Health and Creativity — Third Thought

Love at the Office

15th of February ~

I hope my HR readers aren’t worried by today’s topic. I’m not exploring the opportunities for office romance (never a good idea yet still we falter). No, I’m talking about love for our fellow men and women in general. Let’s call it positive intention.

Many years ago as a young Catholic I used to go to early morning mass at a Carmelite Convent. The Carmelites are a cloistered order. They do not interact with the public. Their focus is contemplative prayer. That’s right–all they do is pray.

And I remember thinking, at age 16, “What a waste! Surely they could do more.”

Well, I am older and more widely-read now and I believe in the power of prayer. I believe that holding positive intention for someone helps them. And there is fascinating research that suggests this is so. Come with me now into the world of quantum physics.

You’ve probably heard, “What you focus on becomes your reality.” It is the genius behind Appreciative Inquiry. Thoughts matter. Furthermore, thoughts ARE matter. They are waves (or particles–I forget). They are energy. So, can we imagine that the energy is real and perceived in ways we don’t yet understand? Can we imagine that positive thoughts help and negative thoughts hurt? I can imagine that. It’s still in the realm of ‘New Science’ and the science is catching up to the work of the Carmelite nuns. For some fascinating research I recommend the Intention Experiment where you can become a part of the unusual research.

So what about that ‘love at the office’, Maggie? Here’s my advice:
1) Hold your colleagues in positive regard. It cannot hurt and I believe they will know it on an unrecognized level. As one of my professors once told me, “I always find something to like about each student.” Find the thing to appreciate, send them positive energy and you both benefit.
2) Hold your arch-enemies in positive regard. The more you focus on the negative relationship, the more you may tether yourself to that unhealthy dynamic. “Release them to their higher good“, forgive them, do whatever you need to do to free yourself from the struggle.

Call it whatever you like but strive to have love in every action. I guarantee you will work more smoothly with your colleagues and you will be happier for it.

Nuns photo credit

That Wonderful Smug Feeling

30th of January ~

This morning I took a 4-mile hike (otherwise known as a walk in the woods). The setting was Mt. Tabor Park–a volcanic cinder cone right in the city of Portland. Oh yeah–we did some hills. Best of all, in the depths of winter, we had sunshine for great moments of time.

Like many of you I am working to increase my activity for all kinds of reasons. While I was clearing my office clutter with feng shui I came across an excellent list published by Oprah a few years ago:

12 Get-You-Off-the-Couch Reasons to Exercise
1. Physical activity helps you lose weight by burning calories, boosting resting metabolism, and buffering you from bone and muscle loss that can result if you diet alone.
2. High levels of physical activity can decrease your risk of colon cancer by 40 to 50 percent.
3. Exercise helps you get better sleep. In one study, people who walked more than six blocks a day had one-third fewer insomnia problems than their less active cohorts.
4. Walking 30 minutes five days a week can increase your life span by one and half years. Make that running, and it may add up to four years. That’s the conclusion of a 2005 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, which showed that it’s never too late to increase longevity.
5. Half-hour aerobic sessions three to five times a week have been shown to cut symptoms of mild to moderate depression nearly in half. One study suggests that exercise can be as effective as drugs in treating major depressive disorder.
6. Brisk walking for just an hour or two a week can reduce the risk of breast cancer in postmenopausal women by nearly 20 percent. And for those who already have the disease, walking three to five hours a week may reduce the chance of dying from it by as much as 50 percent.
7. Aerobic exercise, such as a half hour of rapid walking five days a week, has been shown to cut the risk of catching a cold nearly in half in postmenopausal women.
8. People who work out have more energy than nonexercisers, according to researchers at the University of Georgia, based on a review of 70 studies. That boost, on average beats the effect of stimulant drugs.
9. Working out – resistance training in particular – helps maintain, and even modestly increase, bone density to reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
10. An active lifestyle halves the risk of developing heart disease. Walking up to 12 miles a week (translation: 30 to 50 minutes a day) significantly improves heart health, according to a Duke University study. And if you’re at high risk for diabetes, working out only about 20 minutes a day, combined with a low-fat diet, can reduce the chance of developing the disease by 58 percent.
11. Just working out 15 minutes three days a week may reduce the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease by 30 to 40 percent, according to a study last year in the Annals of Internal Medicine. For healthy older adults, a six-month program of exercise can reverse the age-related loss of brain tissue that begins around age 40 by two to three years, especially in regions responsible for memory and higher cognition.
12. Working out improves your sex life – by not only enhancing self-esteem but also strengthening the cardiovascular system. One study found that women who cycled vigorously for 20 minutes before watching an erotic film had significantly greater vaginal response compared with when they were inactive.

To this excellent list I will add two more reasons:

13) Your brain works better when it’s oxygenated. Christin Anderson, MS, wellness and fitness coordinator of the University of San Francisco, explains that exercise affects many sites within the nervous system, “This is pure science — stimulate your nervous system and function at a higher level.”

14) You get to be smug because YOU exercised.

Tension in the Workplace

26th of October ~

I used to have a card that mocked, “A tense office is a productive office.” I imagine that is true–in the short term. Over time, of course, tension leads to all manner of maladies.

I was rather surprised by the data from this study by Healthy Companies International.

Does your office have the ‘just the right amount of tension’?

Working More for Less Money?

4th of March ~

The US Labor Department just released new productivity figures and productivity was up 2.6% in the fourth quarter of 2010. Good for us!!

But when experts at MarketWatch dig a little deeper the news is not quite so happy:

In recent quarters, however, productivity gains have mostly stemmed from a big decline in the size of the American workforce during the 2007-2009 recession. In the fourth quarter of 2010, for example, the U.S. economy generated the same output as it did three years ago even though there were 7 million fewer workers

It gets worse:

Compensation per hour rose 2% at an annualized rate. Yet real compensation per hour, which adjusts for inflation, fell 0.6% in the fourth quarter.

Sheesh! These figures simply confirm what many workers already know. Times are tight and, while jobs are scarce, there’s plenty to do for those who have jobs.

Are you feeling pressured? Of course you are. That’s why it’s more important than ever to take care of yourself as you take care of the work. In the next two posts I’ll be sharing notions of ‘Flow” and “Self-Compassion”.

Life is long. Now is a great time to rebalance your load.

I Love Technology

22nd of April ~

Yesterday I met with a former theater colleague. He’s a marketing whiz but he also knows a ton about emerging technologies and how to use them. “I don’t care about the inner workings. I just want the technology for what it can do.”

And here’s a lovely example of how technology is opening possibilities. This woman was born in 1911 (yup, 99 years old). She received an English Literature degree from Reed college in the the 1930′s but her glaucoma has made reading extremely difficult. With the iPad she can read more easily because the screen is so bright.

Delightful.

I hope when I am 99 years old I, too, will be open to using new technology.

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