How are you feeling?  How has this long, snow filled, and very cold winter affected you? It’s one I’m sure most won’t forget anytime soon.  I know I won’t.  I’ve never seen so much snow or shoveled as often as I have, since December, and I like shoveling!

The winter has added additional stress, especially when it comes to our daily commute, and the snow falling during rush hour—think about the gridlock that occurred in Atlanta a few weeks ago that lasted into the next day.

So how did you manage the extra stress triggered by the intense weather conditions, and how do you plan to move forward?  Managing stress, is the issue, that simply  won’t go away.  It seems like more and more of us are living with increasing anxiety, worries and fears about a lot of different aspects of our lives-money, jobs, family issues, health issues, societal and cultural issues Live seems to be overwhelming to so many.

Stress is the elephant in our collective living room.  You can eat the right food, exercise, get plenty of sleep, etc., but until you manage your stress in a healthy way, you have an increased risk of developing the chronic illnesses that have reached epidemic proportions.  Heart disease, cancer, diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure (hypertension),depression, anxiety, etc.

And the latest research conducted by Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn, Ph.D., determined that stress can contribute to our risk factors, by altering our DNA! The good news is that the damage can be reversed when stress is managed successfully.

Here’s a few easy to use stress reduction tips:

  1. Take a few deep breaths (at least 20)
  2. Meditate
  3. Take a nap
  4. Consider re-perceiving your stress (Remember the situation(s) that’s stressing you will pass (even better remember all things ultimately work together for good).
  5. Listen to soothing music
  6. Find something to laugh about (and if you can’t watch a comedy movie)