One way to help minimize stress during the pandemic is to de-clutter!
Experts agree that if we set aside 15 minutes per day to straighten up one place, such as a messy desktop, medicine cabinet or kitchen drawer we will feel happier and more relaxed at the end of the day! If you like to exercise and dance around while you’re cleaning, then give yourself an extra pat on the back!
Why not take the time to declutter your diabetes life?
As I toured the beautiful rooms at the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club Decorator Show House in New York earlier this year I was reminded how important our homes are to are overall diabetes health. That statement might not be so surprising when you stop and ask yourself these questions:
Do you struggle to keep track of health-care invoices and payments? Do you succeed at keeping an active health journal for a week or two and then neglect it for a year or two? Can you test your blood glucose if you can’t locate your meter or testing supplies?
“People with diabetes may need some strategies to keep track of medical paperwork to stay up to date with important information,” says Susan Weiner. “So, I contacted my friend Leslie Josel, an organizing guru, and a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers. We collaborated on this book to help all people with diabetes organize their supplies, daily routines, medical paperwork, and much more! It’s a hands-on “how-to” book, with simple strategies.”
“Plan out your meals and snacks for the week ahead. Make sure that everything you need (including ingredients, measuring tools and cookware) are available, “ says Susan Weiner. “Chop and dice your vegetables in advance and store them in labeled bags or clear containers in the refrigerator. You’ll stay organized and in control of your diabetes healthy meal plan.”
Superstar Gloria Estefan inspires this episode of Divabetic’s Diabetes Roundtable podcast featuring Best-Selling author, Cherry Adair, Patricia Addie Gentle RN, CDE, ‘The Complete Diabetes Organizer’ co-authors Susan Wiener RD, CDE and Leslie Josel, Neva White DNP, CRNP, CDE, Poet Lorraine Brooks, Jeff James, Mama Rose Marie and ‘My Bleeding Finger’ blogger, Tim Brand, who is the father of daughters living with type 1 diabetes.
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In my experience, stress is one of the biggest challenges in diabetes management – physical, mental and emotional stress. When the body goes into hyper drive and stimulates the fight or flight response, the relaxed part of our nervous system is supposed to kick in and produce calm. In our 21st century society that rarely happens. Instead we spend over 80% of our time in the stress response and 20% calming things down. How can we push the reset button? How can we stop the cycle of reacting to every single physical, mental and emotional upset?
Think of meditation as being the same as concentration. When you concentrate on something, your mind is engaged. Rather than identifying with difficult thoughts, emotions or even experiences, the mind is immersed in the task at hand. When you read, you have to be there, otherwise you miss the thread of the story. When you perform any detailed task, you can’t think about anything else. Herbert Benson, a researcher who studied what he coined the ‘Relaxation Response’ discovered that test subjects focussed on a specific repetitive task with the intention of letting go of the thoughts of the mind, experienced a parasympathetic (relaxed) nervous system response. Even more profound was the understanding that the thoughts didn’t need to disappear for the body to relax. Meditation is not ‘stopping’ your thoughts. It’s about drawing the attention away from the thoughts consistently enough so that the body mind complex can relax, rest and reset.
When students tell me, they can’t meditate because they can’t stop thinking, I assure them that nobody can stop thinking. Thoughts are like a screensaver. They remind us that we are awake. Thoughts are labels for things. Without these labels we wouldn’t have any way to differentiate the forms in creation. Without thoughts we wouldn’t be able to get by in the world. Rather than trying to control our thoughts or what we think of our thoughts, let’s become aware of the one having the thoughts. Who is that? What is that?
The Yoga tradition calls the nature of Self ‘wholeness, peace, love’ or any other word you want to use to describe that which is indescribable.
When we are relaxed and happy, there are no words.
One thing we can do to support our nervous system is to spend time in nature. According to a recent study just 1.5 hours a week spent in a forest, by the sea, in a community garden, anywhere away from concrete and glass is enough to replenish your system. But what if in a stressful moment you can’t go forest bathing?
Then the 5-element meditation is the next best thing.
Imagining and experiencing the elements in your mind’s eye not only evokes the relaxation response, it tricks the mind into thinking it’s in nature. Which ultimately it is. Whether we are in an office building or in our house in the suburbs we are still in the creation. Have you ever tried to get out of creation? Like leave in a spaceship? Impossible. Even in the far outer reaches of space you are still in creation.
The 5-element meditation evokes all the senses as well. Each sense is connected to an element.
Space is connected to the sense of hearing
Air is connected to the sense of touch
Fire is connected to the sense of sight
Water is connected to the sense of taste
Earth is connected to the sense of smell
As you are led through each sense and its corresponding element feel their interconnection.
To practice the meditation, you don’t need special clothes, or to be in a special place. You can be sitting in your car, lying in your bed, any comfortable position is fine. You can even use this practice to calm and centre yourself while you’re waiting for your blood sugar to come up after treating a hypo. I use this meditation whenever I need to be present to the moment. After the practice I always feel more ready and able to deal with whatever diabetes and life throws my way.
CLICK HERE to join me for the audio version of the Mediation on Divabetic’s Diabetes Late Nite podcast
The 5-element meditation
Find a comfortable seat and close your eyes
Become aware of your breath, notice the breath as it enters and leaves the nostrils. Notice whether the breath is cool or warm, notice the direction and force of the breath.
Become aware of the sounds around you – sounds of your breath, sounds in the room. After a few moments of listening reach and stretch your awareness to more distant sounds. Perhaps you can hear cars, birds, people talking. Keep reaching and stretching your awareness to the furthest sound. Noticing how sound travels through the medium of space. How space has no beginning or end.
Become aware of the sensation of touch. Notice where your hands are touching your thighs or resting in your lap. Sense the clothing touching your skin, feel the air travelling across your skin. Notice the quality of air. Is it warm, cool, erratic or consistent? Notice the air going in and out of your nostrils. Sense all the different ways your body interacts with air. Notice how air is light, subtle and only experienced through the skin and the sense of touch.
Become aware of your closed eyes. Notice the light filtering through your closed eyelids. Keep your eyes closed and notice if you can see the colours and patterns there. In order to see we need light, the element of fire. But even with the eyes closed seeing continues. Think of all the forms we can see in our minds eye. Think about how we cannot imagine something we have no knowledge of. Fire is the element that enables us to see forms and differentiate forms either real or imagined.
Become aware of the taste on your tongue. You might also notice the saliva there. Take a swallow. Notice whether the taste is sweet, sour, salty, bitter, astringent or pungent. Notice where the taste sits on your tongue. Is it at the back? On the side? At the tip? In order to taste water must be present. Notice how the rhythm of your breath, the beating of your heart is governed by circulation of fluid through the system.
Notice the smells around you. Can you smell one smell over another? In order to smell there has to be some gas rising from the earth or from something in the creation. The fragrance of a flower, the smell of pine needles, the spray from the ocean, the smell of a garden after rain. Try and take a moment to differentiate the smells. The element of earth also relates to our physical structure. Our bones, tissues and muscles.
Take a moment to focus on your position whether seated or lying down. Trace your mind from your sitting bones down to your feet. Wiggle your toes. Then moving from the feet up to the top of your head. Scan your whole body.
Notice how the body occupies the space – the space which is infinite, formless, empty and vast.
Come back to your breath. Notice what’s happening with your breath. Let the breath be exactly as it is.
Then slowly and when you are ready open your eyes and return to normal waking awareness.
Rachel Zinman, is an internationally renowned yoga teacher and writer, was floored when she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 42, despite her lifelong dedication to a healthy lifestyle which included a decades-long practice of yoga. In ‘Yoga for Diabetes’, Rachel shares her personal journey and her hard-won wisdom gained from her own experience of yoga and diabetes.
Finally we have a book written by an accomplished yoga teacher with diabetes herself who points the way to regaining health and well-being for people of all ages and types of diabetes.
In Yoga for Diabetes, regardless of your current state of health, or type of diabetes, you can look forward to learning how to:
Reduce stress in minutes and thus improve your overall health index
Achieve healthier and more stable blood glucose levels
Find the secrets to adapting a yoga practice to suit your constitution and individual needs
Find deeper meaning in life and thus a holistic healing affecting multiple levels of your well-being
https://youtu.be/dtaHAgyC5b4
Yoga for Diabetes – Beginner Yoga Routine with Rachel Zinman
