Change, whether in business or to help ourselves, is a constant topic of discussion. As a result you can probably contribute at least one idea to improve success in making a lifestyle change. For example, doing something for 21 consecutive days helps establish a habit. One thing that often seems to help is to have a "tool" to help with the change. Interestingly enough, many of our customers have told us how they use PowerLung as a tool to help them make some of the changes mentioned here.
Stress has a high negative impact on heart health. Reducing stress is the obvious goal and is a great idea but not always too practical in today’s world. So, let’s aim for managing stress. Below is a list of common issues and habits that arise due to stress: How do you manage your stress?
- Trouble sleeping
- Grinding teeth or clenching jaws
- Smoking
- Eating
The items in the above list may cause other or longer term problems which in turn may lead to more stress. Even so, these are things we do when we are worried or in a stressful situation. How can you use PowerLung for each of these and why?
Trouble Sleeping
Instead of doing regular PowerLung training late at night, try doing it earlier in the evening. If you use your PowerLung after work, while you are waiting to take or pick up your kids from activities, or just before you start dinner preparations, this helps you separate the "work" part of your day from the next part of your day. Then, just before you retire at night, turn the resistance to a really low setting and do a few long, very slow and deep breaths before bed. The deep breathing at night helps you relax before retiring.
Thanks to P.K. for this idea.
Grinding Teeth or clenching jaws
If this is happening to you during work, consider keeping your PowerLung handy, maybe even on your desk. That way when you feel the tension you can stop and just take a couple of breaths with your PowerLung. If you need a quick burst of energy then you can make them more forceful than usual. Or if you need to create calmness just take deep slow breaths through your PowerLung. Some customers suffering from jaw pain use PowerLung on the recommendation of their dentist because breathing with PowerLung and the mouthpiece helps relax the muscles of their mouth and jaw.
Thanks to B.C. for sharing this with PowerLung.
Smoking
It is very common for those who smoke to use smoking as a way to relieve stress. In today’s world, by going to a "smoking area" one can separate ones self from the source of the stress and the act of smoking relieves the stress. Smoking is not a good means to manage stress because of the harmful side affects. Remember stop smoking is one of the first things to do to improve your heart health, not to mention a benefit to your lungs.
Instead of picking up a cigarette, pick up your PowerLung. Yes, you can step away and separate yourself from the stress while also performing healthful deep breathing. If you don’t have your PowerLung handy, step away and just do deep breathing. Remember, with or without your PowerLung, focus on your breath while you are doing your deep breathing. This serves to help you keep your mind on something positive.
This idea came from a US Marine who used PowerLung to help him stop smoking.
Eating
Watching what you eat is one of the steps to improving heart health. Eating under stress means the type of food is not a healthy choice because it is typically whatever is easiest to access with the goal of finding comfort in food. Also, the quantity is more than it should be simply because the real focus is on eating to relieve stress and get comfort instead of the more positive for flavor and nourishment. Distracting yourself by deep breathing is always a good way to change your focus to a more positive behavior.
So far it seems we’ve only seen the negative ways people try to manage stress and we’ve tried to present some alternative positive behaviors that include PowerLung.
