So the last few weeks have found me doing a series of TV spots and little interviews and talks on topics of stress reduction, time management, and the importance of setting aside worries to get a good night’s sleep. These are great fun, because I enjoy doing them, and also, I think they help keep me honest- if I’m going to talk about this stuff, I need to practice what I preach, which is easier said than done.

Why are these so much fun to do for me? As a scientist and professor, I spend most of my time talking to students or to colleagues who already have a foundation for understanding the details of the complex relationships between stress, sleep, health, immunology, and physiology that are part of my research. On the other hand, I love doing media spots because it gives me the chance to blend my science, teaching, and my coaching, to provide the popular press with real scientific analysis and data around things that tend to get watered down and miscommunicated in the media- I enjoy the challenge of making this stuff accessible to a lay audience, but still factual and not diluted to the point that the research basis for my comments is lost. For example, “Stress is always bad for you, so try really hard to avoid stress” is a message I’ve read in magazines and heard on the radio and TV more times than I can count. Of course, stress is not avoidable, so it could be argued that putting effort into “trying really hard to avoid stress” is, in itself, a stress-inducing mandate. The facts, of course, are that stress is defined broadly, affects different individuals to varying degrees, and can be motivating and positive, given that it is met with constructive activity that meets the demand and allows for resolution. On the flip-side, and the place where many popular press pieces fail, is the fact that animal and human research broadly show that chronic stress does not allow the body to recover from stress which can have long-term consequences for immunity, cognition, and disease susceptibility; the key seems to be active coping and developing strategies to create time and space for mental and physical recovery from stress, even if it’s just a “time-out” and then a return to the stressful situation.

These interviews are great fun, but usually, at the end of them, the reporter asks something like, “So, what do *you* do to combat stress/get enough sleep/stop worrying?”. I found myself repeatedly laughing and saying something like “Well, I’m still working on the ‘practice what you preach’ part so for now, the message is ‘do as I say and not as I do!’” Ha Ha.

I’ve decided this is really not very funny anymore, so in the last weeks, I have committed to practicing what I preach. I have made appointments with myself, that I am keeping, to exercise every day, to have 1 hour of “me” time each day (usually 30 minutes in the morning and 30 at night) to read, take a walk, or do some yoga, and to get to bed at a regular time each night so I get at least 7 hours of sleep per night. This is the stuff I tell clients to do and what I recommend to my classes and in the media spots I do, and finally, I am doing it myself over an extended period of time. The good news is that is really does work! I feel much more rested, less stressed (even though my job is getting more stressful by the day), and les cranky to my family, myself, and my colleagues. It feels good not to be a hypocrite anymore, and the best part is that I am just generally much more optimistic, even-tempered, and circumspect about the stress as it comes my way.

The take-home message is that now when people ask me “How do you do everything?” I can honestly say that I am taking care of myself and everybody else- it does take a little more discipline (I get up at 4:30 every morning now, but the benefits far outweigh the cost of this early start), and I do say “no” to things that encroach on my time for exercise and me. Again, the benefits of this far outweigh the costs- I know I am a better Mom, partner, coach, colleague, and professor for committing to taking care of myself.

Tags: coaching, sleep, stress, time for me, time management

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 14th, 2008 at 9:34 am and is filed under family, general, work/life balance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.