Don’t be FOOLED BY FACEBOOK, you can’t have it all!

Google “stress and its impact on health” and there is plenty of documentation about its insidious effects. That makes being stressed even more stressful! Why is it so difficult to manage?

Facebook. As an example, the way technology has exploded, providing instant access to information via every type of social media application you can think of, puts you face to face with your “shoulds” minute by minute. If you did not know that your neighbors were out partying every night, or what schools their children are getting into, or what kind of cars they bought, or what kind of vacations they are taking, you might not feel like you should be doing more, should be doing better, should be better period.

OMG! As you constantly see and hear all the ways you are falling short, you are likely to feel like there is no way to keep up or that you must spend every waking moment trying. Instead of focusing on your own strengths, or those of your children, you focus on the areas that need work and pay for coaching or tutoring or medicines that can push you through the rough spots.

Overwhelmed by all the ways you and your children “should” be better, every area of your life falls under critique. Work, home, school, relationships – each has a set of ideals that feel impossible to achieve because not only are you trying to meet your own standards, but your standards are being compared to those of the people around you.

Learn to live your life in way that allows you to regularly take stock and prioritize the things that are most important to you. Learn to let go of the rest. Does it really matter if your child goes to school with messy hair? If the answer is yes, then pick something else. But chances are, that if you make a list of all the things that stress you out during any particular moment of the day, there is likely a sublist of items that you can discard. Learn to give yourself time to breathe deeply, every day, focusing on the breaths as they go in and as they go out. Learn to get up and walk around at least once an hour as the research shows that being sedentary is tremendously harmful to your well being. Learn to take in some fresh air every day and you can cover the last three items in one shot.

The following is a website that has several free guided meditations that you can do sitting at your desk or in your office.

http://www.tarabrach.com/audioarchives-guided-meditations.html

Click here to see how a twenty minute walk can impact brain function – increasing cognitive capacity and emotional well being.

http://www.fastcompany.com/3025957/work-smart/what-happens-to-our-brains-when-we-exercise-and-how-it-makes-us-happier

Lastly, if you find that taking stock on a regular basis to prioritize; getting regular exercise and time to focus specifically on breathing and meditation do not help you, then you might want to consider a consultation with a mental health professional to provide more guidance and perhaps treatment.