Karen St.Clair

Karen's Newsletter

March 2005

Date added: 31/03/2006 12:54

TOWARDS HEALTH PERFORMANCE AND WELLBEING
MARCH NEWSLETTER Vol 1, No 1

Welcome to the first issue. I am enthusiastic about helping you with information, tips, techniques and reminders to enhance your health, performance and wellbeing. Remember, building your resistance resources improves your physical health, improves your effectiveness and improves your performance at home and in the workplace.

This month's Newsletter includes:

1. The role of exercise in increasing cognitive capacity
2. The power of the ten-minute nap.
3. Good food practices reminders.
4. Deep relaxation CD.
5. Upcoming course dates.
6. One minute stress reduction tip.

The Role of Exercise in Increasing Cognitive Capacity

Research shows that the mind and body are inextricably connected, which is why even moderate physical exercise can increase cognitive capacity. On a basic level, it does so by pumping more blood and oxygen to the brain. Exercise is also believed to stimulate more production of a chemical that is both protective of the brain and helps repair brain cells.

A research team at the University of Illinois set out to test the cognitive functioning of 124 women aged between sixty and seventy-five who never or rarely exercised. The women were put on a three day a week program that included either a brisk one-hour walk or an hour of gentle yoga-style stretching. The exercisers were asked to push past their comfort zones physically, while the stretchers were not. After just six months, the walkers demonstrated 25 percent higher scores than the stretchers on a series of key cognitive tests.

How much exercise did you do today? What have you planned for tomorrow?

The Power of the Ten-Minute Nap.

Do you experience the post-lunch dip? It’s that afternoon slump when it’s hard to stay awake. Most of us know the feeling – it’s hard to concentrate and we struggle to stay awake.

A 10-minute power nap may be the answer.

In a recent Asia Pacific story on ABC Radio, Associate Professor Leon Lack of Flinders University’s School of Psychology, found that the post-lunch dip decreases attention and concentration, affects your memory and slows your reaction times. This research also found that a mid-afternoon 10-minute nap increases workers' productivity.

Researchers found that the ultra brief naps of thirty seconds, ninety seconds and five minutes were too short to have any real beneficial effect, while sleeping for twenty to thirty minutes tended to produce a deeper sleep that had people waking feeling groggy and confused. That state is known as sleep inertia. The optimal length nap time was found to be ten minutes. The ten-minute nap produced immediate benefits that were maintained for two and a half hours to four hours.

Associate Professor Leon Lack went on to say: “Is fifteen minutes with your head on your desk – in which it takes you five minutes to fall asleep and ten minutes to sleep – is that fifteen minutes worth it for the next three or four hours – is your performance increased enough to make up for that 15 minutes? I think the answer would probably be yes.

“That’s the question. How much is your performance degraded for that next three or four hours if you didn’t have that nap? Is it worth the investment? I think arguably you could say that yes it is”.

How can you add a ten-minute nap to your day?

Boosting Energy and Performance with Good Food Practices

Have you ever thought that your eating habits may be affecting your basic energy levels?

Here are some reminder tips for boosting energy and performance:

Eat breakfast, even if you don’t feel like it – and it needn’t be a big breakfast. Eating a high protein, low carbohydrate breakfast or a low GI breakfast not only jump starts your metabolism, it provides your brain with its much needed fuel for optimum functioning. During the night, your blood sugar levels drop. With glucose being the brain’s sole source of energy, restoring blood sugar levels reduces internal stress on the body and assists in proper brain function for optimum cognitive performance.
Replace your second, third and fourth cups of coffee with a 1.5 litre bottle of water. Remember you need to drink between 1.5 and 2.5 litres of water each day, depending on your size and activity levels.
Eat an energy rich snack, such as an energy bar or a handful of pumpkin seeds or some dried apples, apricots and peaches, or some mixed nuts, every two and a half to three hours. Again, doing so keeps your blood sugar levels even and as a consequence enhances energy levels, mood and focus.
Replace processed foods with whole fresh foods. Processed foods place unneeded and unwanted biochemical stress on the body and can be responsible for diminished energy levels. Whole fresh foods in contrast provide you with plant chemicals that enhance health and boost energy.
Find the right mix of macro nutrients – carbohydrates, protein and fat – that is energy boosting for you.

What one change did you make to your food practices this week?

New! - Deep Relaxation CD

This relaxation induction CD will help you to systematically relax every muscle – from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. It also includes a ‘rapid relaxation’ induction.

I recommend that you don't listen to it while driving or operating heavy machinery.

Deep Relaxation runs for 15 minutes. Use it to help you to:

Wind down at the end of the day and disengage from work.
To improve your ability to relax and relieve muscle tension. With practice you will be able to scan the major muscles groups – face, neck, shoulders, etc. and experience a sense of relaxation at will.
Develop an ability to rapidly relax during pressure situations. Rapid relaxation techniques, otherwise known as rapid recovery techniques in the sporting world, are practices used by most elite athletes. Most top tennis players for example can, in just sixteen to twenty seconds, restore focus and calm.
Develop an ability to restore energy levels, calm and focus. Nelson Mandela and Hurricane Carter speak of the great comfort derived by using visualisation to ‘escape’ their prison cells and their intolerable situations. Research shows that the mind cannot tell the difference between a real or an imagined experience. Escaping to somewhere serene and beautiful in your imagination is a technique used by many organisational professionals and athletes alike. This practice also lowers pulse rate, breathing rate, rate of mental arousal, muscle tension and blood pressure and contributes to improved productivity, effectiveness and efficiency.
Normal retail price $39. Great idea for a gift.

Have you found this newsletter useful?

Do you have any suggestions for topics to be covered?

Any questions?

Upcoming course dates for Towards Health, Performance and Wellbeing

12th April 2005
27th April 2005

Coming soon! - six week program of three hour seminars

One Minute Stress Tip of the Month

This simple exercise involves slow diaphragmatic breathing and a gentle body stretch. You may wish to remove your shoes.

Stand with your buttocks, shoulders/shoulder blades and head touching a wall
Breathing from your diaphragm and taking as much air as you need, slowly inhale while at the same time raising your arms to shoulder height.
Slowly breathe out
Slowly breathing in once more, raise your arms above your head. Hold and slowly breathe out.
Breathing slowly in, stand on your toes and stretch your arms up the wall. Hold that position for a few seconds, then breathing out gently lower your feet to the floor and slowly lower your arms to shoulder height.
Breathe in and as you exhale, slowly lower your arms to your side.
While continuing to breathe slowly, and with buttocks shoulders/shoulder glades against the wall gently drop your chin to your chest. Hold for 10 seconds.
Raise your head to centre position, turn it to the left and drop your chin onto your left shoulder. Hold for 10 seconds. Lift your head, gently turn it to the right and drop your chin onto your right shoulder and hold for 10 seconds. Return to centre position.
Repeat as required.

Karen St Clair

Is a practicing psychotherapist-nutritional therapist, and the founder of Canberra Stress Management – Canberra’s first specialised stress management service, catering to the needs of the public and private sectors. She is an author, a nationally accredited trainer, and has worked with people as a trainer and a therapist in the areas of health and wellbeing since 1987.

Site by Turning Point Development Pty Ltd