxation response. There’s no one right way to manage stress, but the techniques you use should resonate with you, fit your lifestyle, and enable you to shift your focus away from everyday thoughts. For many, yoga—a series of physical postures, breathing techniques, and mediation—does the trick. The individual components of yoga (stretching, deep breathing, and meditation) are great standalone stress reduction techniques. But together, they are bolstered. According to a national survey of U.S. adults, 86% of people who practiced yoga said it helped reduce their stress, 67% said it helped them feel better emotionally, and 59% said it improved their sleep. Others reported that it gave them the motivation to eat healthier, cope with medical problems, or use fewer tobacco products. [...]

Tags: calm, corporate wellness, stress, yoga|

Exercise Your Brain: Play Brain Games

Games like crosswords and Sudoku are increasingly gaining recognition as ways to protect your brain in older age. Although additional research is needed and a causal relationship hasn’t been established, older adults who regularly play number and word games have shown brain function up to a decade younger than their age on memory tests. Just like muscles, you can use or lose brain function! Brain exercise is an important part of a comprehensive wellness program. June is Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month, a time to acknowledge a disease nearly six million Americans live with today. There is no known cure for Alzheimer’s Disease, but there are a few things you can do to reduce your risk. Try following the MIND Diet, an eating pattern rich in nutritious foods that can reduce Alzheimer’s risk by 53% when followed closely. Reaching a [...]

Tags: brain health, corporate wellness, gaming|

Get a Dose of Nature

Get a Dose of Nature You likely already do things to help cut down on daily stress. Perhaps you meditate for a few minutes each day; practice self-care rituals; or choose to eat a well-balanced diet that promotes sustained energy and mental clarity. But have you ever considered what spending time outdoors can do for you? Think about it; outdoor-living was the only option for our ancestors. Over time, human brains formed an innate connection with nature, one that can be difficult to uphold with indoor-based living. This relatively recent change to living and working indoors comes with apparent advantages, i.e., protection from harsh weather, but our brains never abandoned the instinctual desire to connect with nature. This desire to spend time outside can be demonstrated by the mental and physical health benefits that occur when we get in touch [...]

Tags: corporate wellness, Corporate Wellness Firm, cortisol, nature, wellness|

April is National Volunteer Month

National Volunteer Month April is National Volunteer Month, but volunteer work any time of year is important for the health of both you and your community! Nearly one in three American adults (77 million!) volunteer each year, contributing a collective 6.9 billion hours of service at an estimated value of $167 billion. But did you know that helping others could help you too? Helping your community is what matters most, but when performed altruistically, volunteering has mental and physical health benefits for volunteers themselves. Research has shown positive associations between volunteering and improved health in older age demonstrated by longer lifespan, higher cognitive function, and lower rates of depression. It’s hypothesized that knowing your actions make a lasting impact on those you serve helps you feel better about yourself, thus reducing stress. Volunteering can also offer a new sense of [...]

Tags: Corporate Wellness Firm, health and wellness, kindness, stress, volunteer, volunteer month, wellness|

Train Your Self-Esteem

“Without it, you can do little. With it, you can do anything.” No, we aren’t talking about money. We’re talking about self-esteem, a trait often understood as something you either have or you don’t. Individuals who report high levels of self-esteem claim to be more likable and attractive, have better relationships and make better impressions on others than individuals who report low levels (though, objective measures show these assumptions aren't valid). The good news is that self-esteem isn’t a fixed state as it may wax and wane through the lifespan. We also know it’s a lot like a muscle that can be trained to grow stronger. How can you start training your self-esteem? Start by completing this reflective exercise. Take a few minutes to write a short description of yourself. Use adjectives to describe your mood, outlook, personality, and [...]

Tags: core belief, corporate wellness, self-esteem, wellness|

Strengthen Social Connections

You may have heard that people from the Mediterranean region are the healthiest on the planet, with low risk for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and depression. Good nutrition and physical activity are not the only reasons for these health benefits. A major contributing factor of the Mediterranean Lifestyle includes social connectedness. The Mediterranean Diet ranked first place as U.S. News and World Report’s Best Overall Diet of 2019, beating the ketogenic diet (#38) and Whole30 Diet (also #38) by a longshot. Although there’s no official definition of a Mediterranean eating pattern, it’s generally characterized by lots of vegetables and fruit, whole grains, beans, legumes, nuts and seeds, low-fat or fat-free dairy, plant oils, and seafood. Chicken and other meat products (especially red) are included sparingly—just a few times a month. Not sold yet? Many proponents also make room [...]

Tags: corporate wellness, kindness|

Identify your Bias

Identify your bias Are you biased? Of course you are! We all have biases that can help or hurt how we navigate the world and the people in it. Our biases can be explicit or implicit, meaning we’re aware or unaware of them, respectively. Explicit biases are simpler to address because we’re conscious of them. On the other hand, our implicit biases are involuntary and might not align with our declared beliefs. The problem is that these biases could cause us to inadvertently engage with viewpoints we don’t truly agree with. Good news! Implicit biases are malleable; our brains are incredibly complex, so the negative associations we’ve formed through our lifetime can be unlearned. The first step, though, is identifying your implicit biases. Get your results by taking an implicit bias test from Project Implicit at Harvard University: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html

Tags: bias, corporate wellness, wellness|