Balancedliving Spring 2015 by Ryan Lucas

BalancedLIVING Spring 2015

Seek Success, But Skip the Stress pp 6-7 Understanding and Accepting Anger pg. 5

ome d Overc il h C r u o Help Y Shyness s ment Tip e g a n a Time M se orpse Po C e h T : e MINES Ey

BalancedLiving Spring 2015

MINES & Associates 10367 West Centennial Road Littleton, Colorado 80127 800.873.7138 www.MINESandAssociates.com

. . . . . . . . C r e d its . . . . . . .

A word from your Employee Assistance Program...

Welcome to the Spring 2015 issue of Balanced Living!

If you’re anything like us, you’ve had enough of the snow and are ready for some good ol’ sunshine. Luckily with Spring upon us the wait is over and the mercury in the thermometer should be rising soon. To give you an extra bounce this spring, we’ve prepared some resources to help you manage your time better, keep you safer on the road, and help you avoid being either the aggressor or victim of road rage, and if you do become angry how to understand it and move past it.

Also for the parents out there don’t forget to check out our tips on how to help your young ones get over being shy, and once you’ve succeeded at that learn how you can focus on success while avoiding the pressure and stress that come with it. Then hop over to MINES Eye to help you relax at the end of a hard day or even cook up some delicious chicken with black beans and cream cheese, yum! Don’t forget that if you need help putting a little extra spring in your step, we’re here to help! Don’t hesitate to call your Employee Assistance Program at 1-800-873-7138. To your health!

– The MINES Team

Helping Your Child Overcome Shyness pg. 4

Understanding and Accepting Anger pg. 5 Time Management Tips pg. 7 Krames Staywell Seek Success, But Skip the Stress pp. 6-7 Putting the Brakes On Road Rage pp. 8-9 The MINES Team MINES Eye pg. 10 www.food.com Recipe: Crock-Pot Chicken with Black Beans and Cream Cheese pg. 11

Our theme for 2014, Total Wellbeing, has been designed to help bridge the gap between our potential and optimal wellbeing. We will supply the knowledge necessary to support healthy lifestyles in order to be well in both body and mind. With this idea of mind-body relationship at the forefront, our topics will focus on the 8 dimensions of wellness: Physical, Occupational, Intellectual, Environmental, Financial, Social, Spiritual, and Emotional Wellness. Each month we will explore how different aspects of wellbeing are connected to each other and more importantly how they apply to you so you can achieve balance and promote your own Total Wellbeing.

Total Wellbeing

The Year of Integration

Physical Spiritual Intellectual Social

Total

Emotional Financial Occupational Environmental

Keep an eye out on MINES & Associates in 2014 as we explore the mental health landscape. From financial planning to social influence, physical wellness to emotional health, all aspects of your life are connected and can affect your wellbeing. Let us help you stay on top of this constantly shifting world and make your wellbeing easier to focus on than ever before.

MINESBlog

A Fresh Perspective This year we will be talking about all kinds of innovative and useful topics centered around wellbeing and how it relates to you and the world you live in. So we invite you to get in on the conversation today. Read great articles, ask questions, and keep on top of what MINES is up to. See something you like? Rate it on our blog or tell us about it. Want to see something specific? Let us know what interests you and how MINES can help. Just go to www.minesblog.wordpress.com

Webinar Series

Useful Resources for the Mindful Professional

Wellbeing

Join our partner, Brown Richards, for any of their monthly webinars. This year they will cover a huge array of topics from paying for college, single parent survival tips, optimizing brain power, and much more! Visit our website to learn more, or register for upcoming events at www.minesandassociates.com/webinar.

Is there a topic you’d like to see us explore? We’d love to hear from you.

Shoot us an e-mail at communications@minesandassociates.com and let us know what you’d like to see.

www.MINESandAssociates.com | 800.873.7138

Helping Your Child Overcome Shyness

Shyness is very common in children. Whether it is part of your child’s disposition or a reaction to a certain situation, there are things you can do to draw your child out and help him or her overcome shyness. It is important to help shy children in order to open more doors for them in the future. 1. Attend social events with your shy child. Arrive early so your child has a chance to warm up and socialize at her own pace. 2. Let your child practice socializing by hosting play dates, parties, or get-togethers at your home. This way, your child is on his or her “home turf” and may feel more relaxed from the start.

3. Encourage your child to involve herself in an activity. Sports teams, scouting, drama, dance, and music can often help children gain confidence. Find something that sparks their interest. Avoid letting them spend too much time in solitary activities such as watching TV or playing video games. 4. Do not bribe a shy child to attend a party or other social event, and do not reward them for attending.

5. Try not to label your child as “shy.” Doing so will only serve as a term your child can hide behind, and may become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Also, there are many children who are simply quiet and reserved. They may be perfectly comfortable in social situations, just not as outgoing as others.

6. Being shy and wanting privacy are two different things. If your child prefers to be alone to go to the bathroom or change clothes, respect their desire for privacy. 7. Identify with their situation. Share stories about times you have felt a little shy and how you were able to overcome them. This can help your child feel that this is “normal” and that it can be dealt with.

8. Encourage your child to speak for themself. Older children can order for themselves in restaurants or ask a store sales associate if they stock a particular item. 9. Now is a great time to be a role model. If you are shy yourself, take some steps to draw yourself out. If your child sees you avoid social interaction, they may think it’s okay for them to avoid it as well. 10. Still worried about your child’s shyness? Try talking to her teacher or pediatrician for more tips and information.

Spring 2015 Balanced Living

Understanding and Accepting Anger

As children, we may have been taught to suppress our anger. However, to feel anger is perfectly natural. It’s healthy to feel anger, but it’s important to learn to express your anger in a way that doesn’t hurt you or those around you. By learning to manage and understand your anger, you are likely to feel in control and confident that you’ll do the right thing when anger flares up.

How Is Anger Caused?

Anger is caused by a loss of control or a feeling of being afraid. We don’t like when bad things happen to us, like stubbing a toe or getting lost on the road, but we don’t have to let anger control us. By knowing what causes your anger, you can find ways to deal with it.

Don’t Deny It Everyone feels anger at some point, so don’t deny what you’re feeling. It’s completely normal. Accepting that you are angry doesn’t make you a bad person; it makes you human.

Avoid Blaming Others We may tend to blame others for making us angry, when in reality, we’re the ones who are letting ourselves be angry. Some of us may blame others regularly, even if it distances us from friends and family members.

Accept Anger When you accept your anger, you accept a natural human feeling. Accepting is a great step toward being able to control and release your anger responsibly and effectively. Work towards accepting anger instead of denying the feeling or blaming someone for your anger. This way, you won’t hurt yourself or anyone else. Think about what makes you angry and see if you can change the situations that trigger the anger, or find a way to deal with the anger in a healthy way. M Spring 2015 Balanced Living 5

Seek Success, But Skip the Stress As if being a single mother of two weren’t enough, Krista Kurth was a high-powered consultant at a major accounting firm who was taking night classes toward a degree in organizational development. But when her body shut down with chronic fatigue syndrome, she realized that no motor could keep running without a pit stop. Her two-year quest to recover taught her a lesson. The formula for success, she learned, must include mental and physical rest.

Millions of Americans have yet to grasp that fact. They believe that longer hours at work, combined with less recreation and relaxation, will lead them up the corporate ladder. The truth is that unchecked stress hinders more than it helps. “People have the sense that they’re important and successful if they’re busy,” says Dr. Kurth (yes, she went on to earn that Ph.D.) She also co-authored Running on Plenty: Renewal Strategies for Individuals, which offers advice on staying energized despite work demands. Machines can run around the clock. But Dr. Kurth and co-author Suzanne Adele Schmidt, Ph.D., emphasize that people are living organisms who must stop and refuel to work properly. By not taking brief, hourly breaks, they say you could take up to five times longer to complete tasks and grow more likely to make mistakes.

Research backs them up. In one study, 69 percent of people who reported feeling highly stressed on the job said the stress made them less productive, workplace stress expert Charles Spielberger, Ph.D., wrote in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. About half of those stressed-out people said they had suffered burnout, job-related medical problems, or both.

A state of alert Overwhelming paperwork, deadlines, meetings, phone calls, and e-mails cause your brain to order the production of hormones that put your body in a state of alert. Whether you know it or not, your body pools its resources to deal with the threat causing the stress. Your muscles tense, you breathe harder, and your heart beats faster.

If this keeps up too long, your body cracks under the pressure. The result? Headaches, difficulty sleeping and concentrating, short tempers, upset stomachs, and lower morale. All are early warning signs of job stress, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Some studies suggest this stress can lead to heart disease, depression, anxiety, muscle pain, cancer, ulcers, a weakened immune system, and even suicide.

“It’s a big problem and it’s growing,” says Dr. Spielberger, director of the University of South Florida’s Center for Research and Behavioral Medicine and Health Psychology. “The world continues to change faster and faster, which puts more pressure on people to try to keep up.”

Spring 2015 Balanced Living

Companies face more foreign competition. Downsizing increases workloads. Some employees feel less secure in jobs. New technologies were meant to make jobs easier, but

cell phones, e-mail, pagers, the Internet, mobile handheld devices, and laptops have instead increased the pace. “We’re expected to be available all the time,” Dr. Kurth says. “People are expected to give an immediate answer.” Setting boundaries and learning how to take “productivity pauses,” she says, will help you get more done, stay healthy, and keep a positive attitude. These hourly mini-breaks can be as simple as taking three deep breaths or doing simple stretches. Gently roll your shoulders backward, move your head from side to side, elevate your arms to shoulder height and rotate at the waist.

Left brain break Dr. Kurth suggests you take a break from using the left side of your brain, the half that handles job-related tasks like analysis and communication. You can do this by immersing yourself in acts that tap the right brain’s creative power. For example, you can take a brief mental vacation by closing your eyes and thinking about your favorite place. “Use all your senses.” If you like tropical resorts, “imagine what the sand feels like and what the ocean smells like,” she says. “Do it for a few minutes and you come back feeling refreshed.” A great way to make breaks part of your day is to find a “renewal buddy” who will encourage you while benefiting from your support. If you’re a supervisor, you can create an office environment that allows for “play,” such as throwing Frisbees or knitting. The worst stress is having a difficult boss who may be too critical or doesn’t provide enough support, Dr. Spielberger says. Changing your boss’s management style isn’t usually possible, but you can do wonders with a positive attitude. M

Time Management Tips

Managing your time involves being able to handle two very distinct elements of your work day: the long-term work goals and the daily responsibilities that lead to the success of the big-picture projects.

Big-Picture Management • • • • •

Evaluate your goals Develop long-term and short-term goals that will help you reach those goals List your objectives by yearly, monthly, and weekly needs Delegate responsibilities whenever possible Develop and maintain a support network

• • • • • • • • • • •

Don’t include tasks that aren’t necessary to the success of your goals Do your most difficult tasks when your energy levels are at their peak Tackle big jobs by dividing them up into smaller parts Only take on one job at a time Handle each piece of paper only once Look for ways to improve the efficiency of your daily role Set aside time every day to answer your communications Learn to say “no” when you can Reduce clutter around your workspace Use calendars to track your success Recognize the difference between doing the job right and perfection M

Make a list of daily priorities that you plan to accomplish:

Spring 2015 Balanced Living 7

Putting the Brakes on Road Rage If you spend much time in your car, you’ve probably felt your temper slipping as other drivers steal your lane, blast their horns, or flash their lights. You’ve probably controlled your anger, but not everyone does. Every year, senseless traffic disputes end in death or serious injury for at least 1,500 men, women, and children, according to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

Enraged drivers shoot, stab, and run down hapless motorists who drive too slow, make obscene gestures, or play radios too loud. In Seattle, a 21-year-old college student died from gunshots because he couldn’t disarm the blaring anti-theft alarm in his Jeep. What’s more, the AAA Foundation calculates that violent traffic incidents rose the fastest between 1990 and 1996. Rates have since platued but road rage remains a significant driving hazard in the United States. “There’s more congestion, and there seems to be a growing impatience, with people under a lot of stress, and people act it out in their cars,” explains Stephanie Faul, the foundation’s communications director.

While the numbers are rising, “I don’t think this is a new phenomenon,” says Baltimore psychiatrist John R. Lion, M.D. “It’s been around as long as the car has. Maybe the denseness of traffic makes it worse.” The people who lose their tempers on the road are usually men, usually young, and usually insecure, Dr. Lion says. “Typically they’re people with short fuses.” Still, hundreds of average men and women have also snapped on the highways. How do you avoid road rage either as victim or villain? Follow the golden rule, suggests Ms. Faul: “Behave as if you know all the people in all the other cars.”

If another motorist makes you angry, back off. If you get angry a lot on the road, alter your routine: Change your schedule to avoid rush hours or use mass transit. Even if you can control your stress on the road, you should realize that some other drivers can’t. And if you become the target of another motorist? “Drop back,” says Dr. Lion. “The worst thing you can do is challenge them.” “If another motorist makes you angry, back off. If you get angry a lot on the road, alter your routine: Change your schedule to avoid rush hours or use mass transit.”

Spring 2015 Balanced Living

Highway, Safe Way To avoid danger on the road, the National Safety Council and the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety suggest you:

Know and avoid triggers that can set off aggressive drivers: • • • • • • •

Use your turn signals Don’t cut drivers off Don’t drive too slowly in the left lane Don’t tailgate Avoid needless horn use Don’t blare your radio Follow all rules of the road

• • • • •

Tailgating Flashing headlights Obscene gestures Deliberately obstructing other cars Verbal abuse

Watch for signs of an aggressive driver:

Highway, Safe Way

Don’t get pulled into the “game” with aggressive drivers: • Create space between your car and theirs • Avoid eye contact • Stay calm

Take precautions if you are confronted by an aggressive driver: • • • •

Don’t let the actions of an irrational driver dictate your behavior: Your response might escalate the confrontation. Ask yourself it it’s worth your life and the lives of your passengers to teach a bad driver a lesson. If you have a cellular phone, call police if you fear for your safety or that of others. If the other motorist persists, don’t solve it on the side of the road. Don’t stop until you reach a public place where witnesses are available. • Don’t drive home if someone’s following you. M

Spring 2015 Balanced Living 9

MINESEye

The importance of staying mindful.

With MINES Eye we will focus on meditation techniques, basic yoga poses, and mindfulness practices to help you stay in control of your thoughts and expand your mind as well as body. Yoga Pose #3: The Corpse Pose This quarter we will discuss the corpse pose. This pose is typically reserved for relaxing and letting the body rest at the end of a yoga session, but it is great for just relaxing and letting the body fall into a natural and neutral position while you close your eyes and relax at the end of a day as well.

Corpse Pose Step 1: Start by lying down on your back with you arms and legs spread slightly apart, and your arms away from your sides with your palms facing upwards. Your back should be relaxed but not flat. To assist you can put a small pillow or blanket under the small of your back to help support the natural curve of your spine.

Corpse Pose Step 2: Once you are in the correct position, begin to focus on your breath and relaxing your entire body. Let your breathing come and go naturally and let your body feel heavy, imagine youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re sinking into the floor. Hold this position anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes at a time and let the stress of the day float away. When you are ready to sit back up bring your knees toward your chest and roll to the side, then slowly bring your self to a sitting position breathing slowly as you do so. Be careful not to stand up too quickly. You are now ready for the rest of the day or for a good nightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sleep! M 10

Spring 2015 Balanced Living

SEASONAL RECIPE

Crock-Pot Chicken with Black Beans & Cream Cheese

Ingrediants: • • • • •

4 to 5 boneless chicken breasts 1 (15 1/2 ounce) can black beans, drained 1 (15 ounce) can corn, drained 1 (15 ounce) jar salsa, any kind 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese

Directions: 1. Take 4-5 frozen - yes, frozen - boneless chicken breasts, put into crock pot. 2. Add 1 can of black beans, 1 jar of salsa, and 1 can of corn. 3. Keep in crock pot on high for about 4-5 hours or until chicken is cooked. 4. Add 1 package of cream cheese (just throw it on top!) and let sit for about 1/2 hour. All done, enjoy!

Makes approximately 4 servings Nutritional analysis (per serving): 679 calories; 35 g fat (15.2 g sat); 155 mg cholesterol; 50 g carbohydrates; 9.9 g from sugars; 46 g protein; 11.2 g fiber; 913.4 mg sodium. M

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Helping you keep

your balance

Your Employee Assistance Program is here for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s confidential, FREE, and available to you and your family. For information or confidential assistance call 1-800-873-7138