We had a health fair at work this week...a "healthy lifestyle" emphasis. (Our seminar speaker wasn't used to dealing with scientists, though...he was a little taken aback when he put up a slide with a pie chart showing that 51% of the factors affecting one's health are lifestyle, and half the room asked where the data came from. He didn't know, unfortunately.)
Even without the data source, I'll accept the hypothesis that lifestyle affects health.
So I went through the health fair stations being weighed and measured, and I'm damn healthy. (Of course, I've been working on that for several years now.) Cholesterol 165. BMI 19.3. High praise for my diet and exercise habits (newly-acquired though they are).
I had one problem. My blood pressure was 144/80, and on my "Do you suffer from stress" quiz, where a score of 15 or higher indicated "Watch out," I scored a 35.
I know I handle stress poorly, and lately I have been poorly handling loads and loads of it. I am not sleeping well. I've had massive frequent headaches, gastrointestinal complaints, and my eye won't stop twitching. I'm in a terrible mood. My blog posts have sucked.
I believe in a mind-body connection all right. I wish I could disconnect my mind from my body, frankly. And my health fair handouts were not particularly helpful: breathe deeply. Remove yourself from the situation. Put it in perspective.
Well, I remove myself from the situation every afternoon and it follows me home, like one of those annoying yappy dogs trying to bite my heels.
In seriousness, I know I need to get a handle on how I react to things, because my blood pressure is going to get so high I'll blow the top of my head clean off, or I'll alienate every friend I have because I'm such a bitch to be around.
We have an Employee Assistance Program; in fact, they were the ones who did our health fair. I might call them. On the other hand, at the fair when I asked about stress management at the booth, they gave me a balloon filled with sand.
So last night I took the first step after admitting I had a problem...I went out and bought a book. Stress Management for Dummies. It worked when I needed to learn UNIX really fast, so I shall see where this gets me.
Posted by Nic at February 25, 2004 02:00 PM | TrackBackIf you're not able to lose yourself in the exercise and rats, then I'd suggest my never-fail all-around one-size-fits-all solution:
Rum.
Posted by: Ted at February 26, 2004 01:06 PMThank for not suggesting Pruno!
Posted by: nic at February 26, 2004 05:04 PMI actually used to work for an EAP, including doing the seminars on stress management. It's different for everyone, and the best first step you can take is in fact breathing (although that's obviously not the only one!) Exercise helps a lot (there are physcial reasons for this), and yoga. But it's individual for everyone. Really, don't stress over stress management. it defeats the purpose! You'll find your stride.
Posted by: zenchick at February 27, 2004 12:33 AM