Looking Within,Proper Training, Marital Happiness,and Reducing Stress

"I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time."– Anna Freud

Linda, Nails, and I hit the trail.  Because I was tired from yesterday’s run, we did a short loop of about 4 to 5 miles.  My tapering started today.  I plan to run easy Thursday and Friday and then do a longer run on Saturday.  My thinking is that by doing a short run Thursday and Friday, I will be rested for Saturday’s longer run.  Rest and not overdoing training is extremely important.  It is fairly easy to fool oneself by thinking that you need to do more, when actually less is likely better. This concept is difficult to learn and apply since many of us have difficulty knowing when to ease off or simply rest.  Going into a run over trained is likely to result in developing an overuse injury.

An article titled “Finding the Road to Fitness and Friendship” was in the October 25, 2011 edition of the Wall Street Journal.  The article told about a woman who became the CEO of a start up and as a result her social life and her workout schedule, suffered.  She claimed she did not have time for lunch dates or workouts.  To solve the problem, she began hiking with friends, in the early morning.  According to Laura, she claims that hiking helps her mental well-being. She enjoys exercise and being with friends in the outdoors.  This is how she manages her stress.

After her hike, she does a strength workout which includes setups, push-ups, squats, triceps dips and bicep curls with dumbbells.  Her diet consists of scrambled eggs with spinach, oatmeal or Greek yogurt for breakfast.  Lunch is often a salad.  Snacks might be yogurt, nuts or fruit.  In other words, this CEO finds the time, regardless of her schedule.  She has incorporated a few of my prescriptions to create a better life style, by adjusting both attitude and behavior.  For example, prescription number one: Get inspired.  It is okay to begin a new activity by taking baby steps.  A physical activity can help in improving physical fitness, losing weight, reducing anxiety, and minimizing depression.  Prescription number three: En rich your life by making friends, sharing interests, learning about others by becoming part of a new group.  Prescription number five: Participate in outdoor activity to help nurture spirituality.

A recent study looked at 1700 US couples to determine how their attitudes toward money, affected their marriage.  Couples who said money was not important to them scored about 10% to 15% better on measures of relationship quality, such as marriage stability than couples in which one or more partners were materialistic.  Also, couples in which both partners said they valued lots of money, about 20% of these couples fared worse.  In other words, the conclusion was that materialism itself is creating much of the difficulty, even when couples have plenty of money.  For example, materialism might cause spouses to make poor financial decisions such as overspending and running up debt which can strain relationships. Also, materialistic spouses may give their marriage, lower priority than other concerns.  My prescription number four: Realize that there is more to life than the accumulation of material things, and having the biggest toy does not result in happiness.  By reading “It Has Nothing to Do with Age” you will find greater wisdom and the ability to improve your life.