Ready for the 'Madness' to Begin???

Here are the Week 1 Brackets!
Good luck to all the teams!

March Into Wellness Challenge

March Into Wellness Challenge

Just in case you have not registered for our quarterly challenge....

Step 1:  Get Registered!                                              

◘ Find your team of five players (preferably from within your office)

◘ Come up with a team name

◘ Select a team captain (they will be responsible for your reporting your team’s points)

◘ Register your team at  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Rhi5cVx96FHaiDAaIHysT

QltONWwyU19KGBsHnBOTxQ/viewform

Registration begins February 19th and closes February 26th. 

The “madness” will start on March 3rd!

Step 2: Earn and Keep Track of your Individual Points!

◘ Individual team members will earn points by completing daily wellness activities, and record them on their individual tracker cards.

Step 3: Tally your Team Points!

◘ Each week team members will total their individual points to come up with their teams weekly score.  (Similar to the Destination Challenge!)

◘ Teams will keep track of their points by filling in their Team Tracker Chart weekly. (Will be provided after registration—example tracker attached)

◘ Each Friday the team captain will submit their team’s score at ucwell4life@gmail.com

Step 4: Follow the Brackets!

Your team will be competing against other participating teams to move up in the brackets. New bracket results will be posted each Monday morning via email as well as on the Well4Life blog at www.utahcountywell4life.blogspot.com. No team will be eliminated, but rather moved to another bracket.  Winners of each bracket will be qualified to move up in the bracket, win some cool prizes, and gain office glory and fame.

Points

1 Point

I had 1 serving of vegetables today.

I had 1 servings of fruit     today.

I did physical activity for 15 minutes today.

I did one act of random kindness today.

I took 15 minutes of “me” time (to meditate, read a book, journal, yoga, relax, etc.)

I ate breakfast today.

I chose water over a sugary beverage today.

I swapped a sugar sweetened beverage for water.

I flossed my teeth today

2 Pointers

 I had 2 servings of vegetables today.

I had 2 servings of fruit today.

I did 30 minutes of physical activity today.

I took the stairs today instead of the elevator.

I did 2 “Take 10” walks today at work.

I read an article on the Wellness blog. 

I brought a healthy lunch from home today.

I drank 3 8oz glasses of water today.

I slept 7-8 hours last night.

I tried a new fruit or veggie.

3 Pointers

I tried a new healthy recipe.

I had 3 servings of vegetables today.

I had 3 servings of fruit today.

I did 45 minutes of physical activity today.

I made all my grains whole grains today.

I wrote down 3 things I’m grateful for today.

I stretched, did yoga, or meditated for at least 15 minutes today.

I said hi to at least 5 people today.

I drank 6 8oz glasses of water today.

I tried something new today.

Positive Attitude Development Week 4: Gratitude and Humor

Gratitude and Humor

We wanted to thank everyone for their attendance and participation! We enjoyed researching and teaching on this subject. Here is a summary of the class this week:

Gratitude: A feeling of thankfulness or appreciation

What are you grateful for? Your house? clean water to drink, cook, and bathe in? How about a toilet that flushes? 100 people: A World Portrait has compiled statistics to demonstrate what the world would be like if it were a village of just 100 people. The statistics are astounding! Check it out here.

A really great article that pulls together a lot of great research on gratitude was published by Harvard Health Publications called In Praise Of Gratitude. Some studies that were cited in this article included:

• A study in which participants wrote a few sentences each week. One group wrote things they were grateful for, the second group wrote about things that aggravate them, and the last group was assigned to write about events that affected them (with no emphasis on positivity or negativity). After 10 weeks interesting results came back. The gratitude group was more optimistic, exercised more, and also had fewer visits to physicians. [Emmons and McCullough]
• Another study looked at the effects of  writing and personally delivering notes of gratitude to someone who had not been properly thanked for their kindness. The results of the study immediately raised the happiness score of its participants for extended periods of time. [Seligman]
• A study done at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania found that managers who express gratitude to their employees see a jump in the amount of work that gets done.

Some "Ways to Cultivate Gratitude"

• Write a thank you note
• Thank someone mentally
• Keep a gratitude journal
• Count your blessings
• Pray
• Meditate

Humor: A comic, absurd, or incongruous quality causing amusement

Last week we learned about how humor is a great way to reduce stress. This week we took a step back to look at humor and its many benefits in a more broad perspective. 10 Reasons Why Laughing is Good For You explores many different benefits of having humor in your life. These include:

• Decreases Stress
• Helps Coping Skills
• Improves Blood Pressure and Flow
• Provides a Burst of Exercise
• Manages Pain
• Boosts Social Skills
• Reduces Aggression
• Lowers Blood Glucose Levels
• Energizes Organs
• Boosts Immune System

An important equation to remember: SMILE + FROWN = SMILE. Smiling and laughing is contagious. Check out this video!  

How to Incorporate More Humor Into One's Life:

• Count your blessings
• Move toward laughter
• Spend time with fun people
• Bring humor into conversations
• Share something silly about yourself with a friend
• Don't forget to laugh at yourself
• Find humor in something serious

http://www.personalsafetynets.org/toolkit/tips/bring-more-humor-and-laughter-your-life

http://www.positivelypresent.com/2010/04/laughter.html

Here is a website with some clean and funny jokes!

**It is important to note that humor when used in the proper way can provide many health benefits, but when it is used improperly it can be even more detrimental than the situation.**

Positive Attitude Development Workshop #3: Stress Management

What is Stress?

Dr. Keith Karren defines stress as “the mental and physical response of our bodies to the changes and challenges in our lives.” Good stress, called eustress, is helpful and gives us focus and motivation. Distress, on the other hand, is harmful and causes worry. 

The Yerkes-Dodson Model

Although the word “stress” carries a negative connotation, stress can be a great thing! Stress is what pushes us to become better. For example, an optimal level of stress enhances a tennis player's alertness and focus; it propels them to play better. With too much or too little stress, however, the athlete will not perform their best nor will they improve their game.

Therefore, this workshop was purposefully not titled "Stress Elimination" but "Stress Management". The goal of stress management is not to eliminate stress, but to “limit the harmful effects of stress while maintaining life’s quality and vitality” (Greenberg, p. 14).

Fight or Flight

When we experience stress, our body prepares for action. This response is popularly known as the "Fight or Flight response". The CDC describes it well: 

“Stress sets off an alarm in the brain, which responds by preparing the body for defensive action. The nervous system is aroused and hormones are released to sharpen the senses, quicken the pulse, deepen respiration, and tense the muscles. This response (sometimes called the fight or flight response) is important because it helps us defend against threatening situations. The response is preprogrammed biologically. Everyone responds in much the same way, regardless of whether the stressful situation is at work or home.” (http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/99-101/)

Muscle Tension Activity

“FREEZE. Don’t move a bit! Now pay attention to your body sensations and position. Can you drop your shoulders? If so, your muscles were unnecessarily raising them.  Are your forearm muscles able to relax more? If so, you were unnecessarily tensing them. Is your body seated in a position in which you appear ready to do something active? If so, your muscles are probably unnecessarily contracted. Can your forehead relax more? If so, you were tensing those muscles for no useful purpose. Check your stomach, buttocks, thigh, and calf muscles. Are they, too, contracted more than is needed? Unnecessary muscular contraction is called bracing. Many of us are guilty of bracing and suffer tension headaches, neck aches, and bad backs as a result. Take a moment for yourself now. Concentrate on just letting as many of your muscles relax as possible.” (Greenberg, p.7)

Do you find yourself bracing? For example, it can be easy to brace your shoulders while you work on the computer.  Become aware of your posture and focus on relaxing your muscles. One way to do this is by a technique called Progressive Muscle relaxation. click here for more about progressive muscle relaxation

Why is Stress Management important?

Daily hassles can keep your body in a constant, chronic state of “fight or flight” response. This is hard on your body. In a “Stress At Work” NIOSH report , the CDC says:

“Short-lived or infrequent episodes of stress pose little risk. But when stressful situations go unresolved, the body is kept in a constant state of activation, which increases the rate of wear and tear to biological systems. Ultimately, fatigue or damage results, and the ability of the body to repair and defend itself can become seriously compromised. As a result, the risk of injury or disease escalates.”  

When you think about it, our body's physiological response to stress is amazing. Our hearts pump faster, our respiration increases, our muscles tense for action. We are biologically programmed to rise and take on challenges and threats. However, many of our 20th century stressors tend to create a chronic stress response, which is why stress management is an important part of good health. The good news is that you have more control over this stress response than you think! This is because the stress response all begins with your perception.

Perception & Stress

Stress does not start until there is a cognitive interpretation of the stressor.  A situation can be stressful or not-- it depends on your perception of the event. As the Hardiness Theory states, you will experience less stress in your life if you can perceive potentially stressful situations as a challenge instead of a threat.

The Stress Model

Life Situation -->

Perceived as Stressful -->

Emotional Arousal -->

Physiological Arousal -->

Consequences

Live In the Moment

Participate in the moment and enjoy life as it comes. Although it is important to plan for the future, it is not good to dwell and worry about it. Worrying will not ease your stress of tomorrow, but instead drains your strength of today. Sometimes it helps to just take it one day at a time and live in the present. As dear Edna Mode (from the Incredibles) wisely suggests, “Never look back, darling. It distracts from the now.”

“The past is behind, learn from it.

The future is ahead, prepare for it.

The present is here, live it.”

There are many different techniques and ways to manage stress, but in our workshop we focused on 3 areas: Time Management, Humor, and Meditation.

Time Management Tips

1. Assess how you spend your time
2. Set goals (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly)
3. Prioritize your goals and activities
4. Create your schedule
5. Know when to say “No”
6. Delegate
7. Evaluate Tasks Once
8. Limit Interruptions
9. Invest Time

The quadrant to the right helps us prioritize our daily tasks. Ask yourself: Is this urgent or not urgent? Is this important or not important?  By prioritizing your “to-do” list, you can better manage your time and avoid stress.

Humor

The average child laughs 300 to 500 times a day while the average adult laughs only about 15 times a day. We can learn from children’s example to find joy in even the little, daily experiences. 

When life gets stressful, sometimes it is just good to laugh! Laughter has beneficial physiological effects on the body-- supporting the old saying that “laughter is good medicine.”

“Humor results in both physiological and psychological changes. Laughter increases muscular activity, respiratory activity, oxygen exchange, heart rate, production of catecholamines, and endorphins. These effects are soon followed by a relaxation state in which respiration, heart rate, blood pressure, and muscle tension rebound to below normal levels. Psychological effects include the relief of anxiety, stress, and tension; an outlet for hostility and anger; an escape from reality; and a means of tolerating crisis, tragedy, and chronic illness or disabilities” (Greenberg, p. 184).

Meditation

“When you get into a meditative, prayer-like, contemplative frame of mind, the metabolism slows down, the immune system is refreshed, blood pressure and heart rates subside, blood lactate level falls, and oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production are diminished. A lot of changes happen, the result of which is that the body becomes healthier.”  --Dr. Keith J. Karren

Take some time today to just relax and meditate. Research has shown that meditation has many wonderful physiological effects, including:

• reduced pain perception
• decreased respiration
• decreased muscle tension
• decreased heart rate
• better able to cope with stress & more stable autonomic nervous system
• positive effects on blood pressure
• lowers baseline cortisol
• better brain function, ability to control thoughts and focus
• improves sleep behavior

(Greenberg, p. 245)

Our last Positive Attitude Development Workshop is Tuesday, February 18th. We will be discussing the health benefits of gratitude, humor, and having a positive attitude. Hope to see you there!







Additional Resources:

Ways to Increase Mindfulness in Your Daily Routine

Coping with Stress: Workplace Tips 

Forest Guided imagery Video

"The 5 Minute Vacation" Relaxation Video

References:

Greenberg, J. S. (2013). Comprehensive Stress Management (13 ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

It's Random Acts of Kindness Week!

"No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted." - Aesop

Breast cancer survivor Lauren E. Miller says: "When you are grateful and practicing random acts of kindness in your life, you end up feeling safe and connected to that which is good and true in this world and the result is inner calm, clarity of thinking and a heart full of love."

According to scientific studies, some of the physiological benefits to this experience include:

• Increased immune system
• Improved Cognitive Performance
• Increase in energy
• Lower heart rate
• Balanced cortisol levels which result in less internal stress
• More likely to live a longer and more satisfied life
• Laughter and inner joy resulting in decreased stress hormones; lower blood pressure; diminished pain

Check out the full article at http://www.randomactsofkindness.org/kindness-research/782-acts-of-kindness-relieves-stress

Have a great week!