Cegah Penyakit Stress Dan Jantung Dengan Berlibur

 

 

 

RISET menunjukkan bahwa liburan bukanlah kemewahan, tapi kebutuhan yang bahkan dapat memperpanjang hidup Anda.

Para peneliti dari State University of New York mensurvei 12.000 pria berusia 35-57 tahun selama sembilan tahun. Mereka menemukan bahwa orang yang tidak pernah liburan (setidaknya selama seminggu per tahun) meningkatkan risiko kematian akibat penyakit jantung sebesar 30%. Plus, orang yang gila bekerja berisiko menderita stres, tekanan darah tinggi, diabetes tipe 2, dan obesitas, seperti dilansir Reader’s Digest.
 
Jangan bekerja weekend ini

Bahkan relaksasi selama akhir pekan dapat membantu. Ketika peneliti Finlandia melacak kebiasaan kesehatan dari 800 wanita dan pria selama 28 tahun, mereka menemukan bahwa orang yang tidak istirahat dari pekerjaannya selama akhir pekan, tiga kali lebih mungkin mengalami serangan jantung fatal daripada mereka banyak istirahat.

Jadi, janganlah bekerja pada akhir pekan ini. Jangan perbaiki rumah, memotong rumput dan menata taman (kecuali itu adalah hobi yang benar-benar Anda cintai) dan hal-hal yang bisa membuat Anda stres. Adopsi mentalitas "staycation", sarapan santai, pergi berjalan-jalan, mengunjungi atraksi lokal, dan makan di luar dengan teman-teman. Kemudian rencanakan hal-hal menyenangkan lainnya setiap akhir pekan dari sekarang.

Rencanakan liburan nyata

Periksa kalender dan pilihlah satu minggu (atau lebih) untuk liburan. Hanya dengan mencari liburan selama sepekan yang sempurna dapat membuat Anda lebih bahagia, menurut penelitian Belanda sampai 2010.

Buatlah liburan yang relaxing

Melakukan terlalu banyak kegiatan dapat menyedot kebahagiaan liburan. Dan Anda mungkin akan kehilangan manfaat sehat liburan jika mencoba melakukan terlalu banyak atau setuju untuk melakukan hal-hal yang Anda tidak ingin ketika liburan.

Melihat pemandangan dengan berjalan kaki

Berjalan kakilah supaya bahagia ketika liburan. Jalan kaki melepaskan hormon endorphin (hormon merasa baik/bahagia), plus Anda bisa menjelajahi daerah yang tidak diketahui oleh turis lain. Lihatlah atraksi luar ruangan seperti melihat patung kebun, melakukan jejak alam, menyusuri jalur tepi danau, atau sekadar menyusuri pantai yang indah dari ujung-ujung untuk berjalan-jalan.

Melakukan kebiasaan terbaik kesehatan Anda

Diet atau cara makan sehat masih bisa dilakukan ketika liburan. Memanjakan diri Anda menikmati buah segar saat sarapan, mengemil sehat di sore hari, minum segelas anggur merah yang sehat bagi jantung saat makan malam.

Pertimbangkan pergi ke pedesaan daripada perkotaan

Liburan ke daerah perkotaan lebih bising dan melelahkan. Sedang Liburan ke daerah pedesaan lebih tenang, damai, dan menyegarkan. Untuk kesehatan Anda, pedesaan adalah pilihan yang tepat. Tapi juga jangan memilih liburan yang membosankan, ambillah liburan yang membuat Anda jauh dari keramaian dan hiruk-pikuk seperti yang Anda hadapi sehari-hari.

Jangan bawa perlengkapan elektronik

Kombinasi teknologi komunikasi nirkabel di seluruh dunia berarti bahwa Anda langsung bekerja setiap saat di setiap tempat. Lawanlah hal ini! Jika Anda harus membawa laptop, pekerjaan atau BlackBerry Anda, tinggalkan di kamar hotel, matikan, dan sisihkan sedikit waktu untuk memeriksa pekerjaan Anda. Hal ini juga berlaku untuk kehidupan online pribadi Anda. Nikmati liburan Anda, jangan terus-menerus mem-post foto atau meng-update status di Facebook atau Twitter.

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memelihara Kelinci Bisa Bermanfaat bagi Kesehatan

BEBERAPA waktu lalu, kelinci menjadi hewan peliharaan populer. Tidak hanya cantik, ternyata hewan berbulu ini juga memiliki efek baik pada kesehatan. Bagaimana?


Para ilmuwan berhasil membuktikan bahwa hewan yang digunakan sebagai ikon playboy tidak hanya cantik tapi juga baik untuk kesehatan.


Saat ini, teknik yang relatif baru yaitu menghadirkan kelinci  selama sesi konsultasi dengan psikolog dan psikoterapi semakin populer.


Studi baru ini dilakukan oleh tim ahli dari University of Missouri dan dipimpin oleh Profesor Rebecca Johnson. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kehadiran kelinci  memberi  rasa ketenangan pada wanita.


Selanjutnya, para ilmuwan mengamati adanya penurunan kadar hormon stres cortisol dalam tubuh seorang wanita setelah mereka memegang hewan selama beberapa menit. Demikian yang dikutip dari Genius Beauty, Kamis (2011/06/01).


Dr Johnson mencatat bahwa kehadiran kelinci domestik bermanfaat dalam memfasilitasi ikatan sosial, mengajar perempuan dan anak perempuan bagaimana untuk lebih memahami diri sendiri dan orang lain, dan bagaimana berkomunikasi dengan orang lain secara lebih efektif.


Secara khusus, wanita yang telah memelihara kelinci juga memiliki kontrol lebih baik atas emosi dan perilaku. Kelinci digunakan sebagai bagian dari terapi juga memfasilitasi penyembuhan penyakit serius pada anak-anak dan remaja, seperti autisme atau depresi, dan membantu mereka mengatasi kurang percaya diri.

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Heart Rate Monitor Stress Test - Get Your Accurate Heart Rate Condition In Real Time

Heart Rate Monitor Stress Test is More Accurate Than Other Methods

Before the development of portable heart rate monitors, manual methods for determining heart rates during performance were the only techniques available. The electronic equipment capable of registering and recording performance data had not been miniaturized and was only used and available to doctors and therapists. Today however it is a different story. The development of heart rate monitors which are portable and lightweight has brought the technology to everyone. The electronic sensors have the ability to record performance data quickly and accurately in a number of situations. To monitor heart rate variability accurately there simply is no better method available today.

Takes Out the Guesswork of Performance Levels

Utilizing the manual methods presented athletes and coaches with a number of problems for obtaining accurate heart rate data. The need to immediately measure the heart’s performance directly following a workout could be a challenge. Delays would of course provide inaccurate data. Some delays were unavoidable; like having to get out of the pool after a swimming workout to measure heart rate. Forgetting to record heart rate data may cause inaccuracies as well. Counting heart beats and calculating maximum heart rate data could be affected by a number of factors not including performance. A Heart rate monitor stress test simply makes recording performance data easier and takes out the guesswork.

Automatically Provides the Information Needed

Manual methods may have been satisfactory for the time but they had serious limitations. For one, they couldn’t record the heart performance during the workout. The information could only be access after the athlete stopped working out. The heart rate monitor can provide valuable performance information during the athlete’s performance which can be used to enhance training routines and targeted objectives. How an athlete’s body is reacting and performing during various phases of a stress test can be important training data when used to adjust training routines. A heart rate monitor stress test can reveal many factors about an athlete’s true fitness level that is not accessible with other calculating methods.

Provides Biometric Feedback that’s Reliable

Many athletes and even coaches use subjective criteria to determine the success of a stress test. They may do this without even realizing it most of the time. But the heart rate monitor is not subjective. The monitor will provide reliable, accurate and objective data about an athlete’s performance during a stress test without bias. Athlete performance may look good and feel good but at the same time be below or above the targeted heart rate zone. Only the reliable data that is provided by the heart rate monitor can reveal what is truly happening inside the athlete’s body before, during and after a performance stress test.

About The Author

Aida is a neophyte, freelance writer who enjoys travelling and adventure. You should also read her other articles on Heart rate monitor, What to Purchase, and Heart rate monitor stress test.

The author invites you to visit: http://pillowspecialists.com

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Stress & Self Esteem, 4: Reaching out for Help

 

THE FINAL STEP

The final step in the model of building self-esteem can be the hardest. Why? Because everything up till now has involved things we could do alone. Reaching out for help, however, means involving other people - which brings with it a whole host of new challenges. Reaching out to someone requires someone you trust to reach out to - not always easy when your self-esteem is low. Not only this, but for those with over-active Inner Critics, it's easy to tell ourselves it's selfish to bother other people with our problems - that we should be able to deal with it on our own - that reaching out for help shows weakness (or is only for those far worse off than we are). So why reach out? Well, as John Donne so wisely observed back in the 16th Century, 'no man is an island'. However independent we like to see ourselves, none of us are born with all the skills we will ever need. Additionally, other people can provide feedback - offering perspective and helping us to see which thoughts are realistic, and which are totally unfounded. And if that's not enough, support networks can sometimes prevent problems. The seeds that create low self-esteem find their most fertile ground in people who feel isolated and unable to connect.

OVERCOMING INNER OBJECTIONS

Often, the first step in reaching out is dealing with our own objections. If your immediate reaction is 'I couldn't do that', or 'That's all very well, but...', give yourself a moment to just listen. Start a conversation with the part of you that's objecting, and ask it why. Treat it just as you would your Inner Critic. Your initial aim is not to argue - it's just to learn. Once you understand what your internal objections are, th! en you can evaluate and argue with them. We'd suggest that before you start evaluating, you re-read the previous parts of this article series (see links above). In particular, we suggest you remind your inner objector that:

• You can't give to other people what you don't already have yourself
• True friends prefer we talk to them, rather than pretending that everything's fine
• Recognising the resources you need that you don't currently have, then asking for them, is a sign of good planning, not weakness
• If your objector believes your problem is 'not yet bad enough to involve someone else', how bad do things have to get before it *is* OK to get help? And won't you need even more help when things get to that stage than you do now?

Let's assume that you've spoken with your inner objector, and come to the conclusion that asking for help really does make more sense than trying to go it alone. Where can you go from here?

WHO TO REACH OUT TO

The first, most obvious port of call is among the people you already know. Look at your friends and family. Is there someone you can trust to listen without judging you? Someone you feel comfortable asking for ideas? In an ideal situation, this would be someone who has fairly high self-esteem themselves - someone you can learn from. Although your initial response might be that there's no-one you can think of, we'd encourage you to look hard before assuming you don't know anyone - sometimes support can come from the most unlikely places. If there's genuinely nobody you feel comfortable trusting in real-life, however, a great alternative is to look for support online. Discussion groups like Yahoo groups, and online journalling communities like Live Journal both have a wide range of communities that exist specifically to share support, encouragement and feedback between members. Most of these allow you to 'lurk' for a while before you need to post - something that can help you build up your trust over time. Additionally, many of the self-help sites that offer self-help res ources (e.g. selfesteem4women.org, uncommon knowledge), also provide discussion forums that allow you to connect with other people with similar problems.
Finally, if neither of these seem like possibilities (or if you've tried both and they're not enough), you may want to consider reaching out to someone who's trained to help - generally a coach or counsellor. Unlike the above two options this will usually involve some kind of payment, although if you're still at school / university, or lucky enough to work in a company with an EAP (Employee Assistance Programme), you may have free counselling available. Your local library or Citizen's Advice Bureau should have suggestions for counsellors / coaches, or you could try online coaching.
It's important to remember that different professionals will have different approaches to helping you work on your self-esteem, and not every approach works for everyone. It's OK if the first person you speak to doesn't feel quite right for you - just keep looking until you find someone you feel comfortable with. Bear in mind that if you're paying someone your hard-earned money, you have a right to feel happy with whatever you're getting in return.

THE FINAL WORD

Whatever you do, the most important thing for you to take from this article is that you don't need to do it alone! And remember too that, although we've explored the three steps to building self-esteem (i.e. Rebutting your inner critic, Nurturing yourself, and Reaching out for help) in order, there's no reason that you can't work on them in a different order (or all at the same time!) This brings us to the end of our four-part article series on Stress and Self-esteem. If you have any feedback, suggestions, questions or comments about the advice or resources (or you'd like to suggest any websites, groups or products), please contact us on optimumlife@xtra.co.nz. We'll have a new article topic in the next issue - until then, may every day bring you closer to your Optimum Life.

Author Bio

2005 Tanja Gardner, Optimum Life Ltd. You can reprint this article in its entirety, as long as you include this resource box. Optimum Life Ltd (optimumlife.co.nz)

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