Eliminate Simple Stressors to Help Reduce Stress

A stressor is an object, activity, event or any other type of stimulus that can cause you psychological stress. Stressors can be very minor, and in many cases they may not appear to be adding to your overall stress levels. However, adding stressor upon stressor throughout the day on top of obvious stress-causing activities such as work, traffic and financial worries, will definitely contribute to your tension levels.

Let's take a look at how we can identify some of the smaller stressors that may occur on a daily basis and eliminate them, thus reducing over all stress levels.

We know that large stress inducers such as an approaching deadline at work can cause physical changes in your body that are not pleasant. These changes can take the form of increased heart rate, headache, irritability and even emotional reactions. These changes and reactions are both physical and psychological stress. Keep those in mind for a second.

Now think about a dripping faucet in your home. You hear a constant drip all night as you try to sleep. Every time you hear that dripping noise your body cringes and you run over to try to stop it. That dripping faucet is a stressor. It might not be as large of a stressor as your fast approaching deadline at work, but it is adding to your stress level.

Perhaps you have a closet door that keeps sliding off its track. Every morning when you get dressed for work, you have to fight with the door, shake it and force it back onto its tracks. This door is a stressor that adds to your daily levels of stress as well. Even something as simple as an over-flowing garbage can cause stress build-up. It is important to learn how to identify these small stressors that you might tend to ignore and work towards removing them. In doing so, you will alleviate much unneeded stress and be better prepared for dealing with your major stresses.

To identify small stressors begin to pay attention to yourself. Notice your reactions to the small things that you see and do during the day. If you have a sore-looking hole in your living room wall that makes you sigh deeply out of frustration, make it a point to go to the nearest furniture store and get a painting or wall hanging to cover it up! When you eliminate a small stressor such as a hole in your living room wall by covering it up, or getting the leaking faucet repaired, or even emptying the over-flowing garbage can, your are eliminating a moment in time where you would have become more tense.

So take time to learn about yourself and the little things that may upset you throughout the day. You might find that you can become more relaxed simply by paying more attention to these smaller things, removing them from your environment and thus reducing your overall stress levels.

Control Your Type 1 Diabetes

Diabetes is a killer disease. It can lead to kidney failure, heart disease, neuropathy, blindness, and much more. If you have diabetes, you must take control of it immediately.

Type 1 diabetes is the hardest type to control. It is also called juvenile diabetes, as it is common to get type 1 diabetes when you are a child.

In type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce insulin, which is needed to take sugar (glucose) from the blood to the cells. This results in very high blood sugar counts and this is the major cause of many of the serious complications that may develop.

A person with Type 1 diabetes needs to take insulin shots to lower the blood sugar. Diabetics need to have an insulin called a background insulin, which works throughout the day. Then they need to take extra insulin after eating a meal.

An insulin pump gives the constant background insulin. It also allows the diabetic to easily give themselves extra insulin when they eat and cuts down on the need for insulin shots from a needle.

However, diabetics must test their blood sugar levels four or five times a day and make whatever adjustments need to be made. The normal testing times are before breakfast, lunch, dinner and bed. The amount of insulin to take with each meal will be determined by a combination of these readings plus the food eaten.

Sugar highs and lows wear down the body. The key is to try to control these up and down readings the best you can. The insulin pump helps tremendously but diet is very important.

Follow the glycemic index when eating. This index rates foods according to the way these foods react to your blood sugar. If the carbohydrates the food contains break down quickly, they tend to make your blood sugar levels jump quickly. These foods have a high GI (glycemic index) ranking.

For example, a potato has a high GI ranking. The carbohydrates break down very quickly and cause your blood sugar to rise quickly.

Beans have a low GI index, so the blood sugar effects are spread out over a longer period of time. You do not get the rapid sugar rise.

Diabetics, in particular, need to learn to balance these foods to avoid those highs and lows. If you are having potatoes, for example, try eating a sweet potato instead or combine some low GI ranked foods with the potatoes to balance this sugar rise.

It's well worth it for diabetics to learn as much as they can about this glycemic index. The best diet for a diabetic to follow will be eating more of the foods with a low to medium glycemic index.

Other things the diabetic can do is snack on air popped popcorn rather than pretzels. Salt should be limited in the diet as the diabetic is at a greater risk for high blood pressure.

Eat broiled or grilled chicken rather than fried chicken. This also helps control blood pressure and cholesterol.

If you want to drink wine, drink it with a meal. There is less of an impact on blood sugar. However, do not over indulge. It can and will interfere with your medications.

Diabetes is a very dangerous disease and any diabetic definitely should be visiting a doctor on a regular basis. He or she will help manage your diabetes and will most likely advise a visit with a nutritionist.

Diabetes cannot be completely controlled but, with a change in diet and lifestyle, diabetics can help manage it and live a long life.

The Psychology of Quitting Smoking

Many experts believe smoking is only about 10% physical addiction and a whopping 90% psychological addiction. Your body will recover fairly quickly from nicotine withdrawals (the worst symptoms usually abate in three days or less), but your psychological dependency on cigarettes can be much more difficult to defeat.

One way to combat this is to do a bit of self-analysis before giving up cigarettes.

Make a list with two columns. Label column one "Why I Started Smoking" and label column two "Why I Want To Quit Smoking."

In column one, list all the reasons you can remember as to why you started smoking in the first place. Was it peer pressure? Rebellion? Did you think it made you look cool? Did it make you feel like a grown-up? Really try to remember the exact reasons why you started smoking and write them all down.

Now look over that list. Do any of those reasons still apply in your life today? Probably not.

If you're like most people, you will see that your reasons for becoming a smoker are no longer valid, are often just silly, and are easily outweighed by the risks to your health and your family's well-being.

So let's move on to column two... Why do you want to quit smoking?

This one may seem obvious, but it can be a bit tricky. You really need to take some time and think hard about this. Don't just list the obvious health reasons. You've been reading the Surgeon General's warnings for years with little effect, so you need to come up with reasons that truly have meaning for you.

The things most people write down will NOT help you quit smoking...

- I don't want to get lung cancer.
- I don't want to have a heart attack or a stroke.
- I'd like to live long enough to see my grandchildren grow up.

Those are all good reasons to quit smoking, certainly... but they deal in "possibilities" rather than in specifics.

Sure you MIGHT get lung cancer, you MIGHT have a heart attack or a stroke, you MIGHT die young and miss out on seeing your grandchildren grow up...

...or you MIGHT NOT! You're not likely to break a strong psychological addiction based on what MIGHT happen. Your mind will work hard to convince you that it won't happen to you! Instead, list health problems that you are already experiencing.

Your list should point out things in your life that you are actively unhappy about and are STRONGLY MOTIVATED to change. In order to break your psychological addiction, you need an arsenal of new thoughts and desires that are stronger than your desire to smoke!

Here are the types of things you want to put in column two...

Why Do I Want To Quit Smoking?

1. Health Reasons

- I get so out of breath when I exert myself even a little bit. Just vacuuming the house makes me pant and gasp.

- My feet are always cold. This could be due to high blood pressure and poor circulation associated with smoking.

- I have a nasty wet cough and I have to blow my nose way too often. Mucus build-up is the body's reaction to all the toxins and chemicals in cigarette smoke and could be a precursor to serious respiratory disease. Even if I don't get cancer, I don't want to be one of those people who has to tote oxygen bottles around everywhere.

- I'm always tired. Could it be that my body is using up all its energy trying to eliminate the toxins and chemicals from cigarettes?

2. Vanity Reasons

- Smoking causes premature aging and drying of the skin. I don't want to look like a wrinkled up old prune!

- My fingers, fingernails and teeth are all tobacco stained. Disgusting! How embarrassing.

- When I get on the elevator after a smoke break at work, everyone wrinkles their nose and tries to edge away from me because I reek of cigarette smoke. I feel like a pariah. It's embarrassing to always be the big "stinker" on the elevator. I feel like I have no self-control.

- My breath is awful. Kissing me must be like kissing an ashtray. I spend a fortune on breath mints.

3. Financial Reasons

- If I save all the money I used to spend on cigarettes, I'll have enough to take a vacation in Cancun (or some other warm tropical place) every winter!

- I could use the money to pay off my credit cards!

- I could donate money to my favorite charity or sponsor a child. My cigarette money could make the world a better place!

4. Family Reasons

- My family can stop worrying about me.

- My spouse will have to find something new to nag me about. Just kidding, honey!

- My children will be proud of me and (hopefully) they'll never start smoking themselves, having seen firsthand what a nasty destructive habit it is.

5. Cleanliness Reasons

- The walls used to be white. Now they're a nasty dirty-looking brown. I need to repaint... again!

- I stink, my car stinks, my house stinks, everything I own reeks of cigarette smoke. I can't even lend a book to a non-smoking friend because they can't stand the smell of smoke permeating the pages!

Do you see yourself in any of the items listed? You may have many more reasons of your own. Find as many compelling and emotion reasons to quit smoking as you can think of and write them all down.

If you can re-train your mind to think of smoking as a silly and self-destructive thing to do, then you're almost sure to succeed. And if you need something to do with your hands... try knitting!