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Lets’ face it….we all feel it. Hi all!! I’m back!!

We’ve all been there, all of us have felt that we’ll never get it all done. Feelings of being overwhelmed by work, family, chores, duties and well, just life! There are times when the feelings of being overwhelmed can make you buckle down and power through the tasks that need to be done. Then there are other times when you have overwhelming feelings of being overwhelmed.

When the second type of feeling overwhelmed happens, we can’t focus, we can’t function. Our brains can become short circuited by the multiple projects that are requiring our ‘immediate’ attention. Often we are too close to the situation to find a solution to make our way out to a more manageable pathway.

We see this often with hoarders. There is a emotional trauma that causes the person to leave reality and when they are able to regain their focus, they are often overwhelmed at the task at hand, ie. cleaning up and throwing away the clutter. Then an outside party will come in with the ability to see the whole project and break it down into manageable pieces. I have always been very impressed at those who can see the ‘greater picture’ and cut down an issue into those more manageable parts.

I have often had issues with clutter. I am not a hoarder by any means, but I will find that my life will often run so fast ahead of me, that when it does slow down, I look around and boy, my weekend is spent decluttering my living areas. I often joke that I need to live in a house with no flat surfaces. Junk mail, receipts, paperwork, magazines, medical journal articles often end up in neatly stacked piles in my office and on my kitchen table. For those of you that know me, you know I get it honest!! Then the feelings of being overwhelmed begin….’Where do I start?’, ‘Do I clean off my office desk first, or take care of the dining room table?’. ‘Where do I put the papers on the dining room table if my office desk isn’t cleaned?’, ‘Shouldn’t I start in the dining room where company can see our home?’. This is how I become frozen with the feeling of being overwhelmed.

How then do we prevent this from happening? You can do a quick google search to find out how to handle this. My favorite has been from Quickanddirtytips.com. There you can find 7 tips to help you get out of the cyclone of feeling like the mountain is coming down on your head. Ellen Hendrikson, Psychologist says these 7 things can help: 1) ground yourself in the present, 2) clean up your immediate surroundings, 3) ruthlessly prioritize, 4) stop accidentally multi-tasking, 5) the next tiny step [take that first tiny step towards your goal], 6) follow your impulses [unload those ideas that may distract you and waste time] and 7) rethink to-do lists. I highly suggest heading over and checking out the article for more detailed information.

I feel that the MOST important part to climbing out from under the avalanche that makes us feel overwhelmed is to remember….IT’S OK!! It’s okay to feel overwhelmed, it’s ok to feel imperfect, it’s ok to feel human! You’re not a robot, you can do it all…just not all at once!!

Learning. It is necessary to life. As we move through life, we continue to learn things. As children, we explore our world, learning new things. As adolescents and teens, we are learning more about the world around us as well as who we are as a person in that world. Finally as adults, we learn what we need to navigate life successfully as adults; where we want to live, the job/career we want to have and who we wish to share our life with.

Learning can be fun or painful. It can be exciting or dreadful. A lot of the way a person looks upon learning depends upon the experiences they have had in the past. Almost everyone knows someone that could not wait to get out of school and never wanted to go back again. Opposite of that is the person that is a ‘lifetime’ student and would take classes forever if they could.

I tend to be in the latter of that group. I enjoy learning new topics and expanding my knowledge of those topics I know a bit about. Unfortunately, my job and finances keep me from getting my next 5 degrees! 🙂

Learning can help boost your mood though. There has been evidence that shows that continuing to learn can improve and maintain mental wellbeing. Learning something new can help improve your self-confidence and boost your self-esteem. This can be as small as learning a new skill or craft, or as advanced as learning a new language or career.

It has been found that continuing learning after childhood can help you have a greater ability to cope with stress and change. Those that continue their learning often report higher feelings of hope, purpose and self-confidence.
So, go out and learn something new! Learn to cook a new dish, learn about the history of the town you live in, take a class at the local college, community center- such as CPR, and enjoy the interaction with others, improving your mood.

I hope you learned a little something from today’s blog…And it helped you feel a bit happier!! See you in class!

April showers bring May flowers, but what does Mayflowers bring….pilgrims!! I have always loved that joke! The weather here in Florida has had showers, while others in the US have new fallen snow! Yuck!

I read an interesting article in our Orlando Health Choose Health Spring 2018 edition magazine. The theme for the spring edition was STRESS! I thought this was timely as I just wrote about stress and its effects on the mind and body.

The interesting article was related to the foods you eat and how they effect your mood. I had not thought about this previously, but as I read the article, it made complete sense. Cortisol is a hormone that is released during times of chronic stress and is known as a hunger hormone. Cortisol is also associated with weight gain or central obesity often referred to as the ‘spare tire’ around your waist.

Stress causes you to crave fatty and sugary foods that work quickly a well as cause a quick crash. This in turn causes you to then crave not only the foods again, but the quick energy from those foods. It’s a vicious cycle. There is now information on the way food enhances or inhibits your mood and is known as a 3R food strategy. Foods should be chosen to relax, regulate and revitalize your body and manage the effects of stress on your body.

There are certain foods that can help promote relaxation, reduce levels of Cortisol and provide energy and promote Serotonin (happy hormone). Other foods can be chosen to boost brain function, decrease neurological decline and improve memory and alertness! I will be following the grocery list for stress reducing foods and let you know how they are working!

To read more on ‘mood foods’ and reducing stress, you can find the article ‘The Food and Mood Connection‘ on http://www.Orlandohealth.com/ChooseHealth

Enjoy your dinner! I hope it literally makes you happy!!

Hello all! I have been M.I.A. for a bit. Thank you for being patient and awaiting my next blog post! Life got in the way, and for that I apologize! LOL!

We all have struggles we go through in life. Some are major, some minor. When we are having troubles, it is often hard to see a solution, an ending, or a ‘bright side’ ! We often have to find it in ourselves to get through whatever the difficulty is. Some people run, exercise or  turn to meditation. Others turn to religion/spirituality and even others turn to more dangerous and damaging ways to get through difficult situations. We learn as children, teens and young adults, what works and return to that when needed.

But what do we do if our go to method no longer works? How do we find another way? We have to create a new habit. We need to reprogram ourselves. Our brains are full of circuitry, electrical connections. So, reprogramming should be easily done. Not necessarily! Habits are hard to form when we are in a peaceful state of mind.

The body, when stressed, goes into the ‘Fight or Flight’ mode. You are either going to fight (stay and face the stressor) or run away (leave the situation and ignore the problem) from the stressful situation. When stressed, we do not pay attention to detail, become disorganized and feel overwhelmed. We become increasingly irritable, defensive, frustrated and annoyed with small, petty concerns. Physically, stressors can have a positive and negative effect on our bodies. Acute stress can heighten our sense of awareness, improves memory and increases immune function.

When stress becomes chronic is when it has dangerous effects on our health, both mentally and physically. We have heard of the effects to the heart and GI system. We have headaches, fatigue, decreased and non-restful sleep, anxiety, increased alcohol use, drug and tobacco abuse. We often exercise less often and become socially withdrawn.

So, how then are we supposed to find a new way to deal with stress when we most need it. The key is to work on your coping before you need it! Start journaling, reading, praying or running while you are feeling good and not under stress. Find a group to join that enjoys the same things you do and form bonds with people that can help you when you nee it most. Reach out to others that may be stressed, so that when you are stressed, you can reach out as well.

There is a saying…”Find you Tribe and love them hard!” It can be family, friends, co-workers or anyone that will be the support you need…when you need it! 

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend!

Today was supposed to be a work around the house day for my husband Brett and I. He wanted to start working on the back yard to get it ready for the Spring/Summer season!

I pulled the wifey card and decided that I wanted to take my husband to see the Detroit Tigers at Spring Training! Brett was a bit upset that his plans were foiled! But I told him that when we are 80 years old, we won’t look back on today and remember how great it was pulling weeds and moving rocks!

We are now going through the difficult time of Brett’s grandmother lose her memory. Grandpa is having a difficult time letting go of the woman he has spent 60+ years with. It’s almost like becoming a widower without a death. The family is now reviewing memories with great fondness to help cope with the loss of Grandma’s personality. It has become even more vital now to me that I make memories with my family.

So to you I say, live today to make memories for tomorrow! Memories will be all you have left when material things have gone. When all you have left is yourself, your memories will sustain you.

Go out and have FUN with life!

Happy Sunday evening everyone! I hope your weekend was productive &/or eventful!

I’ve often heard as I’m sure you have about F.O.M.O. or fear of missing out! That absolutely applies to the weekend! Working Monday through Friday, spending valuable time away from your family, making a living to be able to live life.

When the weekend comes, there is nothing you want to do more that DO NOTHING! But then you realize all those ‘Honey-do’s’ that have waited patiently for just this occasion. Housework, yard work, and if you have kids…..homework.

But what about getting out and ‘doing’ something?! My mom was always telling us as kids to ‘go do something outside’! I loved the outside, it has the best of everything….sun, shade, hide-and-go seek spots, friends, places to ride my bike, I could go on and on here.

Now I have to work hard at making myself go outside, because I worry about all the inside things that aren’t getting done. But when I do get out, still the best of everything is there…sun, shade, friends, places to paddle board and places to ride my bike!

So all of you kids at heart, get outside! Eat your cereal for breakfast on the porch, go for a walk, play hide and seek, enjoy the shade and fresh air!

Look forward to the week physically and mentally. And then play your heart out this coming weekend!

Happy Valentine’s Day!!
Hi Everyone! I hope you all had a great Valentine’s Day! Whether you are married, separated, single, divorced or ‘other’! I remember how excited I used to be for Valentine’s Day in elementary school. I would go to the store with my mom, pick out an adorable pack of Valentine’s Day cards, and if I was really lucky, they had lollipops attached! Then we would head home and I would write out every classmates name on a card of some sort or other. Looking for the BEST card out of the pack for that ‘special’ someone! Everyone got a card and everyone felt special.

Then fast forward to adulthood….now it is not as much FUN! We have placed so much importance on getting a gift from that special someone. And if we don’t get something as fantastic as one of our co-workers, we are disappointed in our person! Why are we disappointed that they didn’t show their heroic display of love on this specific day? What about January 26th, May 17th, August 4th or October 13th? Are those days not as important?

How about showing ourselves some love? (No not in THAT way!) Loving ourselves means taking care of the most important person in our lives…Us! We get wrapped up in everyday living, housework, work deadlines, husbands/wives needs and demands, children to be made happy, and other distractions. I ask people daily about what they do for stress relief. ‘What do you do for fun?” ‘What kind of physical activity do you do that doesn’t include work?’ Many times the blank stare that is returned is answer enough. I often tell people if it takes them longer than 10 seconds to think about it, that is entirely too long!

We need to go back to that feeling in elementary school where we enjoyed doing things for others because it made us feel good! No other reason, but that we wanted to make out friends smile! Taking care of ourselves is important in accomplishing this. If we take time out to relieve stress by walking, taking a swim, riding a bike, reading just one chapter in that book we bought 6 months ago, then we can be better prepared to make others smile.

It’s true that misery loves company, don’t invite yourself to that party! Have some fun and do something for someone in your life, just to make them smile! I guarantee that you will be smiling as well!

Tracy