Workplace Stress: How to Deal & How to Heal

Part 2: How to Heal

In our first installment, we talked about dealing with workplace stress.  This installment will talk about a few things we can do to un-stress our environment.

1.  Regularly scheduled Stay at Home Pamper Parties.

Stay at Home Pamper Parties is an easy way to the pressures of the day – or the week.  And they are very simple to setup. However, the key to a Stay at Home Pamper Party is going to be you pressing the easy button.

This is how I setup my first Stay at Home Pamper Party.   My pamper party planning starts on Wednesday.

 

Wednesday	1. Get the supplies.  I purchased a full set white towels, a white hair turban, white fuzzy turban, white bathrobe, and some fuzzy slippers 2 wine glasses and bottled water at Target.
Thursday	2. Stop at the grocery store.  I purchased, an apple, grapes, Swiss cheese, crackers, Hershey’s Kisses, bread, Chicken Salad from the deli and small bottle of wine.
Friday	3.  Preparation Night.  Slice the apple into bite size pieces and put them on a plate.  Add the grapes and the Swiss cheese on crackers plate, the put the plate into the refrigerator.  Take a slice of bread, and cut 4 squares, add the Chicken salad to each square then put it in the refrigerator.  Put the bottled water and the wine in there as well.
Saturday – All About You Day!!!	Ok!  This is “YOU” day.  I needed to get rid of my significant other or and my son for at least 2 hours Now this was relatively easy – believe it or not.  I came up with some insane household chores – and poof!!! They disappeared (LOL).  When everyone, I CLEANED THE BATHROOM! After that, I took a hot shower, scrubbed my body down with a herbal body scrub, and washed my hair (leaving the conditioner in), wrapped my head in plastic, and then put on my white turban, bathrobe, fuzzy slippers.  Feeling rather good, I tuned into Turner Classic Movies and snacked on my fruit and cheese tray with a nice cold bottle of water.    After a 30 minute delay.  I ran a hot bath with a classic relaxing potion in it, and remained in the bathtub until I WANTED TO COME OUT!!! When I finally left the bathroom, I settled down, on the end of my sofa, with my chicken salad and a small glass of wine.  I was so relaxed, I took a nap, and woke up feeling like a million-bucks.

Relaxing Bath Potion 2 cups Powdered Milk 2 cups Regular Whole Milk 1 TB of Sweet Almond Oil 10 drops of Lavender Essential Oil (found at the health food store) Direction Combine all ingredients in a small mixing container/plastic bowl until smooth.  Add mixture to bath.

 

This is all I have to today, but I will have something brand new for Saturday.

Workplace Stress: How to Deal & How to Heal

Part One: How to Deal

Let’s be honest, if your lifestyle (the manner in which you are accustomed to living) did not require you to work at least 40 hours or more per week – you wouldn’t!

As effective as it maybe in reducing stress, you can’t tell your boss to kiss your “expletive”!  So, for mere mortals like me, to maintain a certain status quo in our lives, dealing with workplace stress, amongst the other stressful factors of life, is simply a given.  Stress is your permanent companion for the day.  And if not carefully controlled, workplace stress will affect your outside life.

What to Do

Make a few observations:

1.  What are you stressing about?

2.  Do you have ultimate control over the problem?

3.  Are you having a career crisis?

The observations lead to one end, stress is something you can control.  Put pen to paper and list what you can do – then do it.  If your stress issue is related to direction, relax and devise a plan that will take you from point A to B.  If you do not have ultimate control of your situation, then clearly define your role, create your plan of action and keep moving forward.  Remember, you should only be concerned with what you can control – everything is not in your realm of responsibility.

Finally, career crisis.  A career crisis is akin to the invisible baby in the room wanting to scream.  Personally, I have experienced a sense of uneasiness (even major headaches) when approaching the office.  I knew that my chosen career was something that I did not want to do for the rest of my life.  But, that epiphany did not strike until I was watching an episode of Oprah (no, Oprah didn’t save my) in December 2008.  Her guest, Marcus Buckingham, the creator of Career Intervention, was teaching a group of women how to reignite the passion in their careers with a step-by-step workshop.  I took the free course on Oprah.com and my results were very interesting.  To make a long story short, I am in the process of changing careers.

Tool #1:  Take the Marcus Buckingham - http://www.oprah.com/article/money/career/20080401_orig_marcusbuckingham_course

Part 2 – How to Heal coming Jan 13, 2009

Starting Over

On January 2, 2009, I created this blog spot to show how “we” could use powerful natural ingredients to improve our visible outer beauty. But in my haste to create another D.I.Y. guru site, I forgot one basic principle. The beauty we would like to display on the outside will remain hidden if we do not create and maintain healthy life styles.

Rule of thumb

The tone, texture and “feel” of your skin, hair and nails will be determined by the chemical balance of your body. If your body is out of balance, topical beauty treatments are absolutely worthless.

Striking the Balance

The end result of how you want to look is already defined. But how to get there is something different. However, start we must, and we have to be organized while we do it!

Let us agree to put our best foot forward in the New Year. I will continue to post “do-it-yourself” body treatments. But I will post FREE tools to bring body, mind and soul into alignment.

Our first topic of the month Workplace Stress: How to Deal & How to Heal will hit the blog stand on January 12th. So stay tuned!!

Making A Body Scrub

The good thing about making your own body scrubs is you can customize the scrub with fragrance and ingredients which best suit your needs and moods. Although, I do not advocate scenting body scrubs with anything other than essential oils, you can add perfume to your body scrubs.   The your body scrub will remain stable for use, for approximately one week if kept in a cool dry area.

You will notice that scrubbing off the top layer of dead skin cells, your skin will feel smoother, your moisturizer will penetrate easier.

Ingredients:

Granular Components (Choose one of the listed granular components)	Type
Salt (1 cup)	Dead Sea salt, kosher salt, Epsom salts or table salt.
Sugar (1 cup)	Turbano, Brown Sugar or White granulated) Sugar
Coffee (1 cup)	Any type except instant coffee
Moisturizing Components	Base Oil
Add 1/2 cup of Base Oil	Vegetable, Canola, Sesame Seed, Sweet almond, grapeseed or rice bran oil are all good choices.
Fragrance (Optional)	Essential Oils
(*using an eyedropper) 5 Drops	(Examples of essential oils that can be used) Lavender Lemongrass Rosemary

1. Combine the oil and salt (sugar or coffee) in a bowl and mix well. Add essential oil and combine well.

2. To use, apply to wet skin using circular strokes to exfoliate the skin. Sit on the side of the tub to keep the scrub from making a mess. Don't use a salt scrub if you have any cuts in your skin.

3. Shower off or follow with a warm bath.   Be careful!!! The bathtub will be slippery, therefore take precaution so you do not slip and fall.

Exfoliation: The Meaning of Body Scrubbing

For The Body

Its that time of year when the winter months begin to show how much influence it has on your skin. The colder season equals dry skin. Dry skin is a result of cell build up, forming a barrier, keeping much needed moisturizing out. In the meantime, your skin will be dull, flaky, lifeless and itchy, of which gives the skin an older than normal appearance.

In order to keep your skin soft and supple, with a youthful glow, natural exfoliation (also known as skin scrubbing) is in order.

All scrubs contain small granules that gently remove dead skin cells, revealing skiing that is more uniform in texture. Removing those undesirable dead skin cells, a fresh layer of skin will be able to absorb moisturizer more readily. If you decide to incorporate exfoliation into your regular skin care regiment, you will notice drastic improvements in your skin almost instantly.

Before you begin, determine your skin type:
* If you have normal skin, use a gentle exfoliate daily
* If you have oily skin, exfoliate 4 times per week.
* If you have dry skin, exfoliate once a week.
* For combination skin, exfoliate 4 to 5 times a week
* For sensitive skin, exfoliate once (or twice, maximum) a week.

Select an exfoliates that fits your life style:
* Body and Facial scrubs - Sugars and Salts
* Cloth exfoliates - Ramie Cotton, Sisal, Hemp, Loofah, Flax and Jute Weave cloths

Regardless of the type of exfoliate you select, improper exfoliation will harm your skin. Remember all body scrubs contain small beads or abrasives that are designed to slough away dead skin.

Start by applying your exfoliate with your hands, a soft body mitt or cloth in a circular motion to damp or wet skin. Concentrate on areas where you are extremely dry (don't forget your elbows, knees and feet), but be sure not to overdo it or you may be left we irritated, red skin. When complete, rinse, rinse, rinse! Be sure to apply a generous amount of moisturizer while the skin is damp so you can receive the full benefits of your moisturizer.

Exfoliation for the Feet

Treat your feet right! Soak, scrub, pamper your feet into nirvana.

The skin of your feet needs to be exfoliated and renewed like the skin in any other part of your body.

There are different types of scrubs that are available in the market today. Salt scrubs, Meal scrubs, Pumice scrubs, to name are few are available to remove that dull, unsightly build up of dead skin of which looks like fish scales on the heels of your feet.

To properly exfoliate your feet you will need to soak them in warm water. Use a pumice stone to remove thick outer layer of skin, then use a foot scrub. When complete, don't forget to massage your feet with a moisture rich foot lotion.

Exfoliation For The Lips

Are your lips cracked, dry and flakey? Constantly reapplying lip balm? Can you bite excess skin from your lips? If you answered "yes" to one or more of the questions above, then you are the perfect candidate for lip scrub therapy.

Sensual Lips

Soft and sexy is the goal, and the smoother your lips are, the better they will look when you apply lipstick, lip gloss or go bare-naked. So, a gentle scrubbing makes sense. Like any other scrub, dampen the area first and make small circular motion in and around the lip area, and there you have it, soft lips.


The lip scrub making the headlines is Sarah Happ’s - The Lip Scrub. Although, a little pricey at $20 per fluid ounce, this lip scrub claims to "leave lips ridiculously soft and supple" in one of six mouth watering flavors. If money is of no object to you, then, this is the product for you.