Leadership Sanctuary

He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.

I had the blues because I had no shoes until upon the street; I met a man who had no feet. ~Ancient Persian Saying

What you eat directly affects how you feel. Start your day with a healthy breakfast and maintain a proper diet. You'll feel better and will be healthier.

Belief in self is a step toward personal growth.

Our work lives are often filled with what can seem like unbearable amounts of stress. And while some of those stresses are unavoidable, there’s a lot you can do to start to whittle those high levels of stress down to something that feels at least manageable. Here are a few suggestions:

• Know when to say no. That means you have to first understand your own limits. Then set limits on others so they don’t encroach on your time by pressuring you to take on tasks or responsibilities that will throw you out of balance.

• If possible, avoid people who consistently stress you out. If your boss is the culprit, you might not be able to do this. And you can’t steer clear of everyone who inadvertently or occasionally causes you anxiety. But you can avoid people who have a history of leaving you feeling stressed after you’ve tried to change the situation and they haven’t responded.

• Don’t expose yourself to unnecessary environmental stressors. For instance, if you read the news on the Internet during your break, but it leaves you feeling tense, stop reading the news on your break. Do something that relaxes you instead: Go for a short walk, knit, meditate, work a puzzle.

• Learn to manage your time. Letting projects go until the deadline is upon you will undoubtedly cause you stress. Work at a steady pace—and don’t procrastinate. Procrastination can affect the quality of your work and leave you feeling anxious and strained for prolonged periods.

My family will benefit from my relaxing more.

Include something you consider beautiful in your life on a daily basis, for example, fresh flowers, etc.

Some problems are easy to solve with the same solutions that have always worked. Others call for a fresh thinking, an original approach. Try these tips for generating exciting new ideas:

• Rephrase your problem. Turn your problem around by describing it in different words. Instead of “How can we produce more widgets?” ask “What’s preventing us from producing X widgets a week?”

• Dig deeper. Instead of focusing exclusively on the present situation, explore the background. When did the problem start, for example? What changed? Or, what are some of the underlying causes? What could you do about them?

• Avoid either/or thinking. Don’t limit the possibilities. Instead of , “We can either raise revenues or cut costs,” look for ways to do both, or find additional options. Maybe you have time to work on only one project, for example, but instead of neglecting the other, perhaps you can find someone else to get it started.

• Ask for help. No matter how smart you are, an extra brain will usually help you find options you wouldn’t have considered on your own. Someone else’s eyes may see angles you hadn’t spotted before. Go outside your usual circle of advisors for a different perspective.

• Keep a log. Carry a notebook and get into the habit of writing down your ideas as they occur to you, so they’ll be accessible when you need them. Don’t worry about how practical your ideas are in the beginning, or what they might apply to. Just looking through your list may spark a thought you wouldn’t have found before.

Do 15 sit-ups

Reduce your stress with compassion

Meditating on compassion can reduce inflammation and other symptoms of stress, an Emory University study has found. The study suggests that meditation practices designed to foster compassion may impact physiological pathways that are modulated by stress and related to disease.