Anti-Aging

Presented by: Dr. Maureen Sweeney

For some you, your New Year's resolutions may be going strong but if you're like many people, the momentum may be waning a bit by now. If that's the case, I hope this newsletter will give you the boost you need and if things are going well add an extra tool to help build on your success.

The fresh start of a new year is a great opportunity for us to take stock of our lives. Are we on track? And if not, is change needed and what? We most often know what we want or need to do, but motivation and perseverance may not come as easily. I hope this will help give you some strategies to stay on course with the things you'd like to change or improve in your life.

Last fall I heard a Reverend from the US talking about a bracelet campaign he'd initiated to motivate people to stop complaining. He noticed that many people complained and that the complaining seemed to be an end in and of itself. He wanted to change that and challenged his congregation to a 150 day period (I think it was 150 days) without complaining. The bracelets were meant as a reminder because it wasn't easy to remember, even for him.

The reason that I found this so notable was that we do complain a lot (it gets things off our chest and makes us feel good) but this act of complaining affects us in much more profound ways. It perpetuates not only the negative feeling and stress we experienced with the circumstance itself but it does nothing to help us move on or solve what it was that upset us in the 1st place. It feels good at the time, a bit like eating a bowl of ice cream, but in the long run it works against us. The flipside of complaining is blaming, which again doesn't help us solve anything. By forgoing complaining and blaming we put ourselves in a better position to solve the problems that cause us to complain in the 1st place.

So where am I going with all this? I think understanding this helps us with goals and resolutions because it gives us not just the insight but also the motivation and means for change. This year I have challenged myself to no more complaining. Instead, I am going to recognize the events, people, and/or circumstances that would naturally cause me to complain and, instead of complaining, I am going to come up with a plan to address the problem. Rather than complaining about feeling tired "all the time" and blaming my busy lifestyle or complaining that my kids and husband don't help out enough, I have resolved to manage stress better by taking on tasks one at a time, delegating, stopping multi-tasking and getting enough sleep.

This strategy can work for almost any situation. Instead of complaining "I'm too fat, I don't like how I look" and blaming "what can I expect, I work too much and am too tired to go to the gym", try "I am overweight because I am not getting the exercise I need. To solve this I am going to schedule exercise into my busy schedule because feeling good about myself and being healthy is as important as....". This thinking turns things around and puts you in charge of the problem.

I hope this helps you with your lives not just in the context of the New Year but anytime your circumstances are less than ideal. Instead of the complaining and blaming rut, choose the empowering path that puts you in charge. Start in little ways and as you practice and build experience I bet you'll be able to tackle and change anything you want to.
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