stress Archives - The Health Sessions

Life in the Slow Lane: 21 Ideas to Embrace Slow Living

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” – Lao Tzu

Those endless Summer days are a perfect invitation to adopt a Mediterranean pace of slow living, with time for siestas and home-cooked family meals al fresco. With the sun on your face and great company, what more could you need?

In our fast-pace world, taking time to slow down, savor the moment and enjoy simple pleasures has become a luxury. The notions of “you only live once” and “living your best life” has given many of us a sense of urgency. Every moment has to be seized and used productively. Combined with technology that tempts us to be ‘on’ and connected at all times, there’s little room left for slow living. Time even wrote a notorious piece about the Dutch concept of ‘niksen’ – which literally means doing nothing – as if sitting still and staring our of the window is something revolutionary.

But when you’re living with chronic illness, you’re probably used to life in the slow lane. Having little energy, reduced mobility and requiring lots of rest usually means taking things slow. Because slow living due to health problems isn’t a choice, you might feel sad, angry, frustrated and some real FOMO.

But going faster isn’t always better. Slow living has some serious benefits for your health and happiness. Here’s why you should embrace a slow lifestyle – and how to do it.

10 Ways to Stop Yourself From Being Controlled by Your Emotions

This article is written by Kate Walker.

Emotions affect almost 90% of your reactions to various situations in life. However, you know you are controlled by your emotions if your mood changes depending on circumstances. Some situations are easy to handle while others are hard to control. For the difficult ones, you have to learn the skills to stop such feelings from controlling you and reduce their impact on your life. It requires a lot of practice and dedication to master the art of controlling your emotions. Nonetheless, the results are worth all the efforts.

Here are 10 ways how to handle your emotions and stop yourself from being a slave to them.

How Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Can Threaten One’s Job

This article is written by Roy Emmerson. Approximately 12.2% of people suffer from an anxiety disorder in any given year, making these problems much more common than mood disorders, schizophrenia and eating disorders. Anxiety disorders contribute to personal suffering, disability, economic loss and cost to health care systems. In fact, one of the most common anxiety … Read more >

Warning Signs: Are You Listening to What Your Body Is Telling You?

Do you ever find yourself feeling impatient and irritated, snapping at people for no particular reason? You wake up tired most mornings, with a racing mind, tense shoulders and aching back. There’s no time to really pay attention to those feelings, because you have to juggle work, family, your health and other obligations.

Your body sends you messages about its internal conditions all the time. Sometimes it offers subtle clues about what it needs in the form of a yawn, food cravings or a gut feeling. Other times, your body signals distress through skin rash, chest pain or unintentional weight loss.

But in today’s fast-paced world, it’s much easier to tune out than it is to tune in. With the non-stop activity going on around us, we tend to focus outwardly and ignore what’s happening inside of us. But when you don’t listen to what your body’s whispering, the distress slowly builds, until your body start screaming for your attention.

3 Breathing Exercises for Stress Management

This article is written by Gavin Wilson from Good Air Geeks.

Stress. The one word that everyone, everywhere, can relate to. Why is it so significant? Stress can have such a major impact on your life without you even realizing the depth of its effect. While some people thrive well in stressful situations and actually rely on that extra pressure, normally one would want to reduce levels of stress as much as possible.

What does stress affect? Well for starters, it can impact your sleep, which can lead to many other issues. It can affect the way you eat, your emotions, your weight and your ability to focus. So what can we do to help reduce stress? One important way to release tension is to mind your breathing. Let’s take a look at 3 breathing exercises for stress management.