Keeping Yourself Balanced

I know most of you had no idea that this week has been "Balance Awareness Week". Well to be honest, I didn't know either. However, when you read the counseling magazines and websites that I follow because of my job, you find out all kinds of oddities. Balance Awareness Week is to help all of us remember to keep our lives in balance. To be able to handle stress better and to find peace in our busy lives. I would have to say that not only are the adults feeling a lot of stress in their lives lately but I feel that our students have become more and more anxious and stressed the last couple of years. I am finding out by talking with our students that many of them are going to work right after school and working until 10:00 at night. They need the jobs for their cars, insurance, phones, help with paying bills around the house, etc. When we try to pack all of this in and don't bother taking care of ourselves, we create an enormous amount of stress in our life. I thought this might be a good time to provide some stress reduction methods that I think are very useful and easy to do. I do not want you to think this is a substitute for seeking help or talking with me or another adult if the stress and anxiety is severe. I believe these methods, along with counseling, can both act together to reduce the stress and anxiety in your life.

When feeling stressed or overwhelmed, take some time to practice these:

1) Breathing exercises: Simply breathing in for 4 seconds, holding it for 7 seconds and then slowly letting the air out for 10 seconds (Repeat 4 times) can be an immediate relief when you feel anxiety coming on or if you feel you are getting frustrated with something. Easy to practice and takes no time.

2) Exercise: I know a lot of people hate to hear the word exercise but exercise can be as simple as taking a walk. Getting up and moving around. Once you develop an exercise routine, it can act in preventing a lot of stress and  anxiety in your life.

3) Visualization: Lets's put it this way. Have you seen "Happy Gilmore"? Remember he was told to go to his happy place when he got upset. That's what visualization is. Find a place that totally relaxes you and in your mind, go there until you are calm. Mine is on a warm beautiful beach with the waves splashing on the shore. Try it. This one is fun.

4) Listen to Music: I think a lot of you have figured this one out. If this helps you then go for it. Music can take you to another place and calm a lot of anxiety. Now I know if I listened to the music the students listen to, I don't think I would be in my "happy place". I think I would be reaching for a tylenol. However, you get the idea.

5) Try some of the following apps. I received these apps while at a conference and I think they are excellent. I have recommended them to several of my students and have had positive feedback. I believe they are all free and should be on both android and iphone stores. They are:

              SAMApp - Use SAM to observe how anxiety affects you over time and learn to identify situations where you want to reduce anxiety over time. With this app, you can practice self-help options for managing anxiety.

               VIRTUAL HOPE BOX - This is a fun and cool app. You can play Sodoku, Word searches, Mahjong solitare and a photo puzzle that you create using a photo right from your phone gallery.

               MINDSHIFT - This app has something called "Chill-out tools". Under chill-out tools, you will find relaxation exercises, visualizations and mindfullness strategies. This app explains anxiety, has an area called "thinking right" which is a great tool for improving your self-talk. In other words, reversing the negative thoughts you have and replacing them with positive thoughts. It even talks about coping with test anxiety.

I hope today's blog will help all of us put our life in balance just a little bit more. Remember that life is short, it really is. Take time to smell the roses, enjoy a rainbow, laugh with your friends. It's important if you want to get the most out of each day. Thanks again for reading and have a great weekend.