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Get Outta Your Head

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Now that the busy season has passed, it is time to move on to things that may have been put on hold.  But before you go trying to conquer the mess that has been piling up, remember not to stress…take a page from the guys here (no offense boys), make a decision and don’t look back, good or bad can’t change it now, so roll with it.  You may find that this happy-go-lucky attitude may help you learn to love life again!

As women, we tend to be overly critical of ourselves…must be inherent in our nature, but we can retrain ourselves to be more accepting.  We over think and pick apart things to over think them even more…is it any wonder we drive ourselves crazy?  We instinctually know what to do, yet we recount what we’ve done and wonder if it was the right decision.  Sound familiar?  Yeah, we all do it to some degree, but learn trust yourself…you made a decision you felt was right and pondering over it will not change the outcome, so accept it and move on.  (I am assuming here that you aren’t some evil twisted person, but generally a good person with a heart)  Having more time to make a decision is not necessarily a good thing…mulling it over can lead to more opportunity for error and will distract you from other things that may require your attention (possibly your kids, hubby, significant other) which can only lead to more stress.

Decisions, having too many is exhausting, having too few can feel confining…where is the happy medium?  In certain areas of your life keep things constant so you can put them on autopilot, like brushing your teeth, breakfast, workout time so that when you have to make important decisions your mind isn’t cluttered with stuff that still requires an answer.  Most of us hit a point where there is so much that requires us to make a decision that when it comes to making one as simple as what to make for dinner, we cave and go get take out because we are so overwhelmed by the day.  Making lots of little decisions throughout the day can exhaust our minds and make it darn near impossible to make big ones when they arise, that is when we lose it and those close to us think we’ve snapped.  Thinking constructively is great, but it is a fine line before you cross into toxic thinking.  Do you replay the scenario in your head with several outcomes?  Yeah, well I’m talking to you then, STOP IT!  Analyzing it won’t change it and you’ll probably alienate all your friends as you recount it over and over or we’ll all become raging alcoholics having to listen to you.  Learn to trust your instinct and decisions and move on…what is done is done so accept it and be ready to tackle your next challenge.

Take a break.  Simple, when things get really crazy, go shopping, see a movie or even go for a hike.  I used to think my brother was a few cards shy of a deck when things were so nuts and he just said “f it” and went out with friends.  It drove me nuts, how could things be left undone?  Well, turns out he taught me something, problem is still gonna be there, but maybe coming back to it later I’m better equipped to fix it.  Plus he tended to be happier as I was constantly stressed.  HMMMM, yeah you get where I’m going.  You can think better when you aren’t stressed, come up with better solutions and you are happier in the process.  Meditate, yeah I know, we’ve all heard this before…but meditation is just making time for yourself to clear your mind and focus your attention on something as simple as your breath.  But it could be riding a motorcycle, for others it could be a spinning class, running, walking the dog.  It is all about being in the present and focusing on that moment.

Make sure you are well rested.  Sleep deprivation is the root of all that ails us, not getting enough of it has terrible consequences on our health.  But did you ever stop to think what it does to us psychologically?  Fatigue makes it hard to make good decisions and then when we do make them in this state we wonder if it was right, then we stress and eat crap, don’t exercise, start to gain a few pounds, become critical of ourselves and then well, you get the picture, it’s a terrible vicious cycle.   Disconnect from anything electronic an hour before you sleep and if you can, keep it out of your bedroom, that way you can ensure a great night’s sleep.  Clear your mind at the end of the day, it is over and have faith in yourself that you did everything you could and it’ll all work out as it should.  No amount of wishing and hoping will change the outcome so fretting about it will only cause you to lose sleep.  Believe in yourself.  We are all amazing in our own right and celebrate that, stop criticizing everything you do.  Implement a plan, be flexible with it and see where it leads you.  Things work out the way they should, so mount up and enjoy the ride ladies!

 

Good Stress

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Lately with all the focus being placed on getting the R6 into race ready condition, there has been a lack of focus on the health aspect of this website which I would like to address. The truth is that in preparing for being a Novice racer with WMRRA this year there has been a great deal of stress in finding out issues related to the bike, what still needs to be done and the financial aspect that continues to grow as more items require my attention. But is all stress necessarily bad stress? No, in fact, stress is important in order to lead a happy and healthy life. Studies have shown that small bouts of stress are actually beneficial and good for us. Our bodies produce adrenaline when we feel threatened which makes our brain function clearer and improves our metal and physical performance. In addition, our immune systems also benefit by moving your white blood cells to wherever they are needed in the body to combat infection, repair tissue and increase your body’s natural defenses. So let’s talk about stress…

As a society, we tend to view stress as negative, but it actually should be more about the degree of stress and how we respond to it. For example, when you are about ready to speak to an audience, that stress and rush of adrenaline you experience can actually help you, it can actually optimize your brain function, temporarily increasing your memory and focus. Short term stress unleashes an army of hormones which helps to clean out any potentially harmful pathogens, but there is a fine line between that periodic type of stress versus the the chronic type of stress such as a rocky relationship or financial issues. If those hormones linger for too long or are released in very large doses then the body’s immune defenses suffer, leading to inflammation and disorders like cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer.

The key to stress being helpful or ultimately harmful is how you handle the recovery period right after the stressful event. If you let something minor like being stuck in traffic affect you all day (a chronic anxiety), even though you are no longer in it, you are more apt to experience the negative effects of stress on you mentally and physically. It is important to take the necessary steps to bring your heart rate and blood pressure back into balance as quickly as possible. We can’t avoid stress (wouldn’t that be amazing if we could), but we can control the way we react to it, we actually have more control over our well-being than we care to admit. So smile, even if you have to force it, it will actually make you feel better and bounce back quicker. Heck, it may make you look somewhat weird and make you laugh at the mere sight of yourself. How can you feel pissed when you smile, it is way too hard. Say we have a fight with our significant other, when we get stressed the estrogen in our brains releases cortisol for 24 hours making the memory of the spat more pronounced and harder to get out of our minds. The quicker you tend to make up after a quarrel, the sooner you eliminate the threat and the damaging effects it has on your body. Yes, make-up sex, causes a surge of oxytocin which you experience during the big “O” which in turns creates a closer bond between the two of you while lowering adrenaline and cortisol levels, need I say more? Stuck in traffic and stressed? Look at it as a chance to jam to your music and enjoy the extra time getting to your destination, shift your focus to something positive, make a phone call to a friend and catch up (on your bluetooth, of course). Recovery and a quick one at that is what will determine if the stress you experience will either help you or hurt you, so take that deep breath and let it go, things always work out the way they are supposed to. Besides being too stressed also leads to depression and in the words of my youngest son, “Ain’t no body got time for that” and I couldn’t agree more. Ride on ladies and flash those pearly whites!