Inner Calm

Much thanks to Tammy Griffin who continues to gives us great information and instruction on how to deal with stress and how to minimize its effects in our daily lives. I know for me, incorporating meditation and yoga into my daily flow is proving to have GREAT benefits. Just taking a few moments to breathe helps to focus my mind on the task at hand and let go of distractions (like continuous thoughts and inner judgements) that are just a part of life. Try to incorporate some of Tammy's suggestions for yourself. Who do you want to be? Bert or Ernie? :-) On my "to-do-list" is to create a "stress management kit" for the resource room....stay tuned!

Finally, I sincerely hope that at least some of you have stayed with the "Winner's Circle" listserv - there are such great nuggets of wisdom delivered on a daily basis - they are short and sweet, but I find them profound. On Friday, Lou wrote about instead of being overwhelmed by a huge task at hand (i.e. applying to grad school!) that you should just take small steps and do small things that will help move you forward in the process, rather than remaining stuck. Great advice! Here's that post:

Sometimes, "a lick-and-a-promise" is a lot better than nothing and can keep you from feeling overwhelmed. I'll tell you what I mean. Do you ever feel overwhelmed by a huge task that is facing you? Do you ever feel paralyzed because you can't see your way through to the other side? Henry Ford once said that any task, no matter how large, is manageable if you break it down into small enough pieces. A very busy and wonderfully efficient woman I know says she belongs to the "lick-and-a-promise" school of housekeeping: because of her busy schedule, she doesn't have time to thoroughly clean things very often. So, instead, she takes a minute here, a minute there and does what she can. "You'd be surprised," she says, "how many dishes I can wash in a minute – and there are many, many times throughout the week that I have a minute to spare, but almost no times that I have a free hour.... so I do what I can when I can, and play catch-up later." This philosophy makes sense to me, and applies as well to troubles as it does to tasks. Don't stand around wringing your hands when there's trouble and you're not quite sure of the best thing to do. Wade on in and get to work on some part of the problem, even if the full solution isn't apparent to you yet. When we rouse ourselves to action, it builds our confidence, which can lead to more action and a better handle on the solution.

--Lou Tice, Pacific Institute