Pooped at Work?

It’s not unusual to feel pooped at work. If, however, you feel chronically tired then it’s time to request lab work to monitor your thyroid, blood sugar, white count, medications, etc.

Next eliminate the backlash from too much caffeine, too much sugar, too many carbs and too much lunch.

The further humans stray from Nature’s design, the more they encumber their performance and endurance. Your car is designed with guidelines for size and inflation of tires, type of fuel, weight of oil. When you ignore basic design requirements, your car may continue to move but you will not come close to peak performance.

The human body has been evolving, changing, adapting for tens of thousands of years but Nature makes changes very slowly. However, the demands placed upon you have changed dramatically within just a few decades!

You are faced hourly with corporate challenges while still functioning within a hunter/gatherer body. Since few of us are willing to return to foraging for food and herding goats, the next best thing is to compensate for the dramatic changes. Use your considerable IQ and experience to design a behavior plan that stays as close to your original design.

1. You are designed to MOVE. You are not designed to sit in a chair.
2. Your eyes are designed to move all around and change depth of focus often.
3. You are designed to breathe deeply, efficiently and steadily.
4. Your bones were fashioned to balance one atop the other without giving your muscles unnecessary work.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Frequent Breaks

When you spend a big chunk of your day at the computer, you will be scrunched, crunched, twisted and compressed before the day is half gone. The mounting compression of sitting (usually badly) messes with your body, your energy and your breathing.

I trust that your chair, equipment, light and desk are all ergonomically correct. Unfortunately that isn’t enough.

During the hundreds of thousands of years when our bodies were adapting and evolving, there were no chairs. Since you were never intended to sit at all, at least change and check your position often. Set your computer or watch alarm to signal periodically that it is time to stand up, stretch and take a few deep breaths. There are some interesting studies that indicate that your brain resets itself to a sharper mode when you take a quick break at least once every 40 minutes.

The longer you sit, the more you shallow breathe, leaving your body and brain sluggish. The delicate nerves and arteries of your neck are compressed by the considerably heavy weight of your off-balance head.

Remember that you need an aligned and balanced ribcage for efficient breathing. Try pressing your elbows against the chair back and reach toward the ceiling with the top of your head. Or, hunch your shoulders upward, push them back and pull them down. Notice how your breathing improves.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Finding Your Center

And where exactly is your center and why should you care? YOUR CENTER IS THAT EXACT POINT WHERE YOUR MIND, YOUR BODY AND YOUR SPIRIT ARE IN PERFECT BALANCE. Even though your center is invisible, you have probably sensed it from time to time. We often read about star athletes who describe having been “in the zone” when they did something extraordinary. Amazing things happen when you are “in the zone.”

It is understandable that, as the day wears on, we become fragmented – the intellect is wrestling with monster problems at the computer while the neglected body slumps over the keyboard like a big bag of beans. The spirit and the body are often forgotten completely. Fortunately you have the power to quickly center yourself at will. Remember that your breathing bridges the mind, the body and the spirit. Easy access.

Mother Nature wouldn’t have made this centering process difficult since it is essential for your well-being and personal growth. FREQUENTLY during your busy day, straighten your spine, relax your shoulders and your jaws, close your eyes, breathe out the stale air and take four or five very slow and very deep breaths. Nothing fancy.

A pitcher holds more cream if the pitcher is all in one piece instead of broken fragments scattered across the floor. You will be so much more efficient, effective and comfortable if you take a few minutes to pull all parts of you together.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Reboot Your System

Most of us begin to slide downhill shortly after breakfast. Slowly at first but DOWN even so. Bad hair day. Ragged shallow breathing. Traffic jam. Clenched jaws. Cranky boss. Tight throat. High-pitched voice.

By lunch you feel like a giant knot with legs and a headache. Mounting tension makes you sound more like Minnie Mouse than your usual resonant self. Although this is a typical day for the typical professional, the gradual hour-to-hour build-up of physical, emotional and intellectual tension robs your energy, weakens your concentration and waters down your incredible business instincts.

You can find yourself weary and cranky with hours of grinding work still ahead. It is understandable that you go for a quick energy boost of a double espresso and a big chocolate chip cookie. Unfortunately, sugar and caffeine jazz you up and then slam you down.

What we need is a true “reset” that quickly washes away the accumulated tension leaving you fresh for another few hours. It is important to return to “default” mode EVERY FEW HOURS. A true reset must be quick, portable and without side effects.

1. Stand and stretch your body from stem-to-stern.
2. If you are working under artificial lights, try to change your light source, even if only a couple minutes.
3. Empty out your stale air comfortably. Take a few deep slow fresh breaths.
4. Close your eyes and lay your palms over your eyes for a few moments.

There you are, good as new. Be well. Breathe beautifully.

The Two O’clock Crash

Two o’clock in the afternoon, Monday through Friday, is a dreadful time of day for most of us. Your body is busy digesting lunch and couldn’t give a flying fig about your report deadline. If you had any caffeine or sugar at lunch you are probably crashing about now from that very brief high. And yet you are still facing hours of appearing brilliant and perky. That’s what you get paid for.

Eat a lighter lunch. You are not a lumberjack (apologies if you are). Drink plenty of water. Coffee and sodas definitely do not count. Movement is king. Move your legs. Take a quick walk down the hall or on the stairs.

Move your diaphragm (no, I did not say remove your diaphragm). Without straining, gently blow out all your air, relax your abdomen and breathe in deeply and slowly. Stretch arms and legs. Remember your leg/bottom muscles and your diaphragm act as secondary hearts to deliver oxygen and keep your blood moving.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Deep Breathing – When?

When you sleep, you breathe deeply, slowly and beautifully. Once you awaken and you are slammed by your hectic day, your breathing begins to creep uphill into the narrow, rigid and tight upper ribcage. By dinner the stress of your day is written all over your upper body - clenched jaws, hunched shoulders, tight neck muscles and shallow erratic breathing.

Shallow inhibited breathing changes the cadence, tone, pitch or your voice and people do react subconsciously to the quality of your voice. As the day progresses, you are working harder and harder for less and less oxygen and your blood is burdened with spent fuel. It is important to break this tension cycle.

Deep slow breathing gives you maximum oxygen and cleansing power for minimal energy expended. Stop frequently, close your eyes, relax your shoulders and your jaws and lower your breathing into your lower elastic ribcage. All systems will relax automatically. It takes only a few breaths to re-boot your machine.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Resting Your Eyes: The Stepping Exercise

Only recently has man begun to stare at one small area, hour after hour. At work, it is the computer screen; at home it is video games and the television. The focus is narrow, the distance is fixed and the light is artificial and unrelated to Nature’s light cues.

For most of human history, we have been nomads or farmers. Our eyes evolved in such a way as to meet the demands and insure the survival of wanderers and gatherers and hunters. Early man constantly scanned his surroundings, near and far, high and low, left and right. Could he spot dinner and avoid becoming dinner? Could he spot a bit of grass on the horizon that could mean water? While our eyes cannot adapt and change in just a few centuries we can compensate and minimize the modern fatigue.

Stepping is a simple exercise that fixes on a focal point and holds that focus for one complete breath cycle (in-pause-out-pause). Remember that a “pause” is natural and never forced.

1. Focus on a specific point within arm’s length. Hold that focus for one breath cycle.
2. Focus on the upper corner of the room you are in for one breath cycle. Really focus.
3. Focus on a point as far away as possible. Hold that focus for one slow breath cycle.
4. Now step your focus in reverse – far to middle-distance to near. Repeat near to middle-distance to far. Repeat as long as you are comfortable.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Increase Energy and Productivity

Your supervisor should admonish you for spending long UNINTERRUPTED hours with your
nose to the grindstone. That outdated work model is based on factory production and actually DECREASES your effectiveness in today’s information and service market.

Your employer would be better served if you followed a work pattern BASED ON THE WAY YOUR BODY AND BRAIN FUNCTION. Uneducated mill workers in the 1800s (mostly young women and children) were pushed until they dropped and were considered disposable cogs in the factory machine.

Today you are an educated, trained, motivated employee with the luxury of self-awareness. You are NOT disposable!

• Neurologists seem to agree that every brain needs to be “reset” every 20 – 40 minutes to maintain peak performance. “Reset” can occur with a quick change of venue, like walking to the window or down the hall. Set an alarm to remind yourself.
• To stay fresh, mentally and physically, you need to maintain a reasonable flow of oxygen and you must keep the bloodstream clear of the body’s spent fuel. Sitting too long results in shallow inefficient breathing. You grow tired and fuzzy-brained way too soon. Take frequent deep breaths.
• Hunched posture distorts your spine (especially your neck) and compresses your lungs. Stand up often, stretch and reposition your body correctly. Never rest your seated body on your tailbone. Keep your ears over your shoulders and your shoulders in line with your hipbones.
• Your eyes are NOT designed for a single focus at a set distance. Look away from the monitor frequently to a point in the far distance, then middle distance.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Breathe Through The “Power Moves”

As you lift, shove, hoist, or haul anything that is huge, heavy or awkward, DO NOT HOLD YOUR BREATH! On occasion we all take complete leave of our senses and decide that, just this once, we absolutely MUST move a file cabinet the size of a small hippo.

You can potentially blow off the top of your skull when you hold that big gulp of air while lifting an armoire only slightly smaller than a Ford Taurus! KEEP YOUR BREATH FLOWING. Your blood pressure and your vascular system get cranky when you combine extreme effort with holding your breath.

Visualize the task in detail before you actually lay hands-on so all your energy will be focused where it needs to be. Still, DO NOT HOLD YOUR BREATH! Resist the temptation by singing or counting out loud till the deed is done. You can’t sing or count while holding your breath.

Better yet. Ask three hunky friends to help but be sure to tell them not to hold their breath.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Three Hearts

If the primary job of your heart is to move blood into and out of every nook and cranny of your body, then let’s consider that there are two additional “hearts” that share in that duty. Your blood delivers oxygen (food) and carts away spent fuel (garbage). We can’t survive more than a few moments without the former and can’t tolerate much build-up of the latter. For efficient movement we need a foolproof 24/7 pumping system.

The primary heart is, of course, the one behind and slightly left of your breastbone. Number two is the diaphragm – that powerful muscular floor of your ribcage that domes up when you exhale and flattens down when you take air in. The diaphragm behaves with a syringe-type movement that not only moves air in and out but also presses down on major organs and guts when you inhale, helping to push the blood along. Number three is the collection of big powerful thigh muscles that squeeze and release.

All three hearts must be strong and busy. You may be a jock but when you sit at the desk for too many hours or are stuck in a plane for a long flight, your two secondary hearts shut down almost completely! Your primary heart is left with all the work. GET UP OFTEN. Give your primary heart an assist by taking a few really deep slow breaths and by pumping those leg muscles often.

Be well. Breathe beautifully.

Palming

Human eyes evolved in such a way as to fulfill the demands and insure the survival of wanderers, gatherers and hunters. With today’s computers, cell phones, video games, and televisions, our visual focus has suddenly become locked into a narrow depth of field with a fixed distance and glaring light. Although human eyes will need tens of thousands of years to adapt to the new lifestyle, we must find ways to compensate for now.

1. Eyes closed. Cup your right palm gently over your right eye socket and your left over the left eye. Your fingertips will cross and rest on your forehead.

2. Tilt your face downward and rest your elbows against the sides of your body. Keep the spine balanced in good posture and concentrate on your slow, steady deep breathing.

Your palms never actually touch your eyelids but rest instead on the bony sockets that circle your eyes. Remember to keep your palms cupped rather than flat.

Concentrate on your breathing until you feel more relaxed and centered. Then take your hands away from your face, but keep your eyes closed for a few more breath cycles. Blink your eyes several times before you “return to duty.”

Be well. Breathe beautifully.