
Sometimes people write to us and ask for advice … They want to know how to get started with macrobiotics, how to incorporate more whole grains into their diets, how to cleanse, how to feel healthy. I’m the first to admit that I don’t have all the answers — in fact I have very few. I only have the things that have worked for me.
One of the most important things that I can think of as far as “advice” goes for people wanting to live a healthier lifestyle is to keep it simple. Or, simplify, as some would have it, or need it. In leading a relatively calm and peaceful life (most of the time), I find a few things remarkably helpful in keeping anxiety and chaos in check:
1. Cut out the caffeine. It took me a while to realize that caffeine causes me to be mad anxious. It sets my mind racing and my heart pounding! I don’t know why it took me so long to figure out the connection, but once I did and cut out the caffeine in my life, it made a huge impact on my anxiety level and my ability to maintain peace of mind, for the most part. And, kicking caffeine isn’t as difficult as Starbucks would have you believe. For me this was MUCH easier than getting sugar out of my diet / lifestyle.
2. Avoid commercials like the plague. Seems to be a strange thing to say in avoiding stress, doesn’t it? But this is another of those things where I’ve put together the pieces as my life goes on. When I am inundated more with commercials (be they on television, on the internet, what-have-you), I’m more anxious, and I’m more consumer-driven to get to whichever-place and buy whichever-thing the media has me obsessed with. It’s hard to admit that one is so imprintable by mass media … but it’s completely true, in my case. We don’t have a television and I promise you that this saves our little family much more money than just the cable and electricity bills. When I watch more TV, I want to shop shop shop — and I also waste lots of time lounging in front of the tube. Without the TV, we do all sorts of things I wouldn’t have the motivation to do if I had the constant distraction of meaningless blather on television, such as: sewing my own skirts and dresses, gardening to grow our own produce, throwing pottery, cleaning the house, taking the dog for walks, etc. etc. etc.
3. Cut down the sugar (if you can’t quite cut it out). Sugar, as we’ve talked about multiple multiple times here at AGAD, sends your body on a roller coaster of blood sugar ups and downs. First you’re waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay up, and then you take that huge hill nosedive (WAHOOOO!) and you’re waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down, going through a tunnel sometimes! Nobody needs these roller coasters, when it comes to something as fragile and intricate to human body health as blood sugar. Really. You don’t. It affects your hormones, and your mood, and eventually, your general health. So, at least cut back the sugar, significantly - if you can’t quite cut it all out (I struuuuuuggle with this. I do.).
4. Meditate. Spend some time in meditation, daily. I know it sounds like something that takes oh-so-much time and well-how-exactly-do-I-do-that!? But really. Take a deep breath. Close your eyes. Spend about 5 minutes just relaxing all of the muscles in your body and thanking your body for the amazing things it does for you everyday (like keeping you alive despite your sugar binges throughout the day!). There! You’ve meditated! Don’t you feel better!? Studies show that meditation has PROFOUND effects on your body, your state of mind, and your ability to go through life with a positive attitude, which also has profound impacts on your physical health, long-term. And it really doesn’t have to take that much time, if you don’t have it. (But if you do have the time, why not spend a blissful hour here and there in a state of quiet calm, just with yourself, quiet and smiling inside?)
5. Nourish patience. This is something that my husband helps me with on a daily, no, hourly basis. I’m not naturally a very patient person, you see. I would much prefer that the thing that I want done now have been done yesterday, in most instances. But that state of mind contributes to anxiety upon anxiety upon more anxiety. Take life for what it is, in this moment, and be grateful. Do the thing that you would have liked to have been done yetserday, now. This way, when it is tomorrow and you’d have been wishing the thing was done, it will be. This makes me feel calm.
But you guys are the wise ones: What do you do (or avoid doing) to remain centered, and calm, in the midst of our very chaotic world???
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