In every walk with nature, one receives far more than one seeks.
John Muir
Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
Lao Tzu
Category: Health
Busy
It has become the standard greeting everywhere: I am so busy.
We say this to one another with no small degree of pride, as if our exhaustion were a trophy, our ability to withstand stress a mark of real character. The busier we are, the more important we seem to ourselves and we imagine, to others. To be unavailable to our friends and family, to be unable to find time for the sunset (or even to know that the sun has set at all), to whiz through our obligations without time for a single, mindful breath, this has become the model of a successful life.
How have we allowed this to happen? This was not our intention, this is not the world we dreamed when we were young and our whole life was full of possibility and promise. How did we get so terribly lost in a world saturated with striving and grasping, yet somehow bereft of joy and delight?
Wayne Muller, Sabbath
Six Simple Strategies for a Stress-Free Summer, 6.
Learn to say No – there will always be Unfinished Business
Many of us have the tendency to measure how successful a day was in terms of things that 
we got done. We can even prioritize our to-do list items over other activities vital to our wellbeing, such as spending time with family and friends, having quiet time for ourselves, walking in nature. It can be relentless – as items on our “lists” are checked off, new ones simply replace them. What we need to see is that if we are only concerned with what’s not done, we will never find peace. Today let’s remind ourselves that the purpose of life is not to get it all done, but to “enjoy the ride.” On the day we die, there will still be unfinished business to take care of. And ironically, someone else will do it for us!
Not taking ourselves too seriously
I faciliated a Day Silent Retreat this weekend which was really a lovely gentle experience. It 
passed so quickly and all participants expressed a deep contentment with the day and the time they had spent silently sitting or walking. It really confirmed for me how finding some time for quiet in our lives is not a luxury but rather is essential for protecting our health.
Retreat days and reflection aims to develop our capacity to drop into our lives as they actually are. However, sometimes, they can feed into our ever-present need to change or fix ourselves. If this happens, our awareness of self can become a full-time preoccupation and take away some of the naturalness of life. It is good that we try to change in ways that allow us become more healthy and happy, but sometimes we can feel pressure to change because of an unconscious sense that we are not good enough or we are unacceptable as we are. Some of the self-help culture visible today feeds into this unhappiness with how we actually are, by continually encouraging us to take on one self-improvement after another. And even noble self-improvement projects, such as “I want to be more calm“, or “I want to be more happy“, can simply substitute one type of discontent with ourselves with another. The reason they do this is that they actually strengthen our premise that we are broken and need fixing.
Even sometimes the reason we come to meditation is precisely because we want to change something inside us. We wish to be calmer, better, more spiritual, more together, more integrated. And if we examine deep enough under that wish we will find that it arisies from a belief that there is something wrong with us as we are. We look to put order on the parts of ourselves that frighten us.
But real life is not necessarily ordered; it is immediate, messy, incomplete. We are in danger of taking things too seriously and not allowing enough room for our chaotic and playful side. Part of the joy and spice of life comes from seeing that our mistakes and wrong turns, our compulsions to do too much, or our tendency to veg out, all add up to our unique personality. The end goal of all our work is not to become some ideal version of ourselves, based on ideas passed on by others or in books. We are to become ourselves fully, with all our quirks and exaggerations. Our natural selves, unaffected; not the one where we pass the time continually checking in on how are doing.
The only way out of this struggle is to leave our mind alone, to fully accept the mind that we have, anger, dualisms and all. And when we no longer judge ourselves or try to emotionally neuter ourselves, the internal conflicts and tensions gradually begin to quiet down. We might say this is the most basic psychological insight: I cannot escape myself, so I have to come to terms with the mind that I have.
Barry Magid, Ending the Pursuit of Happiness
Balance in Mind and Body
The first three pillars of the MBSR Programme are awareness of the body, awareness of emotions and awareness of thoughts. All of these need to work together in harmony for us to have a healthy and positive life.
The first pillar is awareness of the body, both in the way stress manifests itself in the body and how a healthy lifestyle requires a healthy body. One way this is cultivated in the MBSR programme is through Mindful Yoga exercises.
The importance of physical fitness for the mind has been supported in a recent study by Laura Baker and her colleagues at the University of Washington, published in the Archives of Neurology. It found that older adults who engaged in regular exercise showed improved concentration and multi-tasking skills. Another study, this time conducted by Charles Hillman PhD, published in journal of the American College of Sports Medicine, showed that a 30 minute aerobic workout significantly improved the accuracy of memory on administered tests. Finally, a recent Duke University study found that middle-aged participants who worked out for 30 minutes, three to four times a week, showed a 30% improvement in mental function after 4 months. As Dr Hillman states: “Data shows that getting regular exercise over time can increase both gray and white matter in the brain and make a huge difference in how well you process and track information, stay on task and allocate your mental resources”
Laura D. Baker, PhD, et al., Effects of Aerobic Exercise on Mild Cognitive Impairment : A Controlled Trial, Arch Neurol. 2010;67(1):71-79.
More Stress
It would seem, despite increases in technology, that stress continues to rise in Western society. The most recent poll conducted by the American Psychological Association, found that approximately half of all Americans were more stressed than they were 5 years previously. It also reported that 33% of all people in the US are living under extreme stress, while many reported physical symptoms (77%) or psychological symptoms (73%) related to stress in the previous month.
Physical symptoms of stress included: fatigue (51%); headache (44%); upset stomach (34%); muscle tension (30%); change in appetite (23%), teeth grinding (17%); change in sex drive (15%); and feeling dizzy (13%).
Psychological symptoms of stress included: experiencing irritability or anger (50%); feeling nervous (45%); lack of energy (45%); and feeling as though you could cry (35%). In addition, almost half (48%) of Americans report lying awake at night due to stress.
Sadly, most people surveyed said that they would only make necessary lifestyle changes after the diagnosis of a chronic condition rather than taking preventative measures.
“Stress in America continues to escalate and is affecting every aspect of people’s lives — from work to personal relationships to sleep patterns and eating habits, as well as their health,” says psychologist Russ Newman, PhD, JD, APA executive director for professional practice. “We know that stress is a fact of life and some stress can have a positive impact, however, the high stress levels that many Americans report experiencing can have long-term health consequences, ranging from fatigue to obesity and heart disease.”
Mindfulbalance 