Introducing Take-a-Break Stress-Busters

July 5, 2010

If ever there was a time to take a break from the pressure you put on yourself, summer is it. Discover dozens of ways to release stress that has built up in the earlier months of the year — and will only get worse if you don’t do something about it.

There are several reasons why taking a break in summer is particularly good for your body, mind, relationships, and spirit.

1. Your body is under a lot of pressure to perform all the tasks you ask it do in a busy life. It needs rest.
2. Your mind has only so much capacity for solving problems and it needs time to integrate what it has learned so that it’s ready to learn more later.
3. Your relationships may need a new perspective, especially if you are trying to extricate yourself from difficult relationships in which memories of your past get mixed up with your current situation and worry for the future.
4. Your spirit can lose its capacity to guide your life when you are on automatic pilot, which is the modus operandi of many of us.

Our bodies, minds, relationships, and spirit are intertwined, controlled by the brain’s neurons that run down the same pathways over and over. Fortunately, when you take a break from doing things the way you’ve always done them, you disconnect the wires in the brain and open the possibility for new ideas and new energy to come through.

That is why I’ve decided to use Take-a-Break Stress Busters for some of the posts this summer. If you have visited that special feature of Support4Change, you will know that these activities are designed to untie (at least temporarily) your nervous neurons from their stress-producing pathways. Since I know that not all of you have seen all of them (and most of you may not have seen any of them), I’ve decided this summer is a good time to share them with blog readers.

Here now is the first take-a-break of the summer of 2010:

Capturing Moments for Memories

In this Take-a-Break I tell how paying attention while hiking to the Vetter Mountain Lookout Tower helped me enjoy the memory of it that evening as I started to work on a difficult, long-term project.

Now, as I read that piece again, I am saddened by the realization that I will never again visit that place because it was destroyed in the large and deadly Station Fire last year. Nevertheless, the experience of consciously remembering what I saw as we hiked to the top — where I received a certificate stating I am “a recognized member of the ANCIENT AND HONORABLE ORDER OF SQUIRRELS,” signed by the volunteer lookout man — has stayed with me.

That day is an example of how becoming consciously aware of whatever you are doing with as many of your senses as possible — seeing, smelling, touching, hearing, tasting, and noticing the sensations in your body — creates pleasant images to be retrieved later when you need them. Do this frequently as you experience the relaxation and enjoyment of whatever you do this summer and you’ll have a pile of pleasant memories to warm you when winter arrives.

The only requirement for capturing a moment is to consciously become aware of what you are experiencing as you experience  it. Try it right now:

1. Look around and see something that brings you pleasure.

It could be a greeting card from a dear friend that you have open and standing on a nearby table, a trophy you received for winning a high school debate, an abstract painting you bought at a seaside resort simply because the bright colors struck your fancy, or any of a hundred things in the room that ordinarily melt into the background. Notice how it feels to consciously experience these things.

2. Later today, retrieve this memory.

Notice how easy it is to add a little pleasure and relaxation to your day.

3. Continue using this technique in the days ahead.

Consciously take advantage of small moments to notice lots of little things you usually take for granted — like the delightful way your grandson bites his tongue when he’s concentrating on a task, the feel of your partner’s hand on your arm as he or she gives it a loving squeeze, the dew on the grass when you go out to get the paper.

Even on days when most things aren’t going well, there are small moments that are, at least by comparison, worth recalling.

Incidentally, the illustration for this post is a picture of a street in Pompeii I took a couple years ago. When I see it, I am taken back to that marvelous experience of walking where people lived so many years ago. Yet even without the picture, I can feel my body back there in that vacation.

Gather memories while you can. Life doesn’t last forever.

How Has Travel Enriched Your Relationships?

June 21, 2010

Read how a trip to Machu Picchu is enjoyed by a couple who has learned how to travel well together.

As I started to type in the date on this post, I was shocked when I realized that it IS June 21. ALREADY. The first day of summer wasn’t supposed to arrive until Wednesday so that I would have time to send cards for my son’s anniversary. Darn. Life is moving too fast for me to keep track of all I need to keep track of. But then, it’s not so slow that it drags.

In any case, as I begin this post, YouTube is uploading a video I just completed on the trip we took to Machu Picchu, which was part of our 50th wedding celebration. In addition to videos I made earlier of our trip to South America — Impressions of the Galapagos Islands and How to Visit Quito — I will include the new video below to show you that people in long-term relationships can survive the trials that travel sometimes brings. By this time we’ve learned how to give to the other person when that is needed on a vacation, and when to ask for something we need.

On our vacations we have very few arguments (though I won’t say that in the past we’ve always seen eye-to-eye on what to do), but we’ve managed to balance some of what he wants (trains and dams) and what I want (museums and gardens). Of course, it helps if you both want to go to a special place, like Machu Picchu. And I can tell you that in this trip to the “Lost City of the Incas,” 7,970 ft above sea level, I needed his help and he liked having me along. Now I have four new travel rules if we go back there again:

1. Don’t fall as you get off the plane in Cuzco and twist your ankle.
2. Go anyway.
3. If you do need help, bring walking sticks. (While there were signs that walking sticks weren’t allowed, our guide said that when you really need them, they don’t mind. They just don’t want people, meaning children, to use them to damage the ruins. I wouldn’t have made it without them in the thin air.)
4. Bring your husband (or other suitable substitute). It gives you someone to help boost you up the higher steps and to share the memories with when you return.

When you watch the video below, imagine what it would be like to visit there with someone you love. Then ask yourself this question:

How do I allow travel to enrich my relationships?

Hope you enjoy this video as much as I’ve enjoyed making it.

Checking Progress of New Hoover Dam Bridge

April 23, 2010

Busy today getting used to the new blog format and sorting out categories so the URLs will be easier to understand. In the meantime, since I don’t have time to write a post, here is another of my videos I’m learning to do.

This one is from our trip to Las Vegas in February. It has a jazzy tune as background music so you may want to have your sound on.

Have a nice Friday.

We Were Blue-Footed Boobies in the Galapagos Islands

February 24, 2010

If you visit the Galapagos Islands, you will see many birds you won’t see anywhere else.

Ecuador and Peru Travel Report # 15 and Visual Viewpoint: Pair of Blue-Footed Boobies

On the cruise ship through the Galapagos Islands, the ninety passengers were divided into groups that fit nicely into the Zodiac boats that took us on trips to the beaches of individual islands. Each group was given a name like Penguins, Dolphins, Pelicans, etc. We were the Boobies, which meant the blue-footed boobies like those above. I was particularly pleased because when I asked my grandson at Christmas last year what he wanted, he said he wanted a donation in his name to the Wildlife Fund; and he chose the blue-footed boobies as his choice of an endangered species.

I have to admit, these are strange-looking birds who carry out a blue theme throughout their whole bodies. I don’t know if there are other birds whose name reflects the color of their feet, but these do and I like to think that maybe a tiny bit of the money we gave to the Wildlife Fund makes their life a bit easier.

Go to YouTube to see a video of my impressions of the Galapagos Islands.

Can You Make Towel Swans?

February 18, 2010

If you’ve never been on the Amazon, a small boat offers all the comfort of home (plus more).

Ecuador and Peru Travel Report #14 and Visual Viewpoint: Luxury on the Amazon

When we sailed down the Nile two years ago, we would come back to our rooms and find our towels twisted in shapes that represented elephants, birds, flags, flowers, and even on one night as a monkey hanging from the ceiling. That was the only other cruise we took in which we slept on board before we visited the Gallapagos and the Amazon on our recent trip. For the trip up the inner passage in Alaska we had a Days-Afloat-Nights-Ashore so didn’t know that many cruise crews make clever designs from the towels.

I attended a program in which the crew demonstrated how to make these and I’ll tell you that they are a bit harder than you might think, though not impossible for an amateur. Maybe I’ll make some for guests in the future, and then again I may not.