Tag Archives: stress

Looking After your Body- How to Reduce Stress in Women Over 50 Today.

If You are Over 50, You need to Read This. 

We’d all like to reduce Stress in our lives, but Steering through the changes that middle life presents causes Stress – No Joke!

Positive Stress keeps us on our toes, alerting us into action. However, Stress becomes negative when we are constantly bombarded with challenges without the space to recover. Anxiety builds up in the body, causing a variety of physical problems. Some of these physical problems include- headaches, upset stomach, high blood pressure, leg pain, chest pain, sleep, and eating problems.

For women over 50, the effects of chronic Stress are intensified. Your body isn’t as resilient as it once was due to the dramatic hormone changes after menopause. So, your precious body needs more TLC like a healthier lifestyle — to repair itself. Tell me what you Think- but is it time to reduce your Stress?

No Secrets Here!

The keys to less Stress and more splendid happiness are not a secret. They are never more money or material objects that can reduce Stress. Reducing your stress levels is down to your choices. This is a BIG subject, and I will deal with it in another Blog Post. However, today- I mean right NOW – you can take positive action to ensure your good health, good relationships, and a good dose of optimism.

How to Reduce Stress Today

  1. Exercise a little every day because it reduces Stress, improves your mood, and boosts overall physical and mental health. I have found that it also helps you sleep better.
  2. Build a support system. For some people, becoming part of a faith community helps reduce Stress – I know this does for me. However, for others, it may be joining a gym club or a MeetUp Group. The important thing is, wherever you find healthy, solid friendships will help you feel love, reassurance, and connection.
  3. Keep a positive attitude. Look for silver linings and good news. Practice gratitude Every day (more about this in another post).
  4. Let go of the negatives. Go On- just accept that there are things you cannot control – remember the serenity prayer?
  5. Stop being aggressive. Instead of becoming angry, defensive, or the opposite passive – share your feelings, opinions, or beliefs kindly and peacefully.
  6. Find ways to relax. Learn to meditate, which is proven to work. Try a relaxation app. Listen to great music or read a good book.
  7. Develop new interests. Having a sense of adventure can help you reduce Stress. Tune in to your dreams. Rekindle things you are passionate about. Take up a hobby. I have many of them. Find the creative within you!
  8. Don’t short change your bodily needs. Get enough rest and sleep. When you’re under stress, your body needs time to recover. Give it the rest it needs.
  9. Eat healthy, balanced meals. Your body needs good nutrition to fight the effects of Stress. Also, don’t rely on alcohol, sugar, or carbs to quiet your anxiety.
  10. Volunteer. Take the focus off yourself and put it onto others. Research shows that when you commit yourself to help others, you find meaning and purpose and achieve a feeling of achievement.

If you are Interest in How to Heal and Reduce Stress in your life, take my new Course over on Udemy.

My NEW Course is going Live on Udemy on July 30th, 2021.

Beginners Mindfulness MasterClass for Stress Relief. 

The Mindfulness Stress Relief Master Class is designed for newbies to Mindfulness or anyone interested in learning self-awareness and improving well-being and personal growth. It will teach you How Mindfulness is used when you are feeling stressed. This course is suitable if you want to learn how to relieve your Stress in a simple, practical, and fun way.

Hello! my name is Paula Rose Parish MA. my main focus is teaching Mindfulness and also advocates Holistic Living for the well-being of Mind, Body and Spirit. I love the great outdoors, crafting, my dogs, and writing, and family.

If you feel stressed or are a hyper-focused, motivated achiever, then I know you can successfully apply yourself to create a better balance in your life with Mindfulness. At times, life sucks and isn’t fair or kind. However, there is hope on the horizon. Mindfulness is a beautiful tool to help you to succeed on your journey. However, to live mindfully, you must develop what I call- Well-Habits.

The key learning points include:

· Origins of Mindfulness and why it works as it does.

· Understanding what harmful Stress is and how to self-regulate it to find relief.

· Learning the triggers to stress to be better able to respond to challenging situations rather than react.

· Recognising patterns of worrying or self-criticism that often generate more Stress.

· Developing practical self-care tools to help you thrive, perform at your best, and build resilience.

Course Materials

· PDF will cover the theory of each session and provide details of the home practice.

· PowerPoint slides to guide you through the Course.

· Video lectures

· End of module quizzes

Access to my new Blog moonrosemindfulness.com for continual learning.

Thank you for visiting me here; I hope this post was helpful. If it was, please subscribe, or leave a comment with any questions!

 If you feel you would like further support, please contact me. Details of How to get in touch with me are found in my home page’s top menu.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvdQ4NPTNfXSnwd3pimPh0g

 HEAD OVER TO YOUTUBE AND CATCH UP WITH MY VIDEOS – it is Free! 

Virtual hugs, I look forward to your visit to my next blog post!

Paula Rose Parish

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How I Cope with Distractions when Things are Going Wrong – My Monday Rant!

I’m writing this blog post today, extraordinarily frustrated and upset. Everything is going wrong the last few months. My house is still a mess due to building work that is going on for three months now; builders stopped and started, and the job still is not finished. And because I find it very difficult to work with distractions and work from home, I haven’t been sticking to my schedule, and I have been putting a lot of my commitments on hold till things steel, which has been quite a mistake.

I have not made any videos for YouTube for a little while. So, this morning I decided to bite the bullet, breathe deeply, and make a video for my YouTube channel. I duly did my hair and makeup to make myself look half decent for the camera, and then I set up the camera and sat at my computer to record it from there.

Then, about two minutes into the recording, my computer completely crashed and then it took me over an hour to try to recover it and get on with my day. So I’ve given up now trying to make a video this morning but will try again later in the afternoon.

Distractions put a spanner in the works, and it’s challenging to overcome them to get on with my routine. But, as you know, I practice meditation, prayer and mindfulness and find that between God and psychological therapy helps to get me through life’s obstacles.

I don’t know if you can relate to this but, I’ve really changed since the pandemic the lockdowns. The isolation has affected me more than I ever imagined psychologically.

Living alone and not seeing anybody for five weeks at a stretch can be tricky and almost feels like a jail sentence. I’ve tried to be productive by setting up a website, started a YouTube channel, wrote, and published two books, not to mention all the learning I have done about working online. I also started writing a course that will be out at the end of July, and I still have worked at my ministry in coaching online and by phone, but it’s still not the same as seeing people face-to-face.

And of course, I conducted many funerals, which led me to see people, but there was no real conversation because we couldn’t really socialise. It’s not exactly a happy occasion where people can engage in small talk. I supported people with words of encouragement and compassion, and in those circumstances, I give it my all people feel comfortable and supported. But this has left me quite feeling even more isolated and drained.

I wrote a blog post a while ago about burnout because I realised how burnt out I really was. Part of my burnout was because of my terrible reactions to the COVID19 vaccination. It was impossible to see a doctor for the best part of a year. I just could not get an appointment as all consultancy was only over the phone. Then, when I had my second vaccination, I was told that I had such a strong reaction to the first jab because my immune system is so robust that it reacted against the vaccination. My immune system tried to fight it, creating its own antibodies – which vaccinations are supposed to do.


The vaccination did its work in the long run, but the side effects left me feeling rather tired, with a huge rash and feeling quite unwell. This has been made worse by the building work going on in my house. It has been challenging to cope with, distracting me from getting on with work.

I am positive that I don’t cope as well now I’m older. This is quite true physically, and psychologically it is an actual thing- because of the lack of production of hormones which helps one cope with the stresses and strains of life.

As an older woman, I have less production of the female hormone that helps with stress. So, now it is more of a struggle to get through difficulties. So, I can’t blame it all on me not being able to cope. I thought perhaps I should buy oestrogen tablets, so I went online, and they actually cost a bomb – more than I can afford. So, I am learning to work around and through these distractions the best I can.

If I plan my day using an hour by the hour system, and if I stick to that plan, I can cope and work through my responsibilities a lot better. I don’t know how you feel about it, but I have found that It is difficult working from home full time. It’s a temptation to take an extended lunchtime or coffee time and end up sleeping in on the couch. And before you know it, a whole afternoon is gone! But if I have a firm plan with goals to reach projects to fulfil, I can be more mindful of my approach to my day. I’m also more prayerful because I can invite God into every moment to strengthen and guide me through the day. The only problem is planning so tightly that it must be flexible to allow for distractions like I have experienced today. As I write, I am over 2 hours behind my schedule. Does this matter? Or does it only matter if I allow it to matter? If I worry about it and fret about it, I am not mindful, but I am setting myself up for burnout.

If I let any worry go and work steadily through my schedule the best, I am sure I will come out with a better attitude, more robust mental health, and a smile on my face. Furthermore, if I congratulate myself at the end of every day for my accomplishments even though I did not complete my to-do list, it will help me focus on living in the moment.

I am very excited about launching my course, The Mindfulness Stress Relief Master Class, on July 30, 2021. It’s just not for the over 50s, but it will be helpful for anybody who wants to understand what mindfulness is and how it can be integrated into their daily living.

For me, it is essential to understand how stuff works, and then I can work with knowledge, understanding and commitment. That is why in this course, I explain the history in the background of mindfulness and the scientific research to back it up. This will help you be confident that what you are doing is not a flash in the pan – a popular therapy method, but rather a scientifically proven method of living that has proven itself to work over a long history.

If you wish to be updated regularly about this course and its launch at the end of July, please follow this blog, subscribe to receive my monthly newsletter.

I hope this rant of a blog post is helpful to you, but I want you to know that we’re all on this journey together, and nothing in life is perfect. However, if we live our lives in hope, faith and love in the strength of God, life is indeed worth living and worth sharing with others.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

 NEW Course is going Live on Udemy on July 30th 2021.

Beginners Mindfulness Masterclass for Stress Relief. 

The Mindfulness Stress Relief Master Class is designed for newbies to Mindfulness or anyone interested in learning self-awareness and improving well-being and personal growth. It will teach you How Mindfulness is used when you are feeling stressed. This course is suitable if you want to learn how to relieve your stress in a simple, practical, and fun way.

Hello! my name is Paula Rose Parish MA. my main focus is teaching Mindfulness and also advocates Holistic Living for the well-being of Mind, Body and Spirit. I love the great outdoors, crafting, my dogs, and writing, and family.

If you feel stressed or are a hyper-focused, motivated achiever, then I know you can successfully apply yourself to create a better balance in your life with Mindfulness. At times, life sucks and isn’t fair or kind. However, there is hope on the horizon. Mindfulness is a beautiful tool to help you to succeed on your journey. However, to live mindfully, you must develop what I call- Well-Habits.

The key learning points include:

· Origins of Mindfulness and why it works as it does.

· Understanding what harmful stress is and how to self-regulate it to find relief.

· Learning the triggers to stress to be better able to respond to challenging situations rather than react.

· Recognising patterns of worrying or self-criticism that often generate more stress.

· Developing practical self-care tools to help you thrive, perform at your best, and build resilience.

Course Materials

· PDF will cover the theory of each session and provide details of the home practice.

· PowerPoint slides to guide you through the course.

· Video lectures

· End of module quizzes

· 12-month Free Membership Access to my new Blog moonrosemindfulness.com for continual learning.

Thank you for visiting me here; I hope this post was helpful. If it was, please subscribe, or leave a comment with any questions!

 If you feel you would like further support, please contact me. Details of How to get in touch with me are found in my home page’s top menu.

 HEAD OVER TO YOUTUBE AND CATCH UP WITH MY VIDEOS – it is Free! 

Virtual hugs, I look forward to your visit to my next blog post!

Paula Rose Parish

How to get through and recover from Burnout of Mind, Body & Spirit and Stay Sane!

I want to share with you in this post,  how I get through Burn out and stay sane. This is not the whole story but a snippet from my new book about Holistic Living, which features Mindfulness and issues around mental health. I am in the process of writing it. It will be published and made available to you later in the year – so keep a lookout for that!

Also, If you struggle to make self-care a priority or do not know how to start your holistic-mindfulness journey, check out my course, which will be available in the Summer of 2021- subscribe free to this blog to get updates on this! I am starting a new blog soon just dedicated to Holistic  mindfulness, so keep a look out for that going live!

Before the sun arise to greet the new day, I kneel once more upon my  bedside rug with my hands over my eyes, and pray: “Oh, Lord, let me feel at one with you, myself, and others. Let me perform my tasks with the motivation of hope, faith and love. May  grace be in my thoughts, actions and speech this day”.

To pray this prayer daily, is the only way I know to effectually get through and to recover from burn out.

My strength is so very  limited, but Gods strength is limitless, so I draw upon that in faith. I admire people who get through stuff all by themselves. They don’t seem to need God, people or any other intervention- they just get on with it successfully. But that’s not me. I know my weakness and limitations. I recognise that I  desperately  need the power of God in my life. The power of God is called the Holy Spirit who is part of the God head in Christ. The holy Spirit  is given to empowers us, to bring us through, so we can be witness of his love and grace.

That does not mean to say that I sit back and watch God magically work on my behalf. No Never!

But what I do is to submit myself in prayer like the one above, and go through my day knowing that I am not alone. Then I am diligent to learn and apply practical steps as listed below to help me. However,  the difference is that I go forward into my day Gods ability- in Gods power and strength to get through and recover from burn out.

How did I get burnt out if the first place if I trusted in God?

Well the answer is simple – I didn’t!

As a perfectionist, a high achiever, I expect far too much of myself. I don’t give my body, mind or spirit enough time out or flexibility in my tasks, it’s something I am still learning to do. God gives us time out, urging us to rest- it’s called the Sabbath. So having cleared that up, let’s have a little look at a few practical ways  to recover from and avoid burn out in the future.

1) Take the time to  pause and change direction by learning how you can help yourself overcome burnout and feel healthy and positive again.

FIRST-Adopt the three “R” approach:

Recognize. Watch for the warning signs of burnout. Be self-aware. Listen to your thoughts and words, notice you’re the way you approach actions.

Reverse. Undo the damage by seeking support and managing stress- this is what we are doing here now.

Resilience. Build your resilience to stress by taking care of your physical and emotional health.

SECOND – Learn strategies to do the three “3 R’s” that you are comfortable with.

In the next blog post I will list some strategies That I have found has helped me, and may be of help to you as well.

Thank you for visiting me here, I hope this post was helpful. If it was, I would love to hear from you. Feel free to contact me and share any thoughts you have. And if you enjoyed reading this blog, please support it by subscribing to my FREE newsletter and receive your FREE thankyou gift!

 If you feel you would like further support through prayer, counselling or coaching, please contact me. Details of How to get in touch with me is found in the top menu on my home page.

 HEAD OVER TO YOUTUBE AND CATCH UP WITH MY VIDEOS – it is Free! 

I look forward to your visit to my next blog post!

Paula Rose Parish

CLICK HERE—–.https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvdQ4NPTNfXSnwd3pimPh0g

What is Burnout? How you can recognise Extreme Stress Burnout Syndrome the Signs and Symptoms.

We all have ‘off’ days when we feel helpless, overloaded, or unappreciated. The alarm sounds and we reluctantly drag ourselves out of bed. however, If you feel like this most of the time, you may be burned out.

 Like you, I have experienced burnout many times in my life. It’s something that is insidious. You don’t notice it’s happening, It sneaks up on you and you are not aware of it until you just crash.

Being aware of what burnout is, and recognising the symptoms is half the battle won.

What is BURNOUT SYNDROME?

Burnout is exhaustion as a result of high levels of stress. Your mind, body and spirit can only handle feeling overworked and overwhelmed for so long. Your body will be tired, your emotions will be fraught. Your spirit( your inner core) will feel simply dried out.

Burnout will make you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to meet daily demands. As the stress continues, you begin to lose interest and motivation and the feeling of overwhelm takes hold.

In our modern society, we think that constantly living under stress is a ‘normal’ way to live. But I have news for you- it’s NOT!

Burn out left unchecked, may lead to a nervous/ mental breakdown. The problems are, that burnout happens gradually, therefore, you might not notice symptoms immediately. But once it takes hold, it can affect your ability to function across all aspects of your life.

SYMPTOMS OF BURNOUT

By no means is this is not a comprehensive list, and you may experience just a few or, many of these symptoms.

  • You may begin to feel less motivated since it seems like nothing you do really matters.
  • If you are experiencing burnout, you may view your living environment and/or your job as increasingly stressful and frustrating. 
  • You may develop a distrust, or disinterest in the people in your life, and may also feel emotionally distant and indifferent.
  • You may develop a distrust, or disinterest and your life in general.
  • You may feel detachment, and alone in the world.
  • Where once you were content with your life in general or work, but now You may feel resentful of the responsibilities and demands it imposes. 
  • Burnout may lead to physical symptoms, like headaches, muscle pain, and stomach-aches or intestinal issues, etc.
  •  Burnout causes people to feel drained, lack motivation, emotionally exhausted, unable to cope with the smallest of tasks.
  • Constant Tiredness is a symptom of burnout.
  • Difficulty in focusing one’s mind and concentrating and often lack creativity is also a symptom.
  • No zest for life, you feel like you are on a constant treadmill.
  • Every day is a struggle
  • Caring about your work or home life seems like a total waste of energy.
  • The majority of your day is spent on tasks you find either mind-numbingly dull or overwhelming.
  •  You may feel one step forward and 2 back and nothing you do makes a difference or is appreciated by others.
  • Lowered immunity 
  •  Frequent illnesses

Burnout may be the result of unrelenting stress, but it isn’t the same as too much stress. Stress can be a positive motivation tool. It may provide the metal fuel to forge forward. Stressed people can still get everything under control, to feel better.

Burnout, on the other hand, is about destructive, extreme unrelenting stressors. Being burned out means feeling empty and mentally exhausted, devoid of motivation, and beyond caring, unable to pull one socks up and get on with it.

People experiencing burnout often cannot see any hope of positive change in their situations. Burnout is a sense of being all dried up, wrung out, parched as a desert, in mind body and spirit. 

Burn-out shares some similar symptoms of mental health conditions, such as depression. Individuals with depression experience negative feelings and thoughts about all aspects of life, not just at work. Depression symptoms may also include a loss of interest in things, feelings of hopelessness, cognitive and physical symptoms as well as thoughts of ending one’s life to get some relief. You may not be depressed, but just burnt out. Once you rest and recover, the veil of gloom will lift and you will feel your old self again. If it does not lift- you may be clinically depressed. If this is the case- you must seek medical help!

In my next post, I will share some tips about how to recover from Burn-out

I want to share with you my Holistic journey. This post is not the whole story but a snippet from my new book about Holistic Living, which features Mindfulness and issues around mental health. It will be published and made available to you later in the year – so keep a lookout for that! If you struggle to make self-care a priority or do not know how to start your mindfulness journey, check out my course, which will be available in the Summer of 2021- subscribe free to this blog to get updates on this! Regardless of where you are on your journey, I hope you will find something useful here- if so, please let me know down in the comments. 

I hope this post was helpful. If it was, I would love to hear from you. Feel free to contact me and share any thoughts you have. And if you enjoyed reading this blog, please support it by subscribing to my FREE newsletter and receive your FREE thankyou gift!

 If you feel you would like further support through prayer, counselling or coaching, please contact me. Details of How to get in touch with me is found in the top menu on my home page.

 HEAD OVER TO YOUTUBE AND CATCH UP WITH MY VIDEOS – it is Free! 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvdQ4NPTNfXSnwd3pimPh0g

I look forward to your visit to my next blog post!

Paula Rose Parish

How Holistic health cares for the whole person

The term ‘holistic’ may conjure up all kinds of otherworldly ideas. In this post I want to share with you what holistic health actually is . There is no single definition of mindfulness to which scholars have agreed. Instead, several definitions exist that emphasize different aspects of holistic health .This is not the whole story but a snippet from my new book about Holistic Living which features mindfulness and issues around mental health. I am in process of writing it. It will be published and made available to you later in the year – so keep a look out for that! Also, If you struggle to make self-care a priority, check out my courses which will be available in Summer of 2021.

Do you think of alternative medicine, naturopathy, or other Eastern-inspired health trends? If so, you’re at least partly right. However, this is not a cooky-spooky ideal; conversely, it is a scientific, intelligent approach to health and wellbeing. Therapeutics for Holistic health has been scientifically proven to work, and like alternative medicine, it focuses on wellness and prevention rather than just treating the problem. It gets to the ‘root’ of the cause and heals from the inside out. The holistic approach allows the body to maintain its health and heal itself as it is equipped to do. 

 Holistic health is about caring for the whole person — providing for your physical, mental, spiritual, and social needs. It’s rooted in the understanding of Shalom. The mind-body and spirit affect each other in profound ways. There is a knock-on effect for good health or sickness that encroaches upon your overall health. In helping people, my approach is that – all the sum of your parts are connected, one has a direct bearing upon another. That is why in my book Nothing Good about Grief– I include a mindful experience to help calm all your component parts of Mind, Body and Spirit. 

A long time ago, I learned that any method that separates out our three parts is only putting a band-aid on the problem, and healing cannot manifest because of it. In the Gospels, Jesus clearly ministers to the Mind, Body and Spirit. It makes sense to address the whole, to gain wholeness for our being.  To understand this better, let’s take it a little further by way of example.

STRESS

Stress is a psychological response, but it can also cause physical symptoms, such as headaches, trouble sleeping, weight gain, and muscle pain, and it can cause much unrest in our spirits. Furthermore, it also works the other ways around, being physically ill can cause you to feel mentally anxious or depressed. Meanwhile, your spirituality and your relationships can boost your mental and physical health. Studies show that having close friendships lowers your blood pressure, reduces your stress levels, and can even improve your chances of surviving cancer. Understanding this, medical doctors who take a holistic approach to health don’t just ask you about your symptoms, and overall health. Informing them in this way, they make personalised recommendations to improve your wellness. Another example, if you’re experiencing chronic pain, a holistic health care provider might prescribe medications or recommend surgery to repair an injury, but they’ll also recommend that you increase your endorphins naturally by getting more exercise. They’ll ask about your diet and discuss how certain foods contribute to inflammation. They’ll ask you about stress, anxiety, and depression — all of which can cause pain or be caused by it — and refer you to a therapist if you want one. They might also recommend massage to relax your muscles, acupuncture to help with nerve pain, or mindful meditation to help with pain management and stress relief.

Simply put, rather than treating the pain, they’ll treat the person and use all the tools at their disposal to do it. You an exceptional being, comprising of a Mind, Body and Spirit- that’s how you were made. So, in understating that, looking after yourself takes on a new perceptive- doesn’t it?

You need to be well to function independently in this life. Wellness is a big, important goal; however, it can feel overwhelming at times. You know you should eat healthier foods, drink more water, exercise seriously more often, sleep eight hours a night, give up your vices, and make more time for rest, meditation and relaxation. But the busyness of work and life can make it hard to prioritise self-care, and the more you think about what you “should” be doing differently, the more daunting wellness can seem. Holistic health is about taking responsibility for your own health. If you are doing something destructive to your healthy- being, recognise it for what it is, and endeavour to replace it with healthier habits of mind, body and spirit.

In my coaching practice, I empower you with education and motivation to make better choices. Rather than suggesting a long list of lifestyle changes, I include you in the conversation and help you to determine which changes would make the most significant impact on your health. I help you to set Your wellness goals and then provide you with resources — whether that’s a personalised plan or, if you need to go deeper into the problem – a counselling session.

So, what is holistic health and wellbeing? It’s about honouring the mind-body-spirit connection, and treating the whole person. I have a Master of Arts in the social sciences in the subject of Counselling in Professional Development and coaching. I have created my own intervention that includes the Mind, Body and Spirit, for this reason, I have named it Integrative Transformational Therapy. The method integrates several therapies that will transform your life. I deliver it through either online Coaching, Courses or Counselling, whatever best suits your need. My aim is to develop a strong relationship with you because I am committed to getting you healthy and helping you to keep you that way.

Ready to book a holistic health Consultation or Training workshop with us? Perhaps you would like more information? Click CONTACT ON THE MENU BAR we are happy to help you with any queries too.

Thank you for visiting me here, I hope this post was helpful? Then please like, subscribe or  leave a comment with any questions you may have!

 If feel you would like further support, please contact me. Details of How to get in touch with me is found in the top menu on my home page.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvdQ4NPTNfXSnwd3pimPh0g

 HEAD OVER TO YOU TUBE AND CATCH UP WITH MY VIDEOS and I see you in my next blog post!

Paula Rose Parish