May 1996

Health News

Take It Easy: How to Live It Up By Calming Down

According to Ruth Luban, author of 101 Ways to Beat Burnout and Keeping the Fire: From Burnout to Balance (audio series),

stress-free women:

• Accept their limitations. They give themselves the right to set boundaries and to say no when they feel they have to.
• Put their own needs on their to-do list. "You’ll have tons more energy to give others," Luban says, "if you take care of yourself."
• Establish regular self-care activities-including, exercise, rest, and periods of silence- that they incorporate into their daily schedules. "Spending a few minutes of simply being silent and letting your mind wander is a key to creative problem solving," says Luban.
• Know how to play.
• Adapt to new situations, instead of holding to rigid beliefs of who they are and how things should be done.
• Express their feelings in an assertive, confident way.
• Use "decompression rituals" to switch gears from one activity to another- such as drinking a cup of herbal tea after the kids leave for school or taking a walk after work.
• Have a strong sense of self. "Stress-free women have an identity that is inner-derived, an identity that is not based only on their careers or on roles such as parent, homemaker, or wife," Luban says.
• Provide good role models for their children. Instead of raising over-scheduled Type A kids, stress-free women value taking time out…and they encourage their children to do the same.