YES!
The simple act of eating more slowly can help reduce stress in our lives. Taking even a few extra minutes with each meal can have a huge effect on our overall well-being. Here’s some other additional benefits of eating more slowly:
Weight Loss: When you eat more slowly you will become satisfied before you consume as much food as your normally would. It takes the brain approximately 20 minutes to register “FULL.” If we are eating more slowly, we will have eaten less food than normal before our brains tell us we’re done.
Enjoyment: Enjoy your food by taking more time to taste and experience it instead of wolfing it down.
Digest Better: Eating slowly and chewing more will help your digestive system break down your food easier and more completely. Who knows? You may even find that eating slower could be a natural acne treatment.
Mindfulness: Center yourself around your meal. Pay attention to what you are eating and concentrate on enjoying it. This will help reduce overall stress.
Be Contrary to the Fast Lane: Make a decision to avoid the fast lane pitfalls that surround us everywhere…mealtime included. Stop rushing through your day and enjoy the little things…like mealtime!
Is a stress-free life possible? Stress is a response to challenges. A life without challenges would be quite boring when you think about it. Most stress is unnecessary, though, and we should try to eliminate it if possible. There are some methods for reducing daily stress. It’s not a quick fix, but if you apply these methods you should be able to reduce the stress in your life over time.
- Identify the Stressors: Figure out what stresses you out. Take ten minutes to think about your daily and weekly stressors and what causes these stressors. Make a list and then look at your list to determine what can be eliminated from your life.
- Eliminate Commitments: We all have commitments that are unavoidable. I’m not talking about things like work, family, home maintenance, etc. These things are unavoidable. However, consider each of the other commitments you have, the positive things you get out of them and the amount of stress they create. Remove the commitments that are not worth the stress they cause.
- Procrastination: Don’t allow things to accumulate. Make a “Do it Now” habit to keep your inbox and desk free of piled up work.
- Disorganization: It seems like even the best organizational systems tend to shift toward disorder over time unless we are scrupulously diligent about maintenance. Disorganization creates stress, however, so it should be avoided if at all possible.
- Running Late: Running late causes stress because of the rush involved. Strive to be early instead because there is much less stress if we are habitually early. Make a note of how long it takes you to do certain things so you know how much time to allow to get yourself out the door.
- Let Go of Control: A need for control causes stress. When we try to control situations and people we create stress. Learn to let go…the only thing you can control is yourself.
- Limit Multitasking: While it may seem that having a bunch of stuff going on at the same time is making you more productive, this way of doing things actually causes stress and prevents a focus on one task.
- Eliminate Energy Suckers: Have you noticed certain activities that drain your energy? Certain things tend to create exhaustion. Identify these things and eliminate them.
- Avoid Difficult People: We all have these people. If possible, avoid contact with these people.
- Simplify: Simplify your routines, your commitments, your clutter.
- Un-Schedule: Keep wide open blocks of time that are unscheduled. You will come to love having an open schedule like this.
- Slow Down: Take things at a slower pace. Enjoy mealtime, enjoy your family, enjoy nature.
- Help Others: Helping others gives you a good feeling and also lowers your stress level.
- Relax: Take mini-breaks during the day. Stop what you’re doing, get up and stretch, walk around, get a drink. Life doesn’t have to be all about productivity.
- Exercise: This not only relieves stress, but also prevents it. Exercising helps relieve stress and makes you more fit. A fitter person is better able to handle stress.
- Eat Healthy: Become healthier your stress levels will dissipate measurably.
- Be Grateful: Develop an attitude of gratitude. Eliminate negative thinking and reduce stress. Learn to be grateful for what you have and the people in your life.
“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise” – Ben Franklin
Greet the day early! Are you a night owl or an early bird? If you are a night owl, I encourage you to think about some of these attractive benefits of early rising…
- Quiet: Probably the number one benefit in my book…QUIET. Peaceful quiet where no one is yelling, crying, or asking me for something. This early time of the day is priceless to me.
- Head Start: This quiet time allows me to start my day with a routine that sets my day on a good path of productiveness and accomplishment. I can get a lot done in these few hours of quiet!
- Sunrise: Watch the day evolve and the darkness disappear. This can be a magical time.
- Breakfast: Start the day with the time for a healthy breakfast.
- Exercise: Get that needed exercise in first thing so that it doesn’t get shoved to the back burner and not done.
- Set Goals: Get myself organized and figure out what I need to accomplish with this day.
Have I convinced you yet? Ready to give it a try? OK…now some suggestions for instituting change (if necessary).
- Go to bed earlier: By at least an hour so that you are well rested and ready to get up.
- Move your alarm clock: Away from the bed so that you have to get up to turn it off.
- Get moving: As soon as you turn off the alarm you are up for the day! Get going!
- Reward yourself: Make a cup of the “good” coffee. Have a treat for breakfast. Make getting up attractive.
- Use the time: Get something productive accomplished so that you feel good about getting up.
OK – pep talk over. Try this out tomorrow and come back and tell me how it went! Maybe I missed my calling…I should have gone into sales training instead of pursuing a life of simplicity…LOL.
Project management online curriculum is a viable alternative for people in a variety of fields including Engineering Managers, Construction Managers, Management Analysts, Computer and Information Systems Managers. Earn a valuable CAPM certificate and learn how to apply project management principles and lead teams toward a successful completion of projects. In this economy, distance learning like this is a smart way to further your education and enhance your resume without incurring unnecessary expenses associated with education. St. Joseph’s University should be a consideration if you are in one of these fields looking to continue your education.
Wicker furniture on a porch or on a deck is a lovely choice in furnishings. Keeping those textured nooks and crannies clean can be a challenge, though.
Vacuum your wicker regularly to control dust and dirt. You could also maintain it with a feather duster if desired. Wipe the furniture occasionally with a damp cloth. It’s important not to saturate the wicker, though, because it could sag out of shape.
Outdoor wicker may present you with more stubborn dirt. If this is the case, you may have to spray the furniture with a hose. Wipe off excess water and let the wicker dry for 24 to 48 hours out of the sun. Do not spray antique wicker with a hose, however! Also be aware that resorting to spraying your wicker with a hose may result in peeling paint issues in the future. Attempt this cleaning technique with caution.
Don’t sit on wet wicker because this could cause it to stretch out of shape.
Some wicker is made from resin and is weatherproof. If this is your wicker, feel free to saturate it to your heart’s content.
If your wicker is cracking this is generally caused by excessive dryness. Apply boiled linseed oil with a brush, to all the nooks and crannies. Reapply the linseed oil until the wicker stays shiny. Wipe off the excess oil with paper towels and let the wicker dry for at least 24 hours before doing anything else to the wicker.
If you have wicker that is uneven or curling, you may be able to repair this. Saturate the reeds so they will move and then bend into position. Cover the area with wet rags for 60 minutes. Wrap the loose ends, glue them into position, and hole them there until the glue dries.
If the paint on your wicker furniture needs help, it’s quite easy to do. Sand loose paint off and then apply a primer paint to bare wicker. Use an oil-based indoor/outdoor paint for the topcoat. Using a spray paint is the easiest way to paint wicker. Apply several thin coats.
With a little care and maintenance wicker furniture should last and stay nice looking for many years.
One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the size of memory sticks and sd cards these days. I am old enough to remember the huge and bulky hard drives and memory storage that computers used to involve.
Another thing that is interesting is how our memory needs have evolved. A computer did not used to NEED to provide all of the memory that is necessary now, simply because the applications we used computers for were not the size that applications are now.
An heirloom is “a valued possession passed down through succeeding generations.” If you have linens you have inherited you likely consider them valuable heirlooms. How do you care for these heirlooms? Have you made sure that they are safe wherever you have them tucked away?
Textiles are very fragile. The fibers in any cloth will eventually start to deteriorate. If you have treasured heirlooms, your goal must be to protect them and keep them nice for as long as possible.
Enemies of textile heirlooms are:
- Light
- Dirt
- Humidity
- Heat
- Insects
- Pressure
Never expose any quilt to strong direct light. Antique quilts are made with fabrics that were either colored with natural dyes or newer synthetic dyes. These dyes were not color-fast. Even current products will fade when exposed to light.
If you are storing a quilt, clean it before storing. Bugs are attracted to food stains and spray starch. This is why you must make sure the quilt is clean before storing it. Consult an expert before washing an antique quilt. Never dry clean an antique quilt.
Do not store an antique quilt in a plastic bag. Fabric needs to breathe. Mildew is a very real possibility for fabrics sealed away in plastic bags. Wrap quilts in clean, natural muslin. Air the quilts out every three to six months. Inspect for signs of bugs or new stains at this time.
When you put the quilt away again after airing, fold it in a different way. For example, fold it in thirds this time instead of halves or quarters. Don’t crush the quilt with folding. Fold with the backing on the inside. Minimize wrinkles by placing crushed, acid free tissue paper between folds of the quilt.
Enjoy these beautiful heirloom quilts, though! Use them if you have them! Place them on quilt racks or quilt stands and incorporate them into your home. They are a priceless link to your past!
It’s that time of year. It seems like each year at about the time I see my first robin of the season my thoughts almost automatically turn to my yard, my garden, and things associated with the outdoors.
I like to do a fair amount of outdoor entertaining in the backyard. This means that I spend considerable time making sure that my yard looks nice. Each spring I like to add a few new garden accents to my assortment of outdoor decor.
This year I have my eye on a new bird bath for the backyard.
Do you have any special plans for your yard this year? If so, you may want to think about using ShopWiki to help you shop online. ShopWiki works similarly to Google by crawling the internet to find the items you are looking for.
I do love gadgets…especially when they save me time or mess! I wanted to introduce you to the latest addition to my gadget family…
The Peanut butter Mixer
We use only natural peanut butter in our home. In fact, we recently began to make our own peanut butter, but that is another story…let me just say…YUM!
But anyway, I have always hated stirring natural peanut butter. As careful as you can be, it seems like there is always an oily mess on the counter to have to clean up. This will absolutely be the case if children are involved in stirring their own peanut butter.
But now…all of that is a thing of the past! This little contraption screws onto the lid of the peanut butter jar for easy and no-mess stirring! I got mine for only $10!
I firmly believe that a well running kitchen depends on effective kitchen organization. If your work space is well planned with attention to detail, you can streamline your cooking and meal preparation. This means less time in the kitchen spent doing the maintenance part of cooking that most people do not enjoy so much.
I tend to be an organizational freak if I let myself get too carried away. I regularly peruse organization and home websites looking for new and useful ideas in kitchen organizers.
The latest item I added to my kitchen was a pegboard. If you have never considered a pegboard, then I would like to encourage you do think about how storing kitchen tools on a pegboard could greatly enhance your kitchen organization. When you put tools within ready and convenient sight and reach you achieve two results. 1) You get the tools out of your drawers and free up this space for storing other things, and 2) You place these tools in easy access and sight.
Have you done any new kitchen organization lately?
