Taking the Heat!

Survival in the desert is a constant challenge for the variety of animals and plants that live there; to flourish in the desert requires the organism to withstand drought, extreme heat, and seasonal floods.  In the desert, for several months of the year, the temperatures may be exceedingly hot, exceeding what is called the range of thermoneutrality in which the animal can survive.   This heat, combined with the scarcity of life-sustaining water, makes for an extremely tenuous survival.  And yet, through adaptation to their environment, and the ability to avoid excess heat, flora and fauna are able to survive – and even flourish in this harsh environment.

What is your range of psychological thermoneutrality?  What are some of the environmental conditions (i.e., relationships, community, school, finances, commute) in your life and experience that have been the most difficult to overcome? When things heat up, do you struggle and fail - or adapt, cope and flourish? What adaptations have you made in the past to your circumstances that have helped you to not only survive but to flourish? Take some time and consider a stressful time, event or circumstance you have experienced that has challenged you.  What did you do to cope?  What did you learn? Would you do things differently now?  Contemplate your successful “adaptations” and remember them when your environment heats up.

Making Changes for the Better: 5 Tips!

When you consider your health in the New Year, what changes do you want to make for the better?  Below are five broad areas for you to consider. When wanting to set goals and make changes, most people spend a great deal of psychological and emotional energy at the pre-contemplation and contemplation stage. They know they want to move ahead, but they struggle with identifying and creating a plan.  The first step in overcoming this barrier is to IDENTIFY what it is you want to change.  For many, a great place to start is with the Number One area listed below. You can then find success in achieving goals summarized in the items Two through Five. Even though it might sound simplistic, once you move ahead and begin with discovery and identification of your current status, you have accomplished a big step in becoming healthier and happier in 2011.

1. Obtain Baselines and learn about my health status.
This involves moving past denial and includes learning all you can about your physical health. It involves a visit to your primary care or other physician to establish medical measures and baselines on your health status and includes weight, BMI, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and other tests determined by your physician.  This should also include identifying your family risk factors, identifying your social support needs, identifying your psychological challenges, identifying the stressors in your life and your coping challenges and style.

2. Achieve Improved Medical Measures and Outcomes. 
Once you know your health status and baselines, including BMI, weight, cholesterol, blood pressure readings, etc., you can now move toward establishing goals for improvement where needed.  This may include lowering your cholesterol, lowering your blood pressure, reducing your risk of stroke or cardiac illness, reducing familial risk factors.

3. Improve Levels of Exercise and Fitness
If you are like most people, your intention is to make exercise and fitness a priority, but the busyness of your life gets in the way.  Identify your exercise routines and activities, including how many days, minutes and type of exercise you are currently completing.   Keep an exercise and activity diary for 2-4 weeks. One you have a numerical count of what you actually do during the week, you can then decide on areas of improvement. This might include any or one of the following:  getting more exercise, getting regular exercise, doing aerobic activities, joining a yoga class, achieving a good fitness level,  increasing strength, increasing endurance, increasing flexibility, increasing energy levels.

4. Make Better Eating and Nutrition Choices
This might include eating smaller portions, eating out less frequently, eating less fast food, learning more about nutrition, eating more freshly prepared foods and meals. This also includes beginning with establishing your current eating lifestyle. Keep a food diary and include what you eat, when you eat, where you eat. Include when you feel hungry and what you are doing.   Once you have done this discovery process, you will be able to establish clearer and more doable goals in this area.

5. Improve Your Quality of Life
This might include learning new cognitive and behavioral strategies for coping with stress, taking small and healthy risks, reaching out to others, practicing authenticity, and using meditation and prayer to release your worries and achieve a sense of well-being.

Why Exercise?

What are some of the psychological benefits of regular exercise?  Results of studies on men, women, children, youth, mid-life and the elderly point to the benefits of overall improved sense of well-being.  Specific studies on the effects of exercise on clinical depression have shown that it is a viable treatment option for some people.  A sense of self-efficacy and confidence is another benefit for the far majority of people who keep up an exercise regimen and get physically healthier as a result. These are just a few of the psychological benefits of regular exercise.

What is it then, that keeps people from exercising? Why not just go out and do it?  The benefits are numerous, from physiological benefits of managing and preventing diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure and cardiac illness to greater quality of life to extending ones' longevity to improving your overall mood, and keeping depression under control.

If you ask most sedentary people why they don't exercise, they may tell you that regular exercise is too hard and they really don't like it!   If you fit in this category, consider re-thinking your attitude.  First of all, replace your idea of 'exercise' with 'activity.'  What activities do you like or did you like before you became sedentary?  Going dancing, playing on a softball team, playing with your children or grandchildren, walking hiking, swimming and gardening  - are all an improvement over a sedentary lifestyle.  Remember that as few as 30 minutes a day of moderate activity - brisk walking for example can not only help you become physically healthier but also  psychologically healthier.

How to start? Identify an activity that you consider to be enjoyable. You are much more likely to keep up the activity if you enjoy doing it in the first place!  Find another person or a group who like the same activity.  Other like-minded friends can help you feel and stay motivated and supported as you work toward your goal of increasing enjoyable activities (and exercise) into your lifestyle.