10 Ways to Keep Your Staff Lounge Healthy Over The Holidays

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Jackie Savi-Cannon

These simple tips will help keep your Staff area healthy over the holidays and bring in the New Year with peace.

Gluten Free Cake

  1. Source out an exceptional Gluten-Free Chef that can cater in healthy, decadent baked goods. There have been numerous advancements in recipes for cookies, cupcakes and muffins.
  2. Communal healthy condiments so healthy ingredients can be added to everyday meals. Include medicinal teas, seed mixtures, ground flax-seed, coconut oil, healthy universal supplements.
  3. A lending library building from staple authors such as Robin Sharma, Jack Canfield, Brene Brown, Seth Godin, Dan Tapscott, Nischala Joy Devi, Kris Carr, Tim Ferriss and Malcolm Gladwell
  4. Ambient sounds have an unconscious calming effect on the brain and nervous system. You can take it a step further and combine all these steps into a ZEN/RNR area.
  5. If budget allows and your benefits do not cover these modalities, invest in relaxation therapies such as Massage, Trauma Counseling, Reiki, EFT. There are many reputable modalities that suit all types of personalities.
  6. Cerebral moments act as ‘corporate juice’ to re-energize and inspire the brain for creative problem solving and inspired work.  TED Talks and many YouTube videos are available to bring this type of brain exercise into the workplace in time-efficient way.
  7. If possible allow for pet friendly days or environments to foster healthy connections with animals.
  8. Bring nature in with plants, rocks, crystals, natural art.
  9. Bring onsite relief to allow for physical decompression. Callisthenic programs, Yoga, Stress Management, and Nutritional Counseling are some examples. Stress relief can be maneuvered in most environments when participants are open to change.
  10. Giving your time and effort towards causes that help humanity are good for your soul. We are not meant to function in isolation. Remind yourself daily that you are not alone and with our collective efforts we create healthy change.

 

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Posted on November 13, 2013 by Jackie Savi-Cannon

Path-fear

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Are you in denial of your work is impacting your health?

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Jackie Savi-Cannon
BigBlueShirt

“I overheard this gentlemen express that the demands of his job were not effecting him at all.”

When you perceive something as stress or a threat your nervous system acts accordingly. There has been much discussion and awareness brought forward as to just how deep the ramifications of mismanaged stress goes. Many corporations are experiencing greater volume of stress related absence and medical costs. Medication for anxiety and/or depression can cost an employer upwards of $400.00/ month. “Poor compensation and an unreasonable workload were tied as the No.1 stressors” according to an article from The Huffington Post. One of the most important things to understand is the physical response most humans create to daily stress does not match the trigger. In other words, the volatile mental and physical reaction to the client on the phone or the person in front of you in line, is not the same as being attacked or in a truly life-threatening situation.

Some typical physical and mental symptoms include:

  • Stress hormones, including adrenaline and cortisol are released to respond to the signal of emergency.
  • Heart rate increases, muscles tighten, blood pressure rises, breath becomes more rapid.
  • Senses become sharper.

Stress is a normal physical response to events that occur in life. Without it we wouldn’t be motivated to evolve and thrive. A life without any stress at all is not a balanced approach to living either. Due to the tremendous shift in our work-life balance over the last decade, most individuals live under a constant low-grade stress. For most, the symptoms mentioned above reflect the state their body has grown accustomed to functioning in. The body is deprived of its natural restoration cycle critical to re-balancing health chemistry in the body. This is incredibly important to the adrenal glands which play an important role in our mental attitude and longevity. When living in a state of constant stress, the adrenal glands are overworked and can no longer function optimally.

Nutrition, rest and activity are crucial in successful stress management and illness prevention. In most cases that sentence itself brings a level of stress to most of us because we immediately focus on our short-comings and failures that have not worked in the past. The good news is there are numerous ways to make small changes that all have a cumulative impact on improving your health. Relaxation techniques and deep breathing are some of the most convenient tools to extinguish intense reactions. It is hard to hold stress in your body when your brain is concentrating on completely expanding your lungs in and out.

This video is a short and easy-to-follow stretching sequence which can be done from a lying position. This sequence aids detoxification of stress hormones, digestion, flexibility and calms the mind. It is a great module to do before going to sleep.

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Do you balance or juggle your life?

Posted on June 15, 2012 by Jackie Savi-Cannon

Searching for Utopia – Jan Fabre

As we live and witness the struggle to move into the post-industrial age, more of us are experiencing a new type of stress and anxiety that didn’t exist in prior economies.  Some would view this as natural selection and survival of the fittest.  From the standpoint of cultural evolution, I completely agree. The important question is how this impacts our health and well-being in the meantime.  We are essentially dealing with the consequences of progressively removing the humanity from the work experience.  The pressure to sustain ourselves during this turbulent economy is leaving little down time to recover and restore.  If all you do is work than where is the time for the human?  Individuals are finding themselves accumulating more but still feeling empty and burnt out. Most people give their best energy to their work because we were taught to find our identity through our Job Title. 

Yes stress is a normal part of life but it IS meant to come and go.  Some stress is obvious: Divorce, Job Loss, Illness.  Some stress is less intense but always there.  It is when that low grade stress remains constant that our health begins to break down.  Technology is breaking barriers in Western medicine.  We now see the seamless relationship between the brain/mind and body.  You can not achieve Optimal Health if both are not working properly and in unison.  The only scale I like to use on a daily basis is a Perceived Scale.  On a scale of 1 -10 how do you feel about (insert item)? In other words, we all have our own version of Pain, Love, Wealth, Purpose, Taste, Intensity, Risk.  So when I ask my son what he thinks of a recipe that has ground flax seed, black beans and quinoa in it and I get a 7 – I feel pretty good about that.  A 3 would let me know the recipe needs more work.  In fitness, perceived exertion is our best way of monitoring a client.  In Yoga, we refer to it as ‘your edge’.

 Sadly when I ask clients to rate their stress level, my most common answer is an 11.  I have gotten a 50 and even a 1000 but anything over a 7 on a constant basis is putting you at risk for some major physical or mental issues.  This video is to remind you that you have more control of your health than you realize.  True Optimal Health is built from the inside out.  You probably know more than you realize.  Some how you just found your way to the bottom of your priority list.  It happens more often than we realize.  I found my way there and that is when I knew I had to hit the reset button.  Here are some of the resources my team and I created based on our research and experiences.

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What is the difference between a life coach, personal trainer and expert? How are they relevant in 2012?

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Jackie Savi-Cannon

What to look for if you are hiring these people personally or for your facility:

  • Life Coach: This professional deals with more conceptual behavior modification. They help you realize your perceptions of living and develop strategies for you to move through barriers that are interfering with the next chapter of your life.  A high-level life coach should have some type of training in physical exercise.  If they don’t, they should have a qualified trainer assisting them.
  • Personal Trainer: This individual specializes in physical health. Their role is to educate and supervise you with a structured plan that was a result of a complete fitness analysis. – behavior and medical.  To maximize your experience, create a concrete vision of what you really want out of your sessions.  Weight loss is a byproduct.
  • Expert: This person can seamlessly blend from one role to another.  They have a strong background encompassing a wide range of academic training and hands on experience working with multiple populations.They must have some specialized experience in the science of the mind and body as well as have a panel of academic, credited professionals that are part of content development.  This person has a traceable record. What happens when you Google their name?  Remember you are looking for credibility not celebrity.

    Ropes Course: Ormskirk, England

Accountability and support is only one layer.  When you gel with your teacher in a way that is multidisciplinary you begin to optimize your own skills and assets. It should never get casual and completely conversational.  Their job is to keep you fully present with your body – noting the sensations that go along with great form and proper use of breath.  The program should never be repetitive and every live session should be different.

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