FACT: Events occurring in June contain four of the top ten anxiety inducing situations (marriage, family changes, debt and travel). When you’re stressed, your body has one of these three reactions:
Regardless of your specific response to stress inducers, your body’s reaction is always an extra dose of cortisol which slooooooowwwwwssssss your metabolism almost to a stop.
The result? FAT!
Celery or Chocolate Éclairs: regardless of what you eat, when you are stressed, you will get the most “bang” possible from every bite.
How ironic that when you want to look your best for an upcoming event, your body betrays you.
No! NOT TRUE! It is YOU who betrays your BODY!
The Body Knowledge System® is the Stress Solution for Event Anxiety.
1) Body talk keeps it real.
2) Comfortable clothes create confidence, enhance enjoyment, and reduce stress!
3) Make each event easy on yourself…you are a guest, not the main attraction.
Client Story
Dahlia felt her stomach tighten as soon as she saw the return address embossed on the creamy linen envelope containing an invitation to her niece’s elaborate June wedding in Beverly Hills, CA. Aware of the upcoming event for months, she had dreaded this moment due to the family’s expectations. Her hand shook as she stared at the RSVP card. Taking a deep breath, she reached for her copy of the Body Knowledge System®. Flipping it open to page 288, she read the introduction to the “Events & You” chapter. Her heartbeat slowed as she continued reading the reassuring words and the notations she had made in the margins. By page 308, she felt her smile return as she reviewed her notes addressing this event. Those notes were a product of her rediscovery of a real relationship with her body and the deep friendship that had been developing since she began to practice the Body Knowledge System® with her coach, Stephanie Wood, PPC.
Remember: Whether it’s a family event, or a networking opportunity, or a party with total strangers, or people you really don’t want to be with, BKS has a hot flash for you: JUST SAY NO, THANK YOU! And feel your anxiety slip away…taking the cortisol with it.
As an alternative, send a gift, and spend the day at the beach, the movies, or with a good book.
If you would like to have a conversation with me, please contact me, or if you would like to be in a free group tele-class, learn more here.
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Tags: Body Image, Body Relationship, Eating Healthy, Reducing Stress
Myth-stakes for May
MYTH: “April Showers Bring May Flowers” is a commonly accepted “myth” that creates false expectations for both months. According to the national weather service, measurable rain fall has less to do with the calendar and everything to do with climatic conditions…which vary from year to year and place to place. For instance, in Hawaii other tropical climates, every month produces ageless blossoms.
FACT: Regardless of when or where flowers appear, we appreciate their fragrance, color, and the promise of eternal youth.
My Story
“You need a lift,” said the sales person as I was shopping for a new dress for my 55th birthday the last day in April.
After trying on several selections, I found the right one. Smiling, I emerged from the dressing room and asked for her feedback of my selection. Watching her face closely for a reaction, her expression was of stunned surprise, not smiling-not frowning, simply staring straight ahead.
“You need a lift,” she hissed, as she pointed a well-manicured index finger at my breasts.
Huh?” I responded.
“If you intend to wear that dress out in public, you need a better bra…”
‘Better’ as in ‘perky’, as in ‘uplift’, as in ‘younger’—BG, or Before Gravity.
Five years ago, B BKS, or Before Body Knowledge System®, her remarks would have reduced me to tears.
Now? No way! Today, it’s MY WAY!
BKS® identified my comfort level and provided me with the confidence to understand where she was coming from without any need or desire to react to her issues.
For a woman who resists the effects of each passing day on her appearance, this salesperson’s May flowers may never bloom.
And what a tragedy that would be…
Because if she were aware of the support her body gives her every single day, she might accept, even welcome, the comfort her body wants to provide.
Body Knowledge System® supports YOU, your way.
Her
remarks are her issue, not mine—
Her perception indicates her estrangement from her body, and the support it’s there to provide, if only she’d open herself to the BKS® option.
Learn more about the origins, the seeds of your judgments, when it applies to others…then tune in to your personal Body Knowledge and smell the flowers…
PS:
Unlike May flowers that are dependent upon the soil, sunshine, and rain,
the flower that is you is never dependent upon the weather or the environment, or
someone else’s opinion of your appearance.
Your outcome stems (pardon the pun) from your input: body, mind, spirit!
I would love to hear your comments.
To your health and happiness,
Stephanie
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Tags: Body Image, Body Relationship, Mind Body Connection, Self Esteem
Re-invent yourself by re-connecting to your body.
This month marks more than turning a page on the calendar. October signifies a shift in the seasons, too. In the Fall…
- The leaves change color
- TV shows change time slots
- The students change grades, and sometimes schools.
And you change into warmer, and sometimes larger, clothes.
Mother Nature controls the firs point, network executives control the second, and teachers control the third.
You control your clothing choices. Regardless of the season, often you achieve your body’s comfort zone with your clothing choices.
For the sun worshippers: With your last swim, you put away your bathing suit. You replace last summer’s cover-up with cable sweaters, baggy sweats, and swirling skirts. You smile in relief with the knowledge your days of exposing yourself to the scrutiny of the others on the beach or at the pool are over…for now.
For the sun avoiders: You relax in the knowledge there will be no more invitations to pool parties to regret, no more hiding in your home or office until it is “safe” to transition to another environment, no more squinting, sneezing from allergies, and no more sweating.
Fall is an ideal transition between the two extremes of summer’s and winter’s uncontrollable temperatures as it eases you from thin, light weight to thick, heavy weight clothing. Prior to covering her up, take advantage of this shift in seasons to get to know your body…before she goes into hiding on her way to hibernation for the winter.
Fall is the time to declare a truce with your body.
We practice this in the Body Knowledge System®
Here are some reminders but please feel free to add more by contacting me.
- STOP covering her up i.e. Allow her to breathe with pride
- STOP confronting her in the mirror i.e. As you see her let her know how much you love her
- STOP corrupting her with excess i.e. Practice thinking of her needs first
- STOP condemning her with every thought and word i.e. Remember she hears you, be careful
Re-invent yourself and reacquaint yourself with your body, your Buddy. Your body is there to help you, not hinder you. Your body works very well WITH you, FOR you, and always in your best interest. Getting to know her comes with body knowledge. Familiarize yourself with her as she renews her relationship with you. Teamwork, partnership, and support between you and your body accomplish miracles.
A new moon, a new month, a new season leads to a new you. Go with the flow of the calendar and change yourself with the season.
Re-invent yourself and reacquaint yourself with your body, your Buddy. Your body is there to help you, not hinder you.
Before September’s shift from summer to fall, we enjoyed that last burst of heat and sunshine present in Indian summer, the last kiss of the sun prior to the rains and snows of the upcoming seasons. Regardless of where you live, your climate, your urban or rural environment, when summertime fades into fall, the heat recedes into the past season.
Summertime heat affects you and your body in many ways. For some of you the warmth is welcome as you peel off layers of clothing to welcome the weather. Some of you peel off extra pounds from the winter hibernation, too. Others fill their days with good intentions to fit into last year’s bathing suit, then eventually give up and buy the next larger size when August fades into September. Labor Day signifies the swimming season is coming to a close, so all those good intentions fade with the colors of the leaves and you’ll lose those pounds, get in shape for next year’s swim season.
Part of your procrastination is a result of the warmer weather’s effect on your motivation. There’s a reason tropical climates are more relaxed than seasonal ones. As the sunshine warms us naturally, it also mellows us to not take ourselves so seriously. Vitamin D3 comes from the sun and is known to affect our physical and psychological well- being. In northern climates, physicians recommend supplementing our diet with D3 during the other seasons.
Increased temperatures create excessive perspiration. We need to drink more water to maintain our physical and mental health. Dehydration is not only depressing, but also dangerous to our well-being. Since your body is mostly fluid, when you lose too much you lose vital minerals as well and it weakens every aspect of you. Your immune system becomes unable to fight off infections without the minerals you’ve lost in your increased perspiration.
Increased humidity in the summer can also take a lot out of us—not just moisture. As the water content of the air increases, so does the swelling of your extremities: feet, ankles, and hands, fingers. Perhaps the number on your scale remains within 5 pounds of your desired weight, but your clothing seems to shrink as it covers moist, sticky skin. Increased humidity brings your sunny spirit into the shadows, as if you retreat in order to return to your comfort level.
Skin damage from the sun’s rays age us prematurely and is a known source for cancers. Even though the sensation of warmth on our skin elevates our spirit as it colors our skin, too much of any good thing can be toxic. Whether sun worshipping is a part of your daily summertime routine or available only over the weekend during breaks from your office work, it is one of the pleasures available to us during that cheerful season. Vacations, road trips, beach picnics, long weekend holidays, family reunions are all part of that season of expansion, growth, and relaxation for some of us.
Specifically, like flowers some of us open to welcome the rays of the sun on our skin. Others detest the results of summertime heat on the way we look, the way we feel, and the way we move. Some of you bounce from bed, climb into your bathing suit or sundress, slather yourself in sunscreen, and then skip outside with the early rays of the day. Others pull down the blinds, turn down the a/c, and reach for a cold drink to wait for the relief sunset brings.
Summertime heat and all that sunshine can energize you if you respond well to it, or it can drain and depress you by restricting you to the darkness of indoors. The seasons change and regardless of how you feel about summer, you resist change because you are a human being.
Change is the only constant; and seasonal change is as radical as the climate you live and work in. For those in the tropics the change is hardly noticeable, for those in more temperate climates, the transitions between seasons can be subtle or radical depending on the current weather patterns.
Re-invent yourself and reacquaint yourself with your body, your Buddy. Your body is there to help you, not hinder you.
Your body works very well WITH you, FOR you, and always in your best interest. Getting to know her comes with body knowledge. Familiarize yourself with her as she renews her relationship with you. Teamwork, partnership, and support between you and your body accomplish miracles.
A new moon, a new month, a new season leads to a new you.
Go with the flow of the calendar and change yourself with the season.
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Tags: Body Image, Body Relationship, Eating Healthy, Mind Body Connection
