During a busy schedule you can find yourself transitioning from one task, activity, or group to another without taking a breath.  Your stress escalates and accumulates and you may not be at your best.  It's good to pause for a minute to bring your stress level closer to your baseline before proceeding.
Here's a quick, 30-60 second, exercise to put you back in touch with your Best Self.

• Find a quiet corner where you can stand comfortably.
• Close your eyes and inhale deeply.
• Visualize your Best Self.  Where are you?  What are you wearing?  See yourself as onlookers would.  Feel your body relax into your Best Self.  Inhale deeply.  Soak up this image. 
• Take one, small step forward into this image to embody it.
• Feel your competence and confidence.
• Smile.
• Return to your hectic business feeling refreshed.
• Repeat at the next transition.

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Now that spring is here it’s time to revise or create an outdoor exercise routine.  The list of the benefits of regular aerobic and strength-training exercise is too long to post here.  However, relief of depression is an important one.
Depression is a common disorder that is associated with compromised quality of life, increased health care costs, and greater risk for a variety of medical conditions, particularly coronary heart disease. 
Here are some tips to help you get started and maintain the benefits of regular exercise. 
To use that famous NIKE slogan, “Just Do It.”

1. Choose an activity that you enjoy and stick with it.  The number of activities to choose from can boggle the mind.  Just because you “don’t feel like it” is not a reason not to exercise. Tell yourself the truth that you’ll feel better afterwards. 
2. Make small changes.  Start with one day per week for 20 minutes.  Add more time or add another day.
3. Make a plan.  Don't leave it to chance.  Put your exercise session on your calendar.  Have plan A and plan B depending on weather or other scheduling. 
4. Invest in a good pair of exercise sneakers.  Consult with an expert.  It’s an investment that you won’t regret!  Don't let sore feet provide an excuse to skip your workout.
5. Timing is everything.  Exercise at a time of day that is most convenient.  Do not exercise on a full or empty stomach or just before you go to bed.  People with depression often suffer from insomnia, and night time exercise can leave you feeling energized when you want to sleep.  If possible, exercise during daylight hours to also benefit from sunlight.
6. Watch out for barriers to exercise.  Anticipate them and develop strategies to make exercise as easy and simple as possible.  Brainstorm potential solutions to bad weather, work commitments, fatigue, and any other lame excuse your demons will present.
7. Get a buddy.  Some people who exercise with a partner enjoy it more and are more likely to stick with it.  Also, the additional social support may provide motivation and have other beneficial effects.
8. Think positively. Praise your successes. Keep a record, get a tracking device.  View lapses in your exercise program as learning opportunities and don’t get discouraged if you miss a session.  Succumbing to excuses for one day is not a tragedy but get out there the next day.
9. Enjoy the moment. Take a minute when you are finished with an exercise session to appreciate how you feel in your body, mind and spirit.  A sense of accomplishment can follow you throughout the day.

Exercise appears to be an effective treatment for depression, improving depressive symptoms to a comparable extent as pharmacology and psychotherapy.  Observational studies suggest that active people are less likely to be depressed.  Even modest levels of exercise are associated with improvements in depression.  While the optimal “dose” of exercise is unknown, clearly any exercise is better than no exercise.  "Just Do It." and sustain it.
Here is a recent article from Slate which provides information on the anti-depressant effects of regular exercise.   Here's a reinforcement from The Cleveland Clinic.  Exercise and Happiness from The NY Times provides more information.  And another one about exercise to lower blood pressure and reduce fat.
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​Just about everybody goes through stressful times at work. Projects pile up, you stay late and take work home with you and the flow of emails doesn’t slow down. When this becomes the norm, it’s time to re-evaluate your work-life balance and make some healthy changes to avoid job burnout.
How do you know when it’s time to examine how your job fits into your life? 

• You’re staying up too late or having trouble staying asleep. You’re sitting all day and not exercising. You’re getting most of your food from a vending machine or drive-thru window or not eating at all. You have a nagging pain or health concern but don’t feel like you have time to go to the doctor.
• You’ve started noticing signs of anxiety or depression.  You are feeling angry or irritable. You may experience dread, restlessness, hopelessness, panic attacks, mood swings, and maybe even thoughts of suicide.
• Your work no longer feels meaningful. You don’t feel connected to your colleagues or clients. You’re just going through the motions.  You just don't care anymore.
• You feel incompetent.  No matter what you do, it feels like it’s never enough. You’re always behind and the quality of your work may suffer. You worry constantly about your job performance. You fear (but maybe also secretly fantasize about) being fired.
• There are no clear boundaries between work and home.  You’re working longer and longer hours. You can’t take time off without getting calls, texts and emails from work. You feel like you have to be available around the clock.
• You’re lonely.  Although you may have people around all the time and you’re constantly connected electronically, you no longer have the time or energy for meaningful interactions with family or friends. Your relationships begin to suffer. ​

If any of this sounds familiar, don’t despair. There are ways out of this.  Psychologist Amy Sullivan, Psy.D., offers the following tips for taking control and getting things back in balance.

• Disconnect when you’re at home. “Put down the phone,” Dr. Sullivan says. “We don’t need to be available 24/7.” Constantly checking and responding to texts and emails raises stress levels, makes it difficult to connect with family members and negatively affects your sleep.
• Be more efficient at work. Focus on one task at a time and keep working on it until it’s complete. Don’t try to multitask. Close your email and turn off your phone when possible to minimize distractions. “If we’re efficient we finish our work, and then we’re able to go home and spend time with our family,” Dr. Sullivan says.

• Prioritize self-care. Make a decision to set aside time for exercise. Choose and plan for nutritious meals and quality time with friends and family. Make those things non-negotiable in your schedule.

• Get professional help. If the stress is really getting to you and impacting your mental health, don’t hesitate to talk to a therapist. Many employers offer employee assistance programs that can connect you with a mental health professional who has experience helping people manage their stress.

Although hard work is prized in our culture, you don’t have to let your job take over your life. It’s OK, and necessary, to take care of yourself first.
Become a Time Realist as this article from The NY Times says.
​Here's some information from the Cleveland Clinic about the illusion of multitasking.

Taking time to meditate might sound like a luxury but it may be as important for your well-being as pounding the treadmill or eating broccoli.  And you don’t have to block off lots of time, either. Setting aside just a few minutes a day can improve your focus, and calm your mind and body.
If you’re a meditation skeptic, take a look at these four meditation myths that could (literally) change your mind.
Meditation myth #1: You have to practice at least 20 minutes every day.
Do you have a minute?  Great!  Then you have time to meditate.  Here's a one-minute mindfulness meditation.
Breathe in for five seconds, then breathe out for five seconds. That’s your warm-up. Then repeat for one minute. It’s that simple, and you can work up from there.
Meditation myth #2: You need to clear your mind.
Can’t get your to-do list out of your head?  It’s OK if it keeps coming back.
The goal of meditation is not to clear your mind of all thought. The goal is to return to the breath. Each time you discover your mind has wandered, return it to the breath. That is how your mind learns to benefit from meditation.
When you’re meditating and get distracted by a thought return your attention to your breath. You’ll increase your awareness of the present moment, creating calm and balance.
Meditation myth #3: It doesn’t do anything.
It’s true, meditation doesn’t do one thing for you- it does a lot of good things!  Research suggests that meditation appears to boost whole-body wellness.

• Soothe your genes. Mind-body exercises like meditation target the genes related to stress and inflammation, reducing the levels of both in the body. There’s some sound research showing meditation changes how genes are expressed in your body.
• Blood flow.  Studies show that blood circulation in the brain and other organs improves during meditation. There are long-term benefits for certain organs, especially the heart and brain.  Increased blood circulation gets more oxygen and nutrients to every cell in your body, helping them to perform better. Getting that blood flowing could help you get through some of those stressful moments — whether it’s a tough client call or taking your toddler shoe shopping.
• Cardiac Function.  Research shoes that meditation decreases heart rate and blood pressure during the process.  Daily meditation can keep both measures lowered.
• Brain function. Several studies suggest meditation affects every part of your brain. Almost all of our thoughts and actions result from different sections of the brain working together, so meditation can really help get your brain humming.  Other research indicates that mindfulness practices cause changes in the brain’s attention-related networks, improving your ability to focus on a task.
• Psychological stress. Meditation has been shown to reduce aspects of psychological stress, including anxiety and depression. In our chaotic, fast-paced lives, managing stress is a must for better health.​

Meditation myth #4: There’s only one way to meditate. Meditation comes in all shapes and sizes, including mindfulness, Zen and Transcendental Meditation®. The trick is finding what works best for you, then practicing where and when you can. It isn’t going to be an earth-shattering, ultra-Zen experience every time you practice.
And you don’t have to stick with one type of meditation.  Play around until you find one you like, or use a combination of techniques. You can even use several types of meditation during one session. 
You can meditate in your car before leaving for work, while your children nap or even while you’re washing the dishes.  Try to find a few minutes during your day to develop your meditation skills.
You’ll be joining the 18 million American adults who use meditation to boost health and focus the mind. And you just may find that meditation gives you a little sanity in a sometimes crazy world.
​This is adapted from an article posted by the Cleveland Clinic, February 2019.

Happiness is a transitory state usually resulting from accomplishments, unexpected gifts and "happy" events, once in a lifetime occurrences.  Rather than seeking happiness pursue joy.  There are small moments within each day that can lift your heart, such as, the glimpse of a loved one, the memory of past joys, a budding flower, a kind interaction.  To use an over-used word, mindfulness can put you in touch with the tiny joys which present themselves through your surroundings; the beauty of nature, a well-done exercise routine, a hot shower, the aroma of fresh baking, favorite music, a delicious meal and connections with other people.  The list is endless if you pay closer attention to your senses; the sights, sounds, smells, tastes and touches within easy reach.  Becoming more conscious of the tiny joys around can habituate you to perceiving things differently, to gathering the pleasantries within even the grayest day and lead to a steady state of contentment.  Then you don't have to wait for the happy events to come along.  You have many joys whenever you tune into your senses to experience the present.  Here are some easy steps to help focus on the joys around you.  
​The Cleveland Clinic has this list of 7 Secrets to Happiness.  


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Having one of those days when it seems like everything that could go wrong, did?  You needn’t give in to grouchiness or despair.  Here are six suggestions to help turn your day around.
1. Be mindful of your feelings.
What feelings are beneath your stress and frustration: anger, sadness, anxiety, resentment?
Research shows that knowing and naming your feelings is helpful and soothing.  Once you’ve identified your feelings, write them down or talk them out with someone you trust.
2. Get up and move.
In order to shake off a bad day, you need to be active.  Sitting still gives your feelings time to fester.
Exercise and activity produce endorphins and serotonin.  Just 20 minutes of physical activity will increase these natural mood-lifters and give a noticeable boost to your day.  You don’t have to spend hours in the gym to enjoy the benefits of exercise.  Play fetch with your dog, walk outside with a friend at lunch, take a bike ride through the park.
3. Do something you love.
Distraction can be a blessing. Watch a favorite movie, listen to music, work on a craft project, plan a vacation.  If your passion involves physical exertion (hiking, running, kayaking, etc.), all the better.
Avoid judging yourself or having strict standards.  Enjoy the experience.  Try to lose yourself in it.
If you can’t completely set the anger, depression or anxiety aside, don’t worry. Taking positive action even when your heart isn’t in it will benefit you.  Doing what you love reduces cognitive dissonance and helps to lift your mood.  Acting as if you feel better can translate into actually feeling better.
4. Do a mindset makeover.
Take a deep breath and reassure yourself that having a bad day is part of living on the planet. Consider the whole picture.  Do you always feel this way?  Will you feel this way for five minutes, five hours, five months or five years?  Put things in perspective.  Use positive self-talk and itemize the benefits around you and within you.  Look at the whole picture not only your current irritations.
5. Connect with others.
It helps to close a bad day by getting out of yourself and helping someone else.  Volunteer, or offer someone a kind gesture.  Help a family member with a task, or play with a pet.  When you’re feeling kind, loving and grateful, it’s difficult to hold onto sadness, anger and resentment.
6. Rest up.
The best thing to do at the very end of a difficult day?  Get to bed at a decent hour and turn off/limit your use of cell phones, computers and tablets for the last hour before bedtime.  Getting seven to eight hours of good quality sleep is one of the best ways to recover from a bad day.  A good night’s sleep will help put it all in perspective. And you can start fresh the next day.

An old adage says knowledge is power.  There is research evidence that writing is a powerful tool to promote living consciously and can improve mental and emotional life; help to cope with stress, anxiety and depression; dispel loneliness; make us more emotionally available to ourselves and others. 
I recommend writing, daily, to all my clients and give them the best-selling book by Julia Cameron, The Artist’s Way.  Julia describes the process she calls “Morning Pages” for writing three pages, stream of consciousness, every morning without censoring, without worries about spelling or sentence structure, just what flows, spontaneously, from heart and mind. 
After several days or even weeks of whining and complaining something shifts; patterns and insights emerge which create opportunities to make different choices, small changes in daily living.  These decisions can enhance life experiences and diminish the problematic ones. 
Over time, the benefits add up to counteract symptoms of stress, depression, anxiety, and other mental health disorders. 
Emotional benefits:

• Manage Stress.  Writing about what’s creating stress and anxiety in your life helps you to identify stressors and pinpoint what’s going on internally. And sometimes you just need to vent, even if it’s only on the page.
• Enhance emotional intelligence.  Writing about how you feel helps you interpret and make sense of your emotions.
• Improve communication skills. Learning to put your thoughts down on paper translates into a better ability to express yourself to others verbally.

Personal benefits:

• Set and achieve goals. Writing down your wishes and dreams signals to your brain that they are important and takes them one step closer to existence. Furthermore, organizing your thoughts into words helps prioritize projects and needs.
• Build self-discipline. Writing every day, even when you’re not necessarily in the mood to do so, strengthens your ability to stick to something on an ongoing basis. Therefore, you’re better able to do other things that require self-discipline.
• Assist in problem-solving. New perspectives become clear when you write—even if you’re not consciously trying to find solutions. Writing helps you look at a situation more objectively and from more than one point of view.
• Create empathy. Writing about an event or relationship helps you see more clearly what others might be feeling or thinking during your interactions with them.
• Become more aware of habits and patterns. What makes you happy? When do you feel most troubled? Writing regularly, and then reading what you’ve written over time, can help identify what creates or detracts from your well-being.
• Increase creativity. Writing prepares you to be creative in other areas of your life, as well as on the page. You learn to be creative in your approaches to dealing with pain, difficult emotions, and challenging relationships.

Writing also supports physical health.  In recent years, research has revealed that writing down your life experiences can create positive physiological changes.
To sum it up, writing makes you happier!
Check out this research summary from Harvard Healthbeat.

There are many factors that can have negative effects on us, but sometimes it's important to focus on those things that can actually improve the quality of our lives. Yes, exercise, eating right, and getting plenty of sleep all can contribute to better physical and mental health, but another even simpler antidote that is often overlooked is making sure to laugh frequently.
Laughing is a natural part of life. As infants, we started smiling within our first few weeks and were laughing out loud within just months. Unfortunately, as we get older and life gets more serious, the ability to laugh can sometimes be diminished. Fortunately, you can learn to laugh again regardless of age.
How does laughing help? In addition to adding joy to your life laughter can:

• Ease anxiety and reduce tension.  Laughter has been shown to be an important stress reducer.
• A good, strong laugh can even help relieve physical tension, leaving muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes.
• Experts say laughing releases endorphins, the body's "feel good" chemicals.
• Laughter also decreases stress hormones and increases immune cells, improving your body's resistance to disease.  
• One study in Norway found that people with a strong sense of humor tended to outlive those who didn't laugh as much.

So, how to get more laughter in your life?  Start with a smile. Smiling, whether to family, friends, co-workers or even to strangers on the street, sends out a positive message and makes you feel better, too. It's difficult to be smiling and in a bad mood at the same time. Plus, others will smile back, and that's also nice.
You can increase your laughter quota by searching out things that make you happy. Maybe it's playing with a small child or a family pet. Maybe it's taking the time to find a funny movie, TV show or a video on YouTube. Try reading a humorous book, or sharing a good joke or funny story with others. Read the comics, watch a comedian on TV, or have a night out at your local comedy club.  Yes, life can be serious and we can't always be laughing, but putting a little extra effort into trying to find the funny in your life can leave you feeling happier while providing real benefits to your physical health and mental well-being.​
Adapted from The American Counseling Association’s Counseling Corner Blog.