10 Things Science Says Will Make You Happy by Jen Angel — YES! Magazine.
Even though the title says “things,” these keys to happiness are not things. They all involve choices:
I spent a couple of hours at Austin City Hall with Occupy Austin earlier today. I’ve supported Occupy Wall Street/Occupy Together from the start — it’s been pretty amazing to see this grassroots movement start and grow. I donated a little money and have kept up via Facebook and Twitter. Today I decided to visit in person and write about it.
I walked around, talked to people, and took photos. If you haven’t been there, here’s my report, and I hope it is reassuring to you about this movement.
When I first walked up, I saw a young man on his hands and knees on the mulch around a tree at City Hall. His name is Brighton, and he was picking up cigarette butts and putting them into a plastic soda bottle. He’s been part of Occupy Austin since Day 1.
Brighton
Occupy Austin is a home-grown encampment, and the occupiers make it work. One of their efforts is aimed towards keeping it clean. Brighton took this task on himself. I’m sure some of the butts were there long before Occupy Austin, so he’s doing the city (and us) a favor by cleaning it up.
He’s 20. He worked at a pizza company for a couple of years. He made minimum wage. There was no hope for a raise or advancement because of the economy, and he had no hope of continuing his education or getting other training. That’s why he’s part of OA. He’d like to see some change.
Brighton told me that some of the homeless people in Austin now go to City Hall to eat and sleep along with the occupiers, because food and shelter exist there. Occupy Austin has received a lot of donations of food, other goods, and financial support. He said the homeless don’t take part in the decision-making. It’s not that they weren’t asked — they mostly choose to leave and hang out elsewhere except for meals and sleeping. The OA people are a peaceful self-governing community, and they recognize that the homeless are part of the 99% like them, and so they include them.
William
I encountered William, who had taken on the job of handing out literature. He gave me some flyers and handouts containing the following kinds of information:
Click the links to read more, if you like, about Occupy Austin and Occupy Wall Street.
Josie
The next person I conversed with was Josie, who was sitting at the Information Desk. She is not a camper but a volunteer who comes in and works for the movement.
She seemed to me to be a very friendly, articulate, capable young woman. The information table had some of the same flyers that William gave me and more. It was a place anyone could go with questions.
Also, she was interested in why I was there, and she gave me a hug!
I talked to Larry Singleton, who was carrying a flag. Larry is a veteran, and he is homeless. He has a dream of getting funding for a new facility to serve the homeless. He says that God put him there at Occupy Austin, that he is dying (I think he said of emphysema), and that he is doing this so he can die knowing he made a difference.
Larry
Larry’s sign says “WE WON by faith.” I asked him what that was about. He said, “We won last night.”
I thought he was talking about the World Series game last night.
My mistake! He said that Occupy Austin won last night. I’m not sure I understood exactly why, but it may be related to an Occupy Austin march held in solidarity with the Occupy Oakland and Occupy Atlanta groups who have encountered some pretty awful police brutality.
Larry is profiled on an awesome blog that he steered me to. Check out the post for Occupy Austin Day 9.
Joseph
Joseph Ryder has been on the plaza for eight days and five nights. Joseph said he was there because of his anger about the bailout of the big banks, who use their money to buy politicians so they can do whatever they want. (I’m paraphrasing, but you get the gist.)
Joseph was a friendly guy. I left to eat and came back later, and he remembered me and kidded, “You still around?”
It was Joseph who told me that Black Swan Yoga has been offering regular yoga classes on the plaza. That rocks.
Ken and Jonathan
I talked to a couple of guys sitting on one of the low rock walls that are so user-friendly at City Hall. Ken and Jonathan, an older man and a younger man, were having one of those free-ranging conversations that I couldn’t help but overhear as I sat nearby checking my iPhone. (I could swear that I saw a call from Nelson Guda come in for just a second, then lost it. That would be weird and cool, since he’s in Rwanda photographing mixed marriages between Hutus and Tutsis for his Enemies project, and we do more Facebook communication, not phone, usually.)
Ken remembers a lot of history about freedom movements in the U.S. He described himself as an old hippie. Jonathan had come down to the plaza for the first time today, like me. Their conversation was lively, and it was lovely to overhear two generations meeting like this.
Diedrich
Diedrich Holgate is an affable fun guy who seems to be enjoying being part of this movement immensely. Diedrich said his dad is a local defense attorney. Diedrich and his dad do not see eye-to-eye about this.
Apparently Diedrich has had some run-ins with authority figures (something like that, didn’t get the details), but he came across to me as basically trustworthy. He made his own sign, which says:
Today’s mighty oak tree was yesterday’s nut that held its ground.
Somehow I feel that that is a statement about Diedrich’s own future. I see him becoming a mighty oak of a man. This Occupy experience will be talked about in decades to come.
Bathroom guard
Diedrich showed me where the bathroom was (not a porta-potty but a regular bathroom in the City Hall building accessible from the plaza). He said there had been problems with people tagging it, writing graffiti in there. A young woman occupier took it on herself to sit near the bathroom and monitor it (with warning signs that that was happening) after each person visited it so that if anyone left it less than clean or tagged, that person would be held accountable. The self-monitoring encampment polices itself.
I apologize, but I forgot to write down her name (it might have been Lisa), but here’s her photo.
Speaking of the police, there was an APD car parked next to the encampment. The police officer stayed inside the car while I was there. Several of the protesters told me that one of their goals was to not need police intervention — to solve problems themselves. I thought they were doing a good job of that. They said there had been a learning curve.
Brandon
The next-to-the-last person I talked to was Brandon, who was sitting at a table with six or seven others in Austin Java at City Hall., where I went when I needed a break
All of them had laptops. My kind of people! I sometimes go nerding with friends, but usually it’s just one or two of us, and we have Macs. This group was mostly young and male, some of the awesome hardcore geeks who have been like rock stars to the programmers at some of the places I’ve worked as a technical writer. There was a lot of computing power around that table, and I’m not talking about the equipment.
I couldn’t help but be curious about whether they were just a random group of geeks meeting at Austin Java or whether they were associated with Occupy Austin. It turned out to be the latter. They are one of several geek squads working with Occupy Austin. Brandon was working on Occupy Apps, working on an application that would allow people to stay networked if the system went down when too many people got on. I’m sure there’s some other pretty cool stuff being worked on there, and that their work benefits all the Occupy movements around the country and the world. We live in a geeky town, and I’m glad they’re participating and using their skills to create better democracies.
Eric
The last person I talked to was Eric Towler, a friend whom I first met at Appamada Zen Center last year, where we were both attendees of Sunday services. Eric has posted on the Appamada list about Occupy Austin before, so I wasn’t surprised at all to see him there. He’s been there several times and is contemplating doing some teaching about Zen in this community.
It was just lovely to bump into him and experience his peaceful, compassionate vitality and his interest in connecting Zen with real people and real problems.
The whole time I was there, people ebbed and flowed. I ran into Grace, whom I used to do yoga with. She had brought her neighbors there for the first time. Some people just came and held up signs along Cesar Chavez. There was a tent full of signs, and anyone could get a sign and stand on the street. Lots of cars honked and people gave the peace sign and yelled messages of support to the protesters.
Having fun
There was even some humor amid the earnestness. First three young men in tuxedos or tails, later joined by a young woman in an evening gown and the most awesome heels, stood along Cesar Chavez with signs that said “Free Bernie Madoff,” “We Are the 1%,” “What’s Best for Corporations is Best for Me!” and “Get a Job.”
They weren’t part of the regular Occupy Austin crowd, and some of the regulars were a bit suspicious of them, thinking they might be counter-protesters, but mostly they left them alone.
Halloween fun
I talked to them. They were just having some Halloween fun in the spirit of Abbie Hoffman and the Merry Pranksters. They recognized those names, which was heartening to me that the tradition of spicing social activism with some humor has not been lost.
These were probably their Halloween costumes.
What Kind of Buddhist was Steve Jobs, Really? | NeuroTribes.
Great article by Steve Silberman (I have subscribed to his blog and follow him on Twitter — great find). I like reading about Steve Jobs, but even better is this simple, clear description of why we meditate:
Why would a former phone phreak who perseverated over the design of motherboards be interested in doing that? Using the mind to watch the mind, and ultimately to change how the mind works, is known in cognitive psychology as metacognition. Beneath the poetic cultural trappings of Buddhism, what intensive meditation offers to long-term practitioners is a kind of metacognitive hack of the human operating system (a metaphor that probably crossed Jobs’ mind at some point.) Sitting zazen offered Jobs a practical technique for upgrading the motherboard in his head.
The classic Buddhist image of this hack is that thoughts are like clouds passing through a spacious blue sky. All your life, you’ve been convinced that this succession of clouds comprises a stable, enduring identity — a “self.” But Buddhists believe this self this is an illusion that causes unnecessary suffering as you inevitably face change, loss, disease, old age, and death. One aim of practice is to reveal the gaps or discontinuities — the glimpses of blue sky —between the thoughts, so you’re not so taken in by the illusion, but instead learn to identify with the panoramic awareness in which the clouds arise and disappear.
Modern wheat is not good for anyone, according to Dr. William Davis, author of Wheat Belly, a new book that differentiates the wheat of today from the wheat of yesterday.
In this article on BoingBoing, Davis outlines how modern wheat has been genetically modified even since 1960 into a product that may be the real cause of the surge in obesity and diabetes.
He recommends that not just people with celiac, gluten-intolerance, and wheat sensitivity give up wheat. He recommends that everyone do so. If you’re wondering why you can’t lose weight, look at your wheat consumption. Rather than being a “healthy whole grain,” it might be working against your health instead of for it.
I don’t know the science and haven’t read the book, but I gave up wheat about four years ago, and I can tell you that it’s getting easier as more people jump on the no-wheat bandwagon. More restaurants offer gluten-free menus, and grocery stores offer more gluten-free foods. Gluten-free bakeries are even opening and doing well. Bakers and chefs are experimenting with alternatives to wheat flour and creating good new recipes.
Here’s what Davis says:
It is therefore my contention that eliminating all wheat from the diet is a good idea not just for people with gluten sensitivity; it’s a smart decision for everybody. I have experience in my heart disease prevention practice, as well as my online program for heart disease prevention and reversal, with several thousand people who have done just that and the results are nothing short of astounding. Weight loss of 30, 50, even 70 pounds or more within the first six months; reversal of diabetes and pre-diabetic conditions; relief from edema, sinus congestion, and asthma; disappearance of acid reflux, irritable bowel syndrome symptoms; increased energy, happier mood, better sleep. People feel better, look better, eat fewer calories, feel less hungry, are able to discontinue use of many medications — just by eliminating one food from their diet — ironically a food that they’ve been told to eat more of.
Davis recommends going without wheat for four weeks:
If the health benefits of a wheat-free diet sound hard to believe, why not conduct your own little experiment and see for yourself: simply eliminate all things made of wheat for four weeks — no bread, bagels, pizza, pretzels, rolls, donuts, breakfast cereals, pancakes, waffles, pasta, noodles, or processed foods containing wheat (and do be careful to read labels, as food manufacturers love to slip a little wheat gliadin into your food every chance they get to stimulate your appetite). That’s a lot to cut out, true, but there’s still plenty of real, nutrient-dense foods like vegetables, fruit, nuts, cheese and dairy products, meat, fish, soy foods, legumes, oils like olive oil, avocados, even dark chocolate that you can eat in their place. If after that 4-week period you discover new mental clarity, better sleep, relief from joint pain, happier intestines, and a looser waistband, you will have your answer.
This afternoon at massage school, we got to integrate all the styles and special techniques we’ve learned so far — Swedish massage, range-of-motion and stretching, body mobilization techniques, sports massage, and deep massage. (Later we’ll add some Shiatsu to that, and I plan to add a little cranio-sacral work as well.)
We asked our partners (fellow students) where their bodies were needing special attention. My partner had some tightness in his upper back (a 1 on a 1-10 scale), between his shoulder blades. I did the techniques that came to mind (raking the rhomboids, circular effleurage around the scapulae) and even made up some strokes.
Afterward, he said it felt good. That’s what counts.
I loved it. I am not a by-the-book person. This is where it gets really interesting to me. This is where we get to improvise, being in the moment and deciding how to proceed.
The basic skills are building blocks. There’s nothing wrong with pure Swedish. It’s pretty awesome — relaxing and therapeutic. It’s just that when someone has an issue, it’s great to have several resources to use to learn what works best on this person.
I want to learn a routine consisting solely of body mobilization techniques (BMTs), which are ways to jostle, swing, shake, rock, roll, and generally loosen up the body in a pleasant, rhythmic manner while the client is passively experiencing their body differently. BMTs can be done in 15, 20, or 30 minutes with the client fully clothed, so it can substitute for a chair massage. (It’s also great to integrate into longer massages.)
It will be nice to have something short and sweet to offer clients who don’t have the time for a full massage or who have never had a massage and would enjoy a fun little introduction.
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Today I heard about a massage therapist who operates on a donate-what-you-wish basis. It’s wonderful to hear about someone making a “good enough” living doing that. So many people have irregular incomes (artists and musicians, for example), and paying less when broke/more when flush works for them, and they really appreciate people who can work with the rhythm of their income.
Yoga studios have been successful operating this way (though usually with a $10 minimum). I know an acupuncturist who works successfully on that basis, and she is the free-est, happiest person I know and very good at what she does. She handpicks her clients.
I like that the massage therapist doesn’t have to think about how much to charge and wonder if the client can afford it. It removes some potential awkwardness and allows the focus to be on the bodywork and the relationship.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if all health care was like that? I imagine that in times past, when someone was a healer for their village or tribe, they never turned anyone away because they were poor. They took food, crafts, chickens, pay-it-forward, or whatever in barter. Healing was just what they did, in good times and bad. They rolled with their village.
What’s also attractive about pay-what-you-wish is that the massage therapists can hand-pick who they want to work with, and their clients become regular, long-term clients they can know well.
That sounds more fulfilling to me than “body in, body out” work with a lot of turnover in clients.
You know that very famous quote from Marianne Williamson about how it’s not our darkness that we fear, it’s our light?
Well, here it is again:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
She is so brilliant.
For most of my life I’ve been afraid of my light. I’ve played small.
See, the thing is, I stayed in a job too long and picked up on the belief of others that good jobs are really hard to come by, that it was safer to stay where I was– until basically, something happened that brought me to a fork in the road, and I took the road less traveled. I quit a decent, stable, secure job seventeen months short of retiring and being able collect a pension.
My gut told me I needed to do something else.
A couple of months later, I decided to seek a contract job. I didn’t know how long it would take for my house to sell. I spent a day updating my resume, and the next day I responded to one ad, and before the day had ended, the recruiter who placed that ad called me about interviewing for the job.
So I interviewed and got the job. (And got a contract on my house right after that!)
Proof that if you have skills and a track record, you can find another job “even in this economy.” It just takes one yes.
That job ended at the beginning of June. I’ve been in massage school since the end of June, living on my savings. I was sort of looking for a part-time technical writer job. Part-time jobs in that field do exist, but they are few and far between.
Last week I decided to get serious: I updated my resume and made sure that each place it was posted had the same version with the same objective: part-time technical writing work.
The next morning I got a call from a recruiter about a part-time job at a very prestigious technology company.
Holy manifesting, Batman, I am powerful beyond measure. When I put a message out there, stuff happens.
I interviewed with a local team that was screening the job candidates. This team would be training me. The hiring manager was in San Jose and would do phone interviews with the top candidates submitted by the local team.
I made the cut.
Then I began to have doubts. I could not put my finger on why. It’s a good company and a good job, from all I know. But when I thought about actually doing the work, something inside me balked.
I bailed on the phone interview 10 minutes before it was to start. I’ve never done that before. I couldn’t give a coherent reason why, either. My body just gave me a very clear “no” signal. I didn’t want this job, and it seemed insane to go through with the interview knowing that.
The other parts of me besides this gut decision-maker weren’t entirely behind my action, either, and it took the rest of the day to integrate what I had done.
Part wondered if I was throwing my technical writing career away. Thirteen years. It’s been very good to me. I’ve found niches that I enjoy and am good at (that have to do with teaching people how to do things), but it just doesn’t feel satisfying to me any more.
Part said, “Maybe you need to work with a different kind of technology, such as medical technology.”
Part said, “It’s too hard to switch back into deep left-brain work while going to massage school three days a week.”
Part said, “Whew, even if you could have telecommuted from home after the initial training, you would still have had to drive 20-plus urban miles each way twice a week for the first few weeks to get trained. That is stressful. Good decision.”
Part said, “You are exactly on track, receiving training to do work that you love. You made loving your work your primary criteria. You cannot make exceptions and do work that you don’t love.”
Part said, “You are in-between, finding your way. Much is unknown, but you know it’s a path with heart. Trust it. Jobs may come that get you closer to where you want to be. It’s all an adventure anyway! Enjoy it and have fun.”
Part said, “Okay, now you know you can manifest. You have super powers. You must use them for good. Get centered and clear about your intentions. Allowing yourself to exist peacefully in the space of not knowing is the real challenge here. Your basic needs are met. You needn’t fear. You would be wise to meditate every day.”
And part said, “Your brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous self is unfolding! Enjoy the blossoming!”
Oh, yes, and the recruiter placed the other candidate she submitted who also made the cut. She said she appreciated my honesty, and it wasn’t a big deal. (I felt terrible about behaving like this, so those were welcome words.) The company got someone who really wanted the job, and I got…a new path.
Several hours later, all my parts had caught up with the decision-maker, and my own little private, personal drama became boring and a thing of the past. Next!
I’ve made this smoothie twice now, and it’s definitely worth sharing. Raspberries and chocolate complement each other very, very well, and this smooth is loaded with nutrients from superfoods, keeping you hydrated and giving you energy.
I added measurements this time! Last time I just threw things together in the blender. Except for the first two packaged ingredients, these are not exact, just indicators. Use your own judgment.
I put everything in the blender and let it run on a high setting for a couple of minutes to pulverize the cacao nibs. It makes about 3 servings.
Coconut butter is a fairly new product on the shelves of health-oriented grocery stores. It uses both the coconut flesh and the oil, so you get fiber from the coconut, and not just the oil. You could even make it yourself. You can use it as a spread (like butter!). Apparently it makes a great match with maca powder.
That’s an area of food research where I’d love to see more work done — what food combinations boost each other. I’ve read that green tea and lemon work really well together too.
The chia seeds soak up liquid and expand, so the smoothie will gel after blending to a nice thick texture, very filling. Chia seeds are another recently “discovered” superfood from Mexico. They boost energy and keep you hydrated through the fluid they absorb. Long-distance runners often use them. They also provide calcium, boost brain functioning, contain anti-oxidants and omega-3s, lower bad cholesterol and raise the good, control high blood pressure, and do many other good things for the human biological machine.
Maca powder is made from a South American root with these properties:
Maca is a nutritionally dense super-food that contains high amounts of minerals, vitamins, enzymes and all of the essential amino acids. Maca root is rich in B-vitamins, which are the energy vitamins, and maca is a vegetarian source of B-12. To boot, maca has high levels of bioavailable calcium and magnesium and is great for remineralization.
Maca root helps balance our hormones and due to an over abundance of environmental estrogens, most people’s hormones are a bit out of whack. Maca stimulates and nourishes the hypothalamus and pituitary glands which are the “master glands” of the body. These glands actually regulate the other glands, so when in balance they can bring balance to the adrenal, thyroid, pancreas, ovarian and testicular glands.
Instead of providing hormones to the body, maca works as an adaptogen which means that it responds to different bodies’ needs individually. If you’re producing too much of a particular hormone, maca will regulate the production downward. However, if you’re producing too little, it’ll regulate the production upward.
You can google each of these ingredients to learn the health benefits, but this smoothie feels and tastes like an explosion of well-being from your tastebuds down to the cellular and energetic levels.
You could use frozen organic raspberries or any other kind of berry, but please do not use non-organic berries as their skins are thin, and pesticides are easily absorbed into the flesh. (That may not be scientific, but it makes sense to me.)
No particular reason for using both flax seed meal and flax seed oil except that I had both on hand!
I feel a little guilty for not posting much recently. All is well! I am loving my life in so many ways, let me begin to count them.
I love being a massage therapy student, learning, practicing, integrating. I’m friends with several massage therapists and bodyworkers. It is so cool to hang out and talk shop with them now!
It’s wonderful to work on my friends, too. Even when I’m massaging them along with a video, I thank them for their patience, because every time I practice, I integrate more. My hands are becoming antennas!
Today it occurred to me that my trailer is like a really fun playhouse for a grownup. I didn’t have a playhouse when I was a little girl, and I’m enjoying the heck out of living in this trailer. My visitors yesterday, Katie and her dad, Don, noticed that it is just my size, and it does feel spacious enough to me at 5′ 1″ tall. Living here makes me smile.
I’m still working on window covering decisions/installation and the sliding glass door/front deck entrance. I’m also testing 5 kinds of weatherstripping before settling on the best and longest-lasting. That’ll be a weekend chore to get done before the first cold front.
I was looking online today at chimeneas, imagining how awesome will it be, when it gets cold, to sit in my living room and watch a fire burning in a chimenea on my deck without the mess of having firewood, ash, or smoke inside. Looking forward to that fire trance…
The kale, chard, and collards I planted in September have grown large enough to start eating. The two inches of rain in Austin a couple of weekends ago was awesome. Plants love rainwater so much more than tap water.
There’s a mockingbird who lives near me who sings his heart out every day. I’m training my cat Mango to be an inside cat because he doesn’t behave well sometimes when I let him out. The monarchs are passing through.
I spent time last week updating my resume and making sure the same version appears on STCaustin.com, monster.com, LinkedIn, and so on. In other words, I got serious about sending a clear, consistent message out. The next morning, I got a call from a recruiter about a part-time technical writing job (very rare) at a really good company. I interviewed first (first or last are the best slots). By no means do I have the job, but it’s incredibly heartening to put my intent out there and get such a positive result so promptly. This has happened before. It’s almost scary.
I danced this morning at Ecstatic Dance of Austin. After several years of being away from dance, earlier this year I discovered this new group, whose energy feels clean, spacious, and not overshadowed by personalities competing for dominance. I feel that the bodywork, energy work, and awareness work I’ve been doing really shows up when I dance for over an hour with presence, pleasure, and skill.
My friend and fellow dancer Lakshmi Jackman says:
There is a shortcut to ecstasy. It’s called dancing.
Amen, sister!
I am feeling so grateful, lucky, and blessed to be connecting with some awesome people. New friends, old friends, family. People are showing me their awesomeness all the time now. Stunning, amazing awesomeness!
Is it because I’m in school learning how to do work I love?
Is it because the world is my mirror, and my happiness is being reflected back to me?
Is it because I’m finally getting the hang of managing my own life with skill?
Have I become more powerful than I believe I am?
I don’t know, but I am definitely feeling in love with my life.
Dare I wish for a couple of private yoga students? I love teaching, especially beginners, and miss it.
So that’s the news from Lake … hmm. Lake Well-Being. Thanks for reading. Blessings to you too.
I included some of this in my earlier post and then decided it needed to be a post on its own.
I picked up a copy of Scientific American Mind from a newsstand recently because of the cover articles on stress. (In fact, it is probably still on newsstands.) If you read this blog, you’ll know I’m very interested in stress management and health and well-being.
I read in the article Fight the Frazzled Mind that very few people know how to be productive when they are not being pushed by stressors — but it can be done. The author of the article, Robert Epstein, says it is possible to perform well when relaxed. Epstein says:
That should be the goal, in my opinion: a life that is productive but also virtually stress-free.
I can go along with that. In fact, that is a fabulous goal to have, in my opinion! (He says to think of kung fu masters. I think of the hypnotized guy in Office Space. My hero!)
When I realized that I wanted to do the kind of work that I would love doing even if I didn’t get paid for it, I set myself on that path.
Epstein, former editor-in-chief of Psychology Today, says research suggests there are at least four broad, trainable skill sets that people can use to manage stress in a healthy, effective manner:
The article has a 16-question quiz designed to help you discover where you are competent and where you can improve. He says if you score under 12, you might want to consider taking a stress-management course. (Or you could come to me for relaxation coaching…just saying!)
The full 28-question version of his stress management test is online. I took it, and my best areas were relaxation and prevention. My worst area was thought management — probably because the test presupposes that irrational beliefs are stressful. I actually enjoy uncovering my irrational beliefs and have fun with them. I don’t allow them to stress me, and I don’t believe that irrationality per se equates with stress.
I find right-brain irrationality to be less stress-producing than left-brain rationality. People have a lot of irrational beliefs that are very comforting. Think about life-after-death beliefs. Rationally, it’s a huge unknown and very stressful. Anything else is irrational — and hopefully gives your life solace and meaning.
By the way: If your irrational beliefs are stressful, find a way to question, deflate, or replace them with non-stressful, positive beliefs. Byron Katie’s The Work is simply the best tool out there, in my opinion and that of many others.
So that’s my one quibble with this research, and it’s probably just semantic.
I can definitely work on source management: getting more organized with things, tasks, space, and time. I do okay but could do better.
Before doing the research, Epstein thought that relaxation and thought management — the focus of most stress reduction efforts — would be most effective at helping people reduce stress, be happier, and more successful personally and professionally.
Instead, he found that prevention is by far the most helpful competency when it comes to managing stress. Prevention includes:
In addition to these strategies, he adds two more for fighting stress before it starts:
Epstein found that on average, people scored 55 out of 100 on a test of simple stress management techniques. That means people are failing — badly — at managing their stress levels.
He also states that the new study found a high positive relationship between test scores and the overall level of happiness people reported, personal success, and professional success. Nearly 25 percent of the happiness we experience in life is related to — and maybe even the result of — our ability to manage stress.
That’s significant. Would you like to be 25 percent happier?
The best news is that stress management is trainable, with the greatest benefits reaped from prevention.
This is work worth doing.
I am adoring my experience of a lengthy, soaking RAIN here in drought-stricken Austin, Texas — off and on yesterday, seemingly all night, and most of this Sunday morning. I’m guessing maybe two inches of precious rain has fallen. Feels like such a blessing.
We (people, air, plants, wildlife, soil, streams, lakes, roads) need this so badly. There are cracks an inch wide in the soil under my trailer and under the dead grass. The only green grass around is under trees that got watered in an effort to keep them alive, and around the new trees I planted starting in late August. They’re drinking it up.
I love being inside my trailer in the rain. The sound of rain on the roof is divine.
And it’s Sunday. Sleeping in (well, to 8 am) to the sound of rain feels wonderfully precious. I’m undecided whether to go out to ecstatic dance, the farmer’s market, the Austin Yoga Festival, or to stay blissfully inside on this wet fall day — I have reading to catch up on, videos to watch, a cat to play with, food to cook, or maybe I’ll mix it up spontaneously.
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I just did a 35-minute meditation session. When my attention was focused, it went to body awareness and to hearing. My body awareness has deepened since I started massage school in June, of course. Understanding my hands as antennas, feeling layers of tissues down to the bone, and experiencing others touching me with various levels of connection, compassion, and presence have been quite an education.
Hearing while on the cushion a mockingbird and other birds, rain noises, traffic on wet pavement, my cat rustling in a cabinet, I notice I’m accustomed to picking out single sounds. It’s a nice stretch to take it all in, and like a symphony, to go back and forth between individual sounds and the whole cacophony, like zooming in and out with a camera, only with my sense of hearing. That reminds me, I’m leading my adventurous Fourth Way book group through the 12 states of attention on Tuesday.
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Yesterday I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a workshop, Metaphors of Money, taught by Charles Faulkner, an NLP trainer, trader, writer, and researcher. Given that metaphors, conscious and unconscious, underlie our experience (the map is not the territory; a map is a metaphor for metaphors), we examined our metaphors around money.
I personify money. I like it, and I want it to like me. I know money likes me when people write checks out to me and give/mail them to me or hand me cash! Also, when I look at my bank balance and it feels good, I know money likes me. When it doesn’t feel good, I feel pressed, and I take steps to bring more in.
I noticed that as the workshop progressed, every time I heard the word “money,” its visual representation in my mind (cash, dollar sign, checks, bank balance) looked brighter and more vivid. By the end, “money” was glowing with white light!
If this workshop is offered again, you can find out by subscribing to NLP Resources Austin‘s email list. (You don’t have to be trained in NLP to participate.) They have a lot of other cool stuff coming up too.
The Well: bodymindheartspirit 