In America...
...we are distressed in our professional work & our personal lives...
...stress is damaging our society, our families, & the next generation.
...we are less productive, suffer from more disease, and have less vacation than any developed country
... "busyness" has become an abused word, and frankly, it has abused us.

Too busy ...to work smart because you are too tired and mentally depleted from multi-tasking?
Too tired from raising our children without the help of the "village"?
Too little time to accomplish the tasks you need in a 24 hour day?
Too exhausted from packing your bags for constant guilt trips?
Too scattered to even read this scenario?
Too burned out with your career to care about it?

LIFE IS MORE THAN SURVIVAL
We want and need to accomplish tasks and do Good Work for the sake of our families and the planet. But in the process, the "work" gets in the way of living. Instead, we end up hanging on for dear life, afraid to fall out of the pace of life. Instead, we end up surviving.

"I don't want to survive, I want to live!"
~ Quote from the screenplay Wall-E

READ MY ARTICLE ON
WHAT MAKES SURVIVORS RESILIENT

STAY GROUNDED WHILE FLYING

To Fly: adj. Situated, extending, or functioning in the air; swiftly moving, fleet; done or performed swiftly as if in the air; brief, hurried; capable of swift deployment or response

In our work, we must fly, drive, run, walk, lift, push, pull, compromise, debate, and generally engage in "hand to hand" physical, emotional, mental, social, or spiritual combat on a daily basis - sometimes requiring 80+ hours a week.
We risk burnout, mental fog, impaired digestion, weight gain, apathy, and general malaise and loss of motivation and spirit for living.

Here are some of the things that I practice and give to my patients to help them stay grounded while Breathing In This Life.

1. Remind yourself - YOU MATTER. YOUR LIFE & EXPERIENCE COUNTS. YOU ARE A UNIQUE & BEAUTIFULCREATION WITH AMAZING POTENTIAL. In Ayurveda, we recognize that Americans in their busy state are usually stuck in a pattern of "vata". The word 'vata' (pronounced "vah-tuh") means wind, and is composed of air and ether. To feel more grounded and less like "head in the clouds-like", we need to decrease "vata". Decreasing vata can be as simple as increasing the opposite element, earth. Think of ways you can spend more time with "earth".

DECREASING VATA -
On eating - eat slowly, do not eat food if you are upset or anxious, do not eat on the go or in your car. Eat evening meals with family as much as possible. Occasionally enjoy the solitude of a solo lunch during work hours, instead of spending that time "chatting up" your friends.

In the evening - After dinner with family each night, "tune down" your movement. This means turning off technology like cell phones, computers, televisions, pagers, and artificial lights. Take a brief stroll in a natural setting like a park or beach, but not the city or around traffic areas with noise.

On general activity - Choose activities that bring you back to nature, like meditative walks, gardening, yoga out of doors (but out of hot sun) or grounding yoga poses that keep your feet or bottom on the ground, camping (if you like it), hiking, kayaking or other non-motorized boating on a calm day, or simply reading a book out of doors with your feet in the grass or toes in the sand.

On relationships & family time - We need more time with our families and less time in front of the TV (and yes, the computer), even if this means scheduling family time, like dinners and special events. A recent survey published in Forbes magazine reported the time American kids and their parents spend together has fallen more that one third (30%) between 2005 and 2008. That is a startling statistic, a 300% increase from the 11% reported just three years ago, in 2006, says Michael Gilbert, a senior fellow at the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication. "Families are the social building blocks of virtually every society, and this (statistic) cannot be a good thing". Says Gilbert, "all technology is not good." Limit tv and computer use by your children, and by yourself.
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READ MY BLOG ON SIGHS OF RELIEF

On yogic activity - a yoga practice should generally focus on detoxification from today's negative stress through grounding poses which connect your feet and/or hands or bottom to the earth. Headstands are not necessarily good for grounding a person. Rather standing or seated poses can be good. Sequences which focus on calming the breath and bringing the mind to a single focus (rather than multi-tasking) also help decrease vata. If you are not in the Eastern North Carolina region, you can find a PYT™certified therapist that has been through my training certification. FIND A PYT™ Working with a PYT™certified therapist can include many other elemental therapy methods.

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PYT™ & BREATHING IN THIS LIFE can help reprogram our lives from being negatively "distressed to positively eustressed"