Recently, I wrote and article providing four essential yet simple ways to improve your health: 1) Consuming a low fat, high fruit raw vegan diet, 2) Exercising everyday, 3) Getting enough sleep, and 4) Getting 15-30 minutes of sunshine per day. If you are deficient in any of these four areas, your health will surely suffer.
Of course, there are many additional factors that can affect overall health. Clean air and fresh water are just a couple, as well as healthy relationships and mental creativity.
But would you like to know which health factor absolutely TRUMPS all of these?
Oh, you know I'm gonna tell ya. :)
Stress Management
Once my stress gets out of hand, all h**l breaks lose. Simple things like eating and sleeping become utter chores.
When I'm stressed out, it's much harder to stay raw. I can't maintain an exercise routine. My sleep is disturbed.
And you just better pray you're not anywhere near me if I've had more than a couple nights of less than restful sleep.
In other words, the whole system fails. I simply can't stay healthy when I'm stressed and I KNOW I'm not the only one.
How to Manage Your Stress
It's not meditating.
It's not taking a nap or drinking chamomile tea.
Just like ingesting an Ibuprofen to alleviate your headache, these tactics only help to alleviate the symptoms. They don't come anywhere close to the cause.
To do that, you have to get to the root of your problem and figure out what's contributing to your stress in the first place.
For me, this means tackling the workaholic and perfectionist in me who says, "If I'm not constantly working, then I'm not working hard enough, and if my work isn't "perfect," then I'm not working hard enough!" and has me setting ridiculous daily goals for myself that I can't possibly meet while at the same time reducing my leisure activities to almost nil.
Before I know it, I'm overworking, undereating, and having mad cravings for all kinds of cooked food comforts.
So what do I do to combat this? I set reasonable goals, plan out my work periods for the day, make sure to leave ample relaxation time and VOILA! I'm more productive, more relaxed, and stress-free!
In other words, I DO SOMETHING about it! I don't just read lots of stress management articles (like this one). I don't just sit down to a self-help book. I apply that information to my own life and put it to work as soon as possible.
It's just like with going raw.
You can read all the raw food literature you want or watch as many raw recipe videos on YouTube as humanly possible. It won't mean diddly squat if the only raw food you eat is an ounce of lettuce under a mountain of Ranch dressing or a sprig of parsley with your Chicken Carbonara.
You have to actually EAT RAW FOODS to experience the benefits!
Putting It All Together
So if you want to stay raw, maintain an effective exercise program, and obtain overall health, you've got to get your stress under control. To do that, you have to figure out what causes your stress, develop techniques for managing it, and then get to work!
As Nike says, JUST DO IT!:D
