Denton County Living Well Magazine Winter 2014

2 Practice positive self-talk. This discipline can help keep you calm and control stress. Use positive reaffirmations like, “I will take one step at a time and I will complete this work.” 3 Set healthy boundaries within yourself. Know and understand your limits and build your own toolbox of techniques to maintain them. 4 Exercise regularly. A lot of people say that the most underrated antidepressant is exercise. It’s true. If it has been a while for you, try getting back in the habit. Exercise offers psychological benefits to counteract stress. It increases your feeling of control, boosts your self- esteem, and helps feed your emotional system. Make time! 5 Start eating right. Improving your diet will lead to a healthier lifestyle. Make choices to lower saturated fat, sodium and sugar intake, moderate your amount of alcohol and caffeine ingestion, get sleep, stop smoking, etc… By modifying your diet and lifestyle habits, you are taking care of your heart and your overall wellbeing (American Heart Association, 2014). 6 7 Take vacation time away from home and work Manage your time. You have more of it than you think. Organize and plan. 8 Get a hobby. Pick something that you love to do, or used to love, and get busy! 9 Suppress feelings of helplessness. Organize, plan, and prioritize your tasks, then take action. Not everything is in your control, but you can definitely control a lot of things. Look for ways to take action. SECRETS FROM THE EXECUTIVE WORLD Besides the techniques mentioned above, here are some unique tricks that some CEO’s use to help man- age their stress (Forbes, 2009): CREATE DRAWINGS. Every morning, draw something on a napkin or paper. This might seem elementary, but a famous CEO (Robert Freedman, ORC Worldwide) does it in the morning to clear his mind before starting the day. START BAKING. Marissa Mayer (CEO, Yahoo), enjoys baking cupcakes to reduce stress (Business Insider, 2014). ENGAGE WITH NATURE. Jack Dorsey (Co-creator, Twitter and Square), enjoys observing botanical illustrations as well as studying leaves and other aspects of nature. REMEMBER TO STAY CENTERED. Try to do at least one little thing every day that you enjoy. Be creative. It is not indulgence, it is empowerment. Julie Alvira, MD holds a MBA in healthcare management, is the owner of AJBodysculpt, and is a fully bilingual health and wellness speaker. She is available for fitness and nutrition coaching. View her YouTube fitness videos and podcasts on Broadcast radio at www.ajbodysculpt.com. MAKING MAJOR SURGERY seem so very MINOR. ROBOTIC SURGERY is a minimally invasive method of treatment for a variety of men’s and women’s health conditions including ﬁbroid tumors, endometriosis, uterine prolapse, urology issues, and cancers of the cervix and uterus. Common procedures are hysterectomy, appendectomy, gallbladder removal and various other abdominal surgeries. Other beneﬁts experienced by patients may include: • Shorter hospital stay • Signiﬁcantly less pain • Less blood loss For a physician referral or for more information about Robotic Surgery, call 1.800.4BAYLOR or visit us online at BaylorHealth.com/Carrollton. 4343 N. Josey Lane, Carrollton, TX 75010 Physicians are members of the medical staﬀ at one of Baylor Scott & White Health‘s subsidiary, community or aﬃliated medical centers and are neither employees nor agents of those medical centers, Baylor Medical Center at Carrollton or Baylor Scott & White Health. © 2014 Baylor Scott & White Health, BMCC_672_2013 74 CE 10.14 DENTON COUNTY Living Well Magazine | WINTER 2014 43

Denton County Living Well Magazine Winter 2014 | Page 43