Tag: Andrea Thrush

Wellness Corner: Curating a Positive Mindset in Today’s Society

by pagodapacers

by Andrea Thrush

What is Positive Psychology?

It is normal for the human brain to focus on the negative events, which is an evolutionary part of us that helped us survive as a species. In today’s world this tendency can lead us down the road to depression and anxiety (Seligman, 2011). However, we can help our brains see more of the positive in life and focus less on the negative!

Dr. Martin Seligman is considered one of the fathers of positive psychology. Positive psychology is about increasing our well-being and flourishing (Seligman, 2011). Well-being can be measured through our positive emotions, engagement, meaning, positive relationships, and accomplishment (Seligman, 2011).

“What Went Well?” – an exercise for savoring positive events and emotions

This article focuses on increasing positive emotion, through a practice called “what went well”. Becoming aware of and enjoying positive events and experiences is a skill that can be learned with practice.

Preferably every night about ten minutes before bed, write or type about three things that went well during the day. Big, small, and anywhere in between. Then include at least one of the following for each of the three things you listed:

·       Why did it happen?

·       What does it mean to you?

·       What did you learn from writing about it?

·       How did you or others contribute to it?

Try it for just a week and build from there. The longer and more consistently you practice, the better you will feel. Doing this before bed can help with your sleep, but it can be done whenever is easiest for you. 

If you would like, please share some of your entries with us on the Pacers Discussion Group page on Facebook over the next month!  Disclaimer:

If you feel you might be suffering from anxiety/and or depression, please seek professional medical help.

References

Seligman, M. (2011). Flourish. Free Press.

For more information:

University of Pennsylvania’s website: Authentic Happiness https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/

University of Pennsylvania’s Coursera Class – Foundations of Positive Psychology Specialization (I was able to audit this class for free in the past, but I do not know if it is still available for free). https://www.coursera.org/specializations/positivepsychology

Wellness Corner: Stress Management Using Data From Oura Ring

by pagodapacers

by Andrea Thrush

Part of the Pagoda Pacers’ mission states that the club will “educate the public on physical fitness and wellness.” According to the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching (NBHWC), there are eight areas of wellness: social, physical, intellectual, occupational, financial, emotional, environmental, and spiritual (meaning purpose, peace, etc.). As such, I thought it might be nice to have a small article that relates to wellness included in the club’s newsletter that could be useful to many club members.

Stress falls under the emotional category. I started working at my current job over three years ago, and I am unable to wear my fitness watch due to regulations. I never liked wearing my Garmin while sleeping. For over a year, I have been meaning to purchase an Oura ring, and I finally bought one a little over two months ago. This ring measures sleep, heart rate variability (HRV), resting heart rate, body temperature, activity levels, and blood oxygen. After using it for awhile, it will tell you your chronotype. You can track your meals by typing or taking a picture of what you eat, and it will take into account timing of meals and such. Oura also syncs with Strava, Apple Health Kit, Google Health Connect, Headspace, myfitnesspal, Chronometer, and others.

I wore the ring for about a month to gather baseline data without changing any lifestyle habits, though I was not surprised by the results. Sleep was ok, and heart health is on point, but stress is at the high end. Part of this is the fact that I am on my feet all day at work, and it might be that the ring is reading a higher heart rate and not linking it to being active. Part of it is not giving myself enough time to relax and unwind after being active at work all day. It also showed that my stress levels were not recovering after my workouts.

The great thing about this ring is that you can tag various things that might affect your sleep and stress. There are premade tags, but you can create your own tags too. This allows you to see what affects your sleep and stress. For example, I spent almost an entire vacation day at home doing arts and crafts, and that significantly lowered my stress levels. Even one evening when doing about 40 minutes had positive effects on stress and sleep. The great thing is that with the ability to create your own tags, you can find what works for you. Being out in nature, mediation, breathing exercises, cuddling with your child or pet, journaling, and so much more.

Granted, you can often tell what works for you just by how you feel after certain activities. But there can be surprises. I thought that breathing exercises were helping me, but the data showed they were not. I have made a few changes over the last two weeks. I cut out harder workouts (for now). I want to try easier bike rides and see how my body’s stress levels respond to those, as opposed to runs. Arts and crafts have had a huge impact on lowering stress levels. Sitting in front of the TV “relaxing” does not. Journaling has also helped with stress levels. The experimenting is not over, by far! 

If you are looking for an alternative method to a smart watch for measuring and managing stress and sleep, an Oura ring may work for you.