My Three Reasons for Getting Up Early

I am an early riser, regularly getting up early in the morning every day. Though it is more of a habit now, but if I think carefully, since I started doing it, the practice has given me many benefits, keeping my motivation intact. Let me list three key benefits that I have experienced from it.

1. My Way of Staying Healthy

Waking up early has a very positive impact on my health. It gives me time to exercise, to go for a walk, do yoga exercises, or go to the gym with plenty of time at hand.

It also ensures that I have time in the morning for a proper breakfast. If I started my day late, I may have to rush for work, and may land up skipping breakfast. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day for me, and I strongly believe that it prepares me to face the day and keeps me healthy.

Proper routine of exercise and diet are vital factors in ensuring good health in the long run. Therefore I can safely say that getting up early is my way of staying healthy.

2. Start the Day on a Positive Note

I have found from experience that to maintain a positive mindset, it is helpful to start the day on a positive note.  The fresh and serene early morning hours, the quietness in the air, the chirping of birds, the absence of traffic noise, and the majestic sun rise really brighten up my mood.

Getting up early gives me this much needed positive start, and charges me with a sense of optimism for the rest of the day.

3. Boost My Productivity

Starting my day well also helps me be more productive during the day. Studies have shown that early risers are more efficient and productive at work.

One think I strongly dislike is to rush myself. By getting up early, I manage to get ready on time, beat the traffic and drive to work at ease without rushing myself.

It also gives me time for myself in the morning, time to read newspaper, solve daily puzzles, or just do meditation. This time for myself helps calm my mind and sharpen my reflexes to arm myself for the busy schedule later.

Just try it out for a few days yourself. Get out of the bed early and you will experience the advantages of being an early riser. 

What is All This Stuff About Stress Management?

I have a love-hate relationship with stress. I can’t stand it, but I can't live without it either. There are times when I convince myself that the tension I feel actually helps me perform better. At other times when I am bogged down with excessive stress, I wonder if it is really all that helpful.

When we are under stress, our body gets tense, and we can feel the tension in different parts of our body. Our heart beats faster, and this causes a rush of blood circulation in large group of muscles like arms and legs. This tension is what makes us uncomfortable, and over time takes its toll on our health, giving us hypertension, ulcers, and much more.

Why does our body behave like this in stressful situations? This is our body's natural response to prepare us for a fight-or-flight response in a threatening situation. The tensed muscles and greater blood supply gets our body ready to take a physical fight or run away quickly from the threat. This was perfectly appropriate and necessary for man’s survival in primitive age. However, we live in information age today, and such response is not at all helpful for the mental tasks we have these days. When we are under tension, the blood supply to brain is reduced, and our capacity to think goes down. We are unlikely to take the right decision under extreme stress. In other words, to be effective, we need to learn to handle this 'extra' stress well, and keep it from going out of control.

Can you do something to bring this stress down and to be less tense in day-to-day life? From my experience, I can say that there are several steps you can take towards this goal.

Learn to Relax

Since stress causes tension in your muscles, an effective antidote to it is to handle the tension directly and learn to relax your muscles. Since relaxation is exactly opposite of tension, when you learn to keep your body relaxed, it gradually gives signal to the mind to calm down and be less stressful. Yoga and meditation are very helpful in lowering stress levels. So is progressive relaxation technique, in which you deliberately tense and then relax different muscles in the body and observe the feeling of relaxation. This trains your body to relax on demand and stay relaxed. There is a lot of material available about it on the net. Try following the instructions in the following video:






Address the Underlying Cause

Relaxation techniques are helpful to directly deal with the stress, but the stress may come back if you do not address its underlying cause. Most often, it is a negative emotion, that fuels stress – fear, anxiety, envy, anger, or hatred. Learn to cultivate a positive mindset to attain a sustained state of relaxation. If you ask me one step that is most helpful in controlling negative emotions, it is to have an attitude of acceptance. 

Fear
When we refuse to accept risk and uncertainty in any situation, it gives rise to fear. We imagine the worst, and shudder at the thought, and feel afraid and tense. Instead, try to accept that uncertainty and willingly take the risk, and it will turn into an adventure. You will find the stress evaporating.

Anxiety
Non-acceptance of failure makes us anxious. Let us mentally embrace the failure, and our feeling will change to one of confidence.

Envy
When we do not like good in others, it gives rise to envy and jealousy in our mind. Instead, if we whole-heartedly accept other’s achievement, it becomes inspiration.

Anger
There are many things in life that are beyond our control, and it makes us angry if we fail to accept them. We can reduce the emotion of anger by just accepting what is beyond our control.

Hatred
We feel hate toward a person, when we do not accept her as she is. We focus too much on the things about her that we don’t like, and ignore all other good things in the person. Just try dropping the expectations and accept the person unconditionally, the feeling will change into a feeling of love.

To conclude, stress is not good for your effectiveness and health, and you should get it under control before it takes its toll.