Has your cubicle got you comatose? Here are some warning signs that it’s time to launch your conscious career.

Most of us spend more time with our colleagues and bosses than our partners, kids and friends. If that’s not motivation to make sure your job is a good fit, what is? The job you choose can determine how physically and mentally healthy you are, your standard of living, your future prospects and whether you look back at your life at the brink of death and feel like you did your best. Consider these 10 signs that it’s time to quit, and you might just set yourself onto a much more fulfilling path.

Just about any task is better than doing your job.

When you’re at work, you’ll do just about anything to avoid performing the tasks that are assigned to you. You play around on Facebook, browse the internet and organize your vacation photos. In fact, you’re happy to perform menial tasks like taking out the trash and running errands for the boss – anything that will keep you away from your job for another five minutes. In other words, your work is utterly joyless for you.

You’ve got unsolvable issues with management.

There’s almost always going to be a certain amount of friction between workers and management; that’s just the way of the world. But sometimes, no matter how hard you try to diffuse it, conflicts with your higher-ups can jeopardize your career well into the future. First, make sure that it isn’t all your Facebooking, those lunchtime cocktails or any other performance or behavior issues that are causing the problem. Then, talk to your boss’ boss. If that doesn’t work, think about moving on. Sometimes, it’s just not a good fit.

Your company is on a downward spiral.

There have been layoffs left and right, and the company has been reorganized and consolidated so many times it’s hardly recognizable. Things are so tight, they’ve asked white-collar workers to start delivering packages and vacuuming their own cubicles. This ship is probably going down, and even if the company manages to hang on, your position could be eliminated at any time. Don’t be caught by surprise. Start researching new jobs right now.

Your skills aren’t valued.

You feel like you’ve got a lot to offer, and your company just isn’t using you to your full potential. Not only are you rarely challenged, but you’re marginalized. Maybe you’re not being included in important meetings, or you’ve been passed over for a promotion. If your job doesn’t let you flex, you won’t be able to build more skills and grow professionally.

You’re stuck in a dead end.

You haven’t gotten very far in your company, but the growth has stopped, and it doesn’t look like things will be getting better any time soon. There are no opportunities to move up, and no opportunities for higher pay. Unless you can come to grips with the fact that you might remain stagnant for the rest of your career, you should explore options that can take you higher.

You dread going to work.

It’s Sunday night and your stomach is a ball of lead. The absolute last thing you want to do tomorrow morning is get up and go to work. Maybe your anxiety is so bad, you have a hard time enjoying your weekends because you just can’t stop thinking about Monday morning. When you hate your job this much, you’re not doing yourself or your employers any favors by staying on.

You’re simply bored.

Maybe work is not so bad, but you can’t muster much enthusiasm about it. You definitely don’t feel passionate about what you do – it’s just work. This is reality for a lot of people, and in a poor economy, it’s probably not enough reason on its own to quit your job. But take this opportunity to imagine what kind of job would make you truly happy. What would you rather be doing right at this moment? Running a food truck, starting a dog grooming business or growing exotic orchids could certainly be a viable business. Your dream might be more achievable than you think.

You can’t pay your bills.

On the other hand, some people quit well-paying jobs with the hopes of following their dreams only to find that surviving on their new pay is practically impossible. If you truly love what you’re doing, make it work. That might mean downsizing your lifestyle so that you don’t require as much money to pay the bills. But if you’re working to exhaustion every day and still stressing about your paltry paychecks, it’s probably not worth it.

It’s affecting your health.

Speaking of stress, it can really do some cruel and horrifying things to your body and your mind, putting you at increased risk for heart attacks, respiratory disorders and hormonal imbalances. It can cause tension headaches, nerve pain, irritability, joint pain, ulcers and depression. You shouldn’t have to sacrifice your well-being for your job. If you lie in bed every morning wishing you could call in sick yet again, perhaps this gig is not for you.

It’s affecting your personal life.

You’d love to go out for drinks with friends, catch up with that cute guy that always flirts with you at the gym or attend your daughter’s dance recital, but you can’t. You’ve got to go to work. Some people aren’t bothered by 80-hour work weeks, and everybody has to decide for themselves what level of personal sacrifice they find acceptable. But being miserable because your job is keeping you from enjoying your life? Not okay.

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Photo: Rachael Voorhees, Ana Patricia Alameida, EpSos.de, whatmegsaid

How the crockpot resurgence contributes to the American slow down.

My crockpot - the SUV space hog of the kitchen counter – is my new enabler in the quest to take time to smell the roses, not to mention the aromatic free-range bird melding with organic onions and homegrown herbs in a lethargic, six-hour simmer. Toss them in the pot, come back for the gold six hours later. A meal that drove itself home. It’s what’s for dinner.

The process of slow-cooking tasty comfort food without constantly stirring the pot helps me and countless others to heed Michael Pollan’s directive to focus on “real food” and connect with life – especially during a time when spare minutes to hover is chronically elusive.

“It opens up a space to do other things and this is huge when it comes to reducing stress,” observes Thea Singer, Ph.D. – author of Stress Less: The New Science That Shows Women How to Rejuvenate The Body and The Mind. “We know the benefits of mindful eating, and you could say that another synonym of the slow food movement is mindful cooking.”

Yes, time is what fuels the resurgence, at least on the ceramic surface. Like a lover who gives generously without demanding constant hugs and feedback, the plug-in grub tub frees us up to do our thing – only to come together in the evening and share what we bring to the table as a unit.

Unless you’re a Top Chef contender or former professional stuck at home with too much time on your hands,  neediness in food prep can be a major turn off, especially during hectic week days when a lofty goal might be schlepping to the taco stand to get burritos on the table before seven.

“Braising is what I would usually do on a Saturday or Sunday if it’s raining and I can walk over to the stove and stir every half hour, and the slow cooker lets you do that on a week day before you go to work,” says Jill Santopietro (above), the senior food editor of Chow.com, who vlogs recipes.  “But you have to choose the right recipes that need eight hours of cooking. A lot f them, like a veggie stew I made in our test kitchen, cooks in three hours. You still have to be there, so it’s not full proof.”

Still, it’s a step in the right direction, agrees Santopietro. But the consummate foodie adds that true mindful cooking results from mindful planning, something our society greatly lacks.

“As a kid, my grandmother would plan in the morning for dinner, and that is what is missing from our culture,” says the chef and writer. “People  in this country don’t think about what they are going to cook for dinner.  If you don’t think and go to the store and plan, you will end up going to a fast food joint to get dinner when you are starving.”

Despite the clever advertising, the fast food we reach for when starving contributes to obesity, diabetes, breakouts and other undesirable side effects, while slow cooked turkey chili, veggie stew and lentil soup sans the corn syrup and trans fats is typically the antithesis to all of that. Of course, you have to eat it slow, too, to reverse the national epidemics rushing us to early deaths.

Researchers on the cutting edge of linking cooler jets to happier cells find listening to our bodies is the key to thriving, according to UCSF Dept. of  Psychiatry professor, Elissa Epel, who specializes in identifying mind-body behavior that promotes stress resilience.

Five steps Epel cites in achieving well being: Breathing and awareness, staying present and minimizing time traveling, expressing gratitude and savoring, carving out a time allowance and daily exercise (the big E). Add the antioxidants and vitamins, handfuls of pistachio nuts, blueberries and purified Omega -3, and you might add years to your life. Of course, eliminating the stinking thinking goes a long way, too.

“Our brains are set up to focus on the negative,” says Epel, “But we can choose to reinterpret any negative experience and restore cells that deteriorate when we age or experience stress.” Take the example of not getting an ideal parking space at the store. When you tell yourself you are doing something great for cell regeneration by walking further, you create a positive spin that boosts your health.

Health science has witnessed a greater emphasis on cellular aging and the telomere maintenance system, an area led by Epel and several colleagues who form the Psychoneuroendocrinology Laboratory Group – which runs studies on issues such as stress – induced cortisol and overeating.

“Cortisol kicks off dopamine, and the reward system stimulates wanting to get what we need,” Epel explains. “We go in search of fatty and sweet food because we think we are exerting ourselves and this leads to a cycle similar to addiction,” she has found.

Which leads me back to the crockpot, and the question, could this help break that cycle of addiction and other bad behavior which shortens our lives?

Santopietro, who doesn’t own a crockpot, says it can help you relax, but isn’t a cure-all.

“A slow cooker won’t cure people of not going for that quick fat option,” she finds. “A better method is thinking more about food in advance. I’m an anomaly because I think of food more than the average person – I’m obsessed with it. There are great recipes you can make in 30 minutes without a cooker.”

Guess it boils down to the old adage: failing to plan is planning to fail. Can thinking ahead help us carve out that time to hover on a rainy Sunday or even sunny Monday the way foodies do to feed their souls along with those they love?

Maybe so. Until then, I’m sticking to my crockpot. As I said, it’s my enabler.

Images: Christine Leiser, Busbeytheelder, Chow, Amazon

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? was the haunting battle cry of the last great depression. These days, many of us are begging for something even more elusive: time. Please, mister,  just give me an extra hour to squeeze in a run or a massage, a free weekend to go camping rather than paying bills and scrubbing the bathroom tiles.

Increasing research proves we are struggling in this time warp and are decidedly more stressed over time losses than wage losses or the exorbitant price of things. If it is a given that we value minutes over moolah, than what can we do to conquer the clock?

For one thing, it is clear many workers don’t bother taking the vacation days they have earned at work, according to a somewhat self-serving Westin Hotel survey. It found that while nearly 70 percent of those questioned feel revived after a break, a whopping 75 percent of us are too busy keeping up the pace to actually de-stress on a vacation. It was clear that a bulk of those who keep working rather than beaching or camping are fearful about job security (ah yes, the American way!) and at least 30 percent of those who do manage to take off check in with work every day.

One reason for working through earned time is that we have the least paid vacation days of any nation, which makes taking off even harder in a recession. Americans are afforded just 13 paid days on the average, compared with 42 days in Italy, 37 in France and 35 in Germany. Even if you take those paid golf days (as our president did), they usually don’t amount to many hours goofing off and having fun or just feeling your life. We all know how necessary this is for recuperating from the stress and strain of working and managing our lives.

Professional women often face a double whammy of keeping things up both at work and at home, believing they have no time to escape from either job. Studies continually show these demands are not imagined but rather expected of them. Working women who work from home become exhausted from the multi-tasking while commuters who don’t opt for public transit are often running on empty.

Shelling out $15 an hour for a house cleaner or babysitter could eat up too much of the income needed for the mortgage, medical insurance (it keeps going up, Mr. President), school-related expenses and other money-sucking priorities. Meanwhile, these women are prone to play housemaid on  Saturdays, catching up on laundry and paperwork that falls behind during the busy workweek.

As the most overworked country in the world, it is hard to strike a balance. Even during a recession when have been tossed to the unemployment lines, we are forced to spend free time still caring for children or searching for work. The ego often prevents professional men from lazing on hammocks. Some even continue to dress the part as they search for new work online a home or coffee shops. Despite the fact that taking a breather is often the most beneficial way to gain new momentum, it can be humiliating to appear as if you have nothing to do.

While many Americans say a good income can improve their lives, few find it can buy happiness. People keep busy 24/7 – so busy they often forget to laugh and have fun, or waiting for that free moment when chores are done to reward themselves. Many of us also stress about using time to catch up on our connections, email or Facebook, and the time we needed to restore ourselves gets eaten quickly, according to Zenhabits, which compiled useful list of 20 ways to reclaim your time. One is to make a short list of four to five things you love to do and to actually make room for them. Another is to learn to say “NO”.

An important thing to remember is not to be so stressed over your time management that you lose sleep over it, since sleep is also vital for the body to rest and for the brain to repair cellular damage and absorb nutrients. If you get a free moment, you are better off with a nap than a coffee break. Sleep deprivation resulting from stress, or relaxing in front of the tube rather than socializing or enjoying music, just aggravates the sense of loss, experts say. And then you go around not only being time strapped, but as a cranky time strapped zombie.

Perhaps the goal is not to save up on time, like we try but fail to save up on money, but to spend it the right way. The bathroom tiles can wait. Your health and happiness cannot.

Image: merfam

Work stressing you out? Or maybe you just want to chill out and wind down after a long day? Yoga can alleviate stress and help you chill out and wind down. If you’ve never practiced yoga don’t be shy! Here are some great yoga poses for beginners from Michael Taylor to help get you started. You can even practice these beginner poses in the comfort of your own home.

1. Butterfly Pose

How-to: Sit with your knees close to your chest. Relax your knees out to either side, and gently press the bottoms of your feet together. Hold your feet or your ankles.

Tips: Lean forward slightly, so you can feel your “sit bones” on the ground. You can round over your feet to open up your back and relax your neck, or stay more upright and breathe your chest.

Benefits: Opens the hips. Calming. Deep breath in, stress out.

2. Child’s Pose

How-to: From hands and knees, untuck your toes and lower your hips back to your heels. With knees apart or together, lie your body on your thighs and rest your forehead on the ground. Arms can be straight forward on the ground, or reaching behind you for an extra shoulder release.

Tips: Before relaxing completely, press your palms into the ground with arms straight and elbows lifted, pushing your hips firmly back toward your heels. For an extra back release, breathe deeply into your whole back. Use this pose to rest between challenging poses.

Benefits: Opens hips and back. Calming.

3. Pigeon Pose

How-to: From a low lunge, lift or walk your front foot over so the ankle is behind your opposite wrist. Lower your back knee to the ground, and using your hands for support at the front of your mat, lower your front knee behind your wrist. Front shin can be parallel to the front of your mat, or angled slightly back. Walk your hands forward and come on to your forearms, or extend your arms and body out on the floor in front of you.

Tips: Before coming forward, walk your hands back so your body is vertical over your hips, breathe and press into your hands to take some weight out of your hips and roll them square to the front of your mat. Take your time coming forward, and keep the front of your body long and open.

Benefits: Opens the hips and the fronts of your upper thighs. Increases flexibility.

4. Reclining Goddess Pose

How-to: Lie down flat on your back. Lift both knees up, bringing your feet right behind your hips. Let your knees fall open to either side, bringing the bottoms of your feet together.

Tips: To get a great hip opening, it’s good to stay in this position and breathe for several minutes. If you feel some pain in your hip joints, slide blocks (or rolled up blankets) under your thighs toward your hips, picking a spot on each side where your thigh is supported and able to relax without pain.

Benefits: Opens the hips. Calming.

5. Happy Baby

How-to: Lie down on your back, and bring knees into chest. Keeping knees deeply bent, bring bottoms of feet to face upward, and hold the outsides of feet with your hands. Use the weight of your arms to release knees toward the ground.

Tips: For a deeper hip release, bring your elbows to press on the backs of your thighs just behind the knees, wrap your forearms behind your calves, and hold the outsides of your feet with your hands. Don’t use a lot of force here, just breathe and relax.

Benefits: Opens hips.

6. Corpse Pose

How-to: Lie down flat on your back. Feet can be about mat width apart, arms straight, palms up.

Tips: Relax. Follow your breath without trying to control it. Notice what’s going on in your body. Catch your thoughts as they come along and let them go.

Benefits: Good for body awareness and relaxing. Also good for noticing how persistent thinking can be.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from MindBodyGreen.

Image: lululemon athletica

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1. Butterfly Pose

How-to: Sit with your knees close to your chest. Relax your knees out to either side, and gently press the bottoms of your feet together. Hold your feet or your ankles.

Tips: Lean forward slightly, so you can feel your “sit bones” on the ground. You can round over your feet to open up your back and relax your neck, or stay more upright and breathe your chest.

Benefits: Opens the hips. Calming. Deep breath in, stress out.

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2. Child’s Pose

How-to: From hands and knees, untuck your toes and lower your hips back to your heels. With knees apart or together, lie your body on your thighs and rest your forehead on the ground. Arms can be straight forward on the ground, or reaching behind you for an extra shoulder release.

Tips: Before relaxing completely, press your palms into the ground with arms straight and elbows lifted, pushing your hips firmly back toward your heels. For an extra back release, breathe deeply into your whole back. Use this pose to rest between challenging poses.

Benefits: Opens hips and back. Calming.

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3. Pigeon Pose

How-to: From a low lunge, lift or walk your front foot over so the ankle is behind your opposite wrist. Lower your back knee to the ground, and using your hands for support at the front of your mat, lower your front knee behind your wrist. Front shin can be parallel to the front of your mat, or angled slightly back. Walk your hands forward and come on to your forearms, or extend your arms and body out on the floor in front of you.

Tips: Before coming forward, walk your hands back so your body is vertical over your hips, breathe and press into your hands to take some weight out of your hips and roll them square to the front of your mat. Take your time coming forward, and keep the front of your body long and open.

Benefits: Opens the hips and the fronts of your upper thighs. Increases flexibility.

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4. Reclining Goddess Pose

How-to: Lie down flat on your back. Lift both knees up, bringing your feet right behind your hips. Let your knees fall open to either side, bringing the bottoms of your feet together.

Tips: To get a great hip opening, it’s good to stay in this position and breathe for several minutes. If you feel some pain in your hip joints, slide blocks (or rolled up blankets) under your thighs toward your hips, picking a spot on each side where your thigh is supported and able to relax without pain.

Benefits: Opens the hips. Calming.

• «
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• »

5. Happy Baby

How-to: Lie down on your back, and bring knees into chest. Keeping knees deeply bent, bring bottoms of feet to face upward, and hold the outsides of feet with your hands. Use the weight of your arms to release knees toward the ground.

Tips: For a deeper hip release, bring your elbows to press on the backs of your thighs just behind the knees, wrap your forearms behind your calves, and hold the outsides of your feet with your hands. Don’t use a lot of force here, just breathe and relax.

Benefits: Opens hips.

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• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• »

6. Corpse Pose

How-to: Lie down flat on your back. Feet can be about mat width apart, arms straight, palms up.

Tips: Relax. Follow your breath without trying to control it. Notice what’s going on in your body. Catch your thoughts as they come along and let them go.

Benefits: Good for body awareness and relaxing. Also good for noticing how persistent thinking can be.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from MindBodyGreen.

Image: lululemon athletica

I may not have been an early bird since birth, but after years of training myself to jump-start my day, my body naturally wants to get a move on as soon as it’s light outside. In fact, I’m now almost incapable of sleeping past 8 a.m.

Some people may consider that a tragic flaw, but I enjoy getting up early. I like not being rushed as I prepare for work, and I enjoy the morning hour when I’m alone in the office. For some people, waking up early isn’t the easiest lifestyle to sustain, but for those who can stick it out, it offers a bevy of benefits.

More “Me” Time

While my fiancé is hitting the snooze button repeatedly, I’m taking a leisurely shower, tidying up around the house, and catching up on last night’s Daily Show. When you wake up early, without phone calls, emails, or pestering family members, the time is yours to spend as you please, whether you meditate, exercise, read, or simply watch that television show your spouse hates. Many parents of young children find that the early-morning hours provide their only chance to enjoy a cup of coffee or relax alone before the day begins.

Regular Workouts

People’s motivation to exercise is high first thing in the morning. Many report that they are more likely to stick to a morning workout routine than to an afternoon or evening one, since distractions have a way of derailing later plans to get to the gym. Also, although it hasn’t been proven, some exercise physiologists believe that exercising in the morning on an empty stomach forces the body to burn stored fat, instead of other calories.

A study published in the November 2006 issue of the journal SLEEP found that exercising in the morning led to better sleep at night. The researchers theorized that the morning activity helped to properly align the body’s circadian rhythms. Test subjects who postponed exercise until the evening actually had a more difficult time falling asleep.

An Easier Commute

In some cities, the difference between a breezy, quick commute and total gridlock can be as little as fifteen minutes. Getting up early to beat traffic makes commuting not only more relaxing and peaceful, but also safer. Stressed driving, either because of traffic conditions or because the driver is running late, can lead to aggressive behavior, speeding, and poor decision making, increasing the chance of accidents. For those who rely on public transportation to get to work, getting up early can mean the difference between grabbing a seat on a nearly empty train or bus and cramming in next to strangers, holding on to the strap for dear life.

The Benefit of Breakfast

When you sleep in and hurry out the door, breakfast is often one of the first parts of the morning routine to go, and many people who sleep in very late end up skipping breakfast altogether and waiting until lunchtime to eat. Yet countless studies have demonstrated the positive effects of eating a healthy breakfast: people who do so tend to feel fuller, make better food choices throughout the day, and be a healthier weight than non-breakfast eaters. Waking up early gives us the benefit of time and energy to put together a healthy breakfast, instead of grabbing fast food or forgoing the meal entirely.

Family Matters

When you have time in the morning to tidy up the house, start prepping for dinner, or do errands, you can use the extra evening hours to relax and have fun with your partner, your kids, or your friends. Most people would probably rather spend their evenings enjoying a movie or eating a leisurely family dinner than doing housework. Getting your chores done at the beginning of the day makes those activities more possible.

High Productivity

In 2007, Yahoo! Finance surveyed twenty CEOs and high-powered executives at companies like Pepsi, Motorola, Avaya, and Xerox. One thing that all of them had in common was that they were all awake before 6 a.m. They used that time to get ahead on email, exercise, read the paper, or take care of family chores. All of the survey respondents said that getting up early was absolutely essential to their productivity.

A Brainpower Boost

There’s also some evidence that our brains are at their peak performance in the morning hours. In a study conducted at the University of North Texas, college students who reported getting up early had higher GPAs than students who slept in regularly.

Less Stress

When you get up early, you set a relaxed and comfortable pace for the whole day. Between getting yourself ready for work, getting your kids ready for school, commuting to work, and doing all the other things that have to happen before 9 a.m., things can get pretty stressful. Reducing stress has a big effect on health, since stress can result in headaches, stomachaches, hair loss, high blood pressure, and anxiety and can exacerbate other chronic ailments. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) estimates that stress-related conditions cost American businesses about $300 million every year. When you build extra time into your morning routine, you don’t feel like you’re rushing everywhere.

The biggest benefit of being a morning person is that the world operates on your schedule. Night owls may love sleeping till noon, but it’s a fact that most of life happens during the daytime, and if you’re not awake and ready, opportunity can pass you by. Waking up early isn’t the easiest thing to do, and even those of us who enjoy being early birds occasionally have days when we’re tempted to hit the snooze button (again). But it’s nice to know that once we’re out of bed, the world is ours for a few brief, shining moments “¦ at least, until everyone else wakes up.

Article by Allison Ford for DivineCaroline. First published March 2010.

Related DivineCaroline posts:

• Nine Ways to Wake Up Earlier
• The Truth Behind Night Owls and Morning People
• Sleep tight: Creating the Perfect Bed

Image by: Joe Marinaro

The flu is already spreading like a Malibu wildfire in my Bay Area community with dozens of kids out the first few weeks of school and contaminated parents unable to play nurse.

It’s going to happen, no way of avoiding it all together, but there are some simple steps to build immunity and combat the spreading of germs at home.

Some people opt for the influenza vaccine, which the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says protects against the three main flu strains causing the most illness during the season. This year’s vaccine contains three new virus strains: A/Brisbane/59/2007(H1N1)-like virus, A/Brisbane/10/2007 (H3N2)-like virus and B/Brisbane 60/2008-like antigens.

The government says it is believed the 2009-10 influenza vaccine can protect you from getting sick from these three viruses, or it can make your illness milder if you get a related but different influenza virus strain.

For those choosing not to get the shot, most methods of fighting and containing the enemy involve keeping your hands and surroundings clean and lying low when you know you’re not well and can infect others. The good news for the planet is that none of the hygiene practices require harmful chemicals to kill the enemy.

1. Hand Washing

Discovered only 150 years ago, frequent hand washing is the most effective way to keep germs from making you sick and spreading to your pals. According to Every Day Health, it doesn’t matter what kind of soap is used as long as the water is warm and the soap lathers and spreads over the hands sufficiently to trap the germs. Soap and water works best (meaning you don’t have to use a chemical-doused sanitizer that can actually lead to worse viruses). Here are the steps recommended by the CDC:

- Wet your hands with clean water – warm, if available – and apply soap.
- Lather by rubbing hands together; be sure to cover all surfaces.
- Continue rubbing hands together for 15 to 20 seconds – sing “Happy Birthday” twice in your head.
- Thoroughly rinse hands under running water to ensure removal of residual germs.
- Use paper towels or an air dryer to dry hands and then, if possible, use a paper towel to turn off the faucet.

2. Sponge Duty

Sponges used to wash dishes and wipe down counters harbor massive amounts of bacteria, at times even salmonella.  While we are urged to replace them often to keep our kitchens clean, many sponges are made from plastics which means even more petroleum waste in our environment.

According to Living Green, the added environmental danger with many synthetic sponges is that they often contain Triclosan, an antibacterial and antifungal agent banned by Canada in household products this past August. Even though it’s registered with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as being a pesticide, it is frequently used in many antibacterial soaps, deodorants, toothpastes and cosmetics. The chemical is linked to health problems and harms fragile aquatic ecosystems and waterways.

While replacing sponges regularly is a good hygienic practice, stick to buying ones made from cellulose fiber (cellulose is sourced from plantation forests or recycled). Read the label carefully as some cellulose sponges are impregnated with polyester, a form of plastic. Keep your green cellulose sponge as dry as possible between uses, to avoid bacteria.  Sterilize them by soaking for a few minutes in boiled water, or try a dilute bleach/hydrogen peroxide solution.

The U.S. Dept of Agriculture also recommends killing bacteria and mold by microwaving a damp sponge or dishwashing a sponge with a drying cycle (the method my family uses).

3. Stay Home When you are Sick

Take cover when you are sick (just like covering your cough) by keeping away from other students, workers and friends. State health departments urge employees to stay home when they are infected for good reason. It’s the right thing to do for you and your community. Ask a friend or a loved one to make a nice pot of organic chicken soup, crank up the vitamins and heal thyself. Work can added undue stress that undermines a quick recovery. Work can wait.

4. Resist Sharing Personal Items

You don’t share brushes to avoid lice. And you don’t share eating utensils, drinking glasses, towels or other personal items if you want to avoid flu and colds. While sharing is a good gesture, there is a big exception when it comes to hygiene.

5. Love Yourself More

An excellent reference guide by Our Home Remedies follows the non-nonsense Farmer’s Almanac approach of boosting your immune system with rest, healthy foods like fresh leafy veggies and organic fruit, Vitamin C, garlic and thyme, and beneficial teas. We know when we are not loving ourselves because we don’t sleep and become run down, dehydrated and tend to reach for high sugar foods to revive us, rather than what we really need.

Image: hlkljgk

It’s not preposterous to think your next resource for revamping your home is not ASID but ANFA: The Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture.

It is the mission of this think tank, and others like it, to promote and advance knowledge bridging neuroscience research to how we humans respond to our built environments.

Apparently, so much new information in this area has surfaced in the last two decades, excited architects, designers and scientists are calling it the new Renaissance in physical design.

There are even books being published on the subject, such as Inquiry By Design: Environment Behavior/Neuroscience in Architecture, Interiors, Landscape and Planning by John Zeisel, a consultant to ANFA.

His book covers the new field of neuroscience for design by describing the creative design process, how buildings and spaces work , and observations of behavior in the physical environment. We’ve seem a similar collaborative direction in green design as visionaries from various areas of expertise band together to work towards the common goal of sustainability.

Savvy architects and designers have always considered color, light, scale and layout as room elements that are important to pleasing their clients. But the neuroscience aspect goes much deeper to explore how one’s habitat triggers hormones that add stress, invite calm or stimulate thought. A room can even make one feel loved. It’s all about how you’re wired.

For me, order is the mother of invention. When everything is in its place, I’m happy as a meticulous clam. For others, the more disorganized and cluttered the room, the better. Those with teenage daughters know what I’m talking about. It all boils down to controlling all the little things we put in the cage. Hey, it’s true for hamsters and it’s true for us, as well.

“The premise is to consider how each feature of the architectural environment influences certain brain processes such as those involved in stress, emotion and memory,” Eve Edelstein, Ph.D. explains, in a recent article from Oprah. Edelstein, another consultant to ANFA, is an adjunct professor at the NewSchool of Architecture & Design in San Diego.

In terms of tips for influencing happy feelings, these experts point to designing good vantage points in the main gathering rooms, such as the kitchen or great room. Here, the ideal floor plan includes a view of the entryway, a window onto a pretty landscaped yard and a fireplace.

“Being in the kitchen links you to hardwired feelings of comfort – beyond getting food, there’s a sense of protection, warmth, sociability, sharing stories,” says Zeisel. He explains how Alzheimer’s patients need visual clues like pictures and objects to connect them with their lives, and the same clues aid the average homeowner in feeling grounded. These might include family photos or books you’ve read and enjoyed.

Zeisel adds that having a place to feel safe and to gather is especially important after a busy work day when we can feel anxiety, fear and stress brought on by an adrenaline rush. He says it’s good to face into rooms that you create to see what is going on and feel more in control.

“Then oxytocin, the bonding hormone, and serotonin, associated with relaxation and enjoyment, have a greater chance of being released.”

Other features that help: big windows or a balcony for seeing the weather; curvy edges instead of hard ones on counter, furniture and cabinets to feel more content; original art and sculpture to convey a sense of authenticity and trust; privacy via a room of your own away from the noise.

My favorite component, however, is the idea that rearranging one’s decor is actually a healthy habit that keeps your environs from going stale.

My husband compares me to a little hamster re-shuffling its cage when I spend hours rearranging photo collections and switching around pillows. See! I’m just moving energy, sweetie, and doing that neuroarchitecture thing. Brain scientists say it’s good for me. And think of all the money we’re saving on therapy!

Image: Fernanda Mancini

There’s a moment in the third season of The West Wing where President Jed Bartlet declares that stress is something that happens to other people. Sadly, many of us are holding ourselves to the same harsh standard with devastating consequences for our health.

Stress is a natural physical reaction and it’s useful - the problem is that in modern life we don’t give our bodies time to recuperate. Instead we subject it to yet more stress and the cumulative effect can lead to health problems such as high blood pressure or poor digestion.

My wake-up call came recently when I fainted at a public event (this one) and was carted off to the hospital in an ambulance (thankfully at no cost since I live in the UK and it’s all covered by the National Health Service). The doctors couldn’t find anything wrong with me whatsoever and I can only conclude that it was my body’s way of telling me to look after myself.

When I stopped to think about it, I knew that I’d been feeling stressed for some time. Everyone has stresses in their life – the recession and financial problems is a big one for many people at the moment, while life events such as redundancy, divorce and moving home rank right up there, as well. The biggest stress in my life is organising my wedding, which is less than a month away now.

For me the idea of wellness and ecology are intrinsically linked. If I’m wound tight with stress, I’ll inevitably go for the fastest or easiest option and not necessarily the greenest one. I’m more likely to order take-out because I’m not in the mood for cooking or catch a cab because I’m running late.

I might feel guilty about it but guilt is not a productive emotion. On the other hand, a more peaceful and relaxed state of mind gives me the space to make eco-friendly choices. If I nurture myself, I can nurture others and the world around me and I can practice compassion and creativity.

I started making changes to alleviate stress on my own and then last week I went to a workshop on understanding stress at the Neal’s Yard Remedies store in Covent Garden (NYR sells natural, organic beauty product and treatments at stores in the UK and through their online stores in the US and Japan).

I thought I’d share with you the changes I’ve made and what worked and what I’m yet to try. In this post I’ll write about the changes I initiated on my own and I’ll do a follow-up post to share what I learnt at the workshop.

1. Diet: I already eat a healthy diet but I’ve made more of an effort to focus on nutrition so that I have the energy to deal with stressful events. I eat a wide variety of fruit and vegetables, whole grains and low-fat protein and I’ve cut out most sweets and fried foods and limited my coffee intake. Bonus – this will also help me look better in my wedding dress!

2. Exercise: I find exercise is a highly effective stress-reliever. You might be tempted to skip it if you’re feeling tired but actually it gives you more energy because it gets the oxygen circulating and triggers your body to release endorphins. I’d been slacking off a bit so I picked it up again. I like to run, but walking is also very good exercise and a great way to clear your head. I don’t like the gym but I do find exercise DVDs can be a godsend at this time of year when it’s cold out. I also resumed my morning yoga practice – just a simple 10-minute routine but I could feel it dissipating the stored tension in my neck and shoulders within days.

3. Vitamins: My iron levels are slightly below par (although this was not the reason for the faint). I already eat plenty of iron-rich food and making further changes to my diet wasn’t practical so I started taking an iron and vitamin C supplement (vitamin C helps your body absorb iron and, hey, it’s also good for you).

4. Sleep: I started going to bed earlier. My new rule is no computer after 9pm and I’m trying to get to bed by 10pm or 10.30pm most nights. I can operate on less sleep but I feel so much better with more. It doesn’t have to be a permanent change but it’s helping me right now.

5. Productivity: A major source of stress is my own ill-discipline – I am the world’s best procrastinator. I obviously can’t blow off my work nor the wedding preparations, so I’ve been trying to work more effectively instead. Wasting time doesn’t get my work done, it just leaves me less time to do it, and hence adds to my stress. I find the Getting Things Done system helpful and I’ve also tried to curb my addiction to tools such as Twitter.

6. Treats: We all know that all work and no play makes you dull and it doesn’t do anything for your stress levels either, so I’ve been making sure I schedule in fun things with friends and loved ones. I also went for a remedial massage – Neal’s Yard Remedies offers cut-price treatments with its graduates once a week, and I picked up the leaflet for the workshop while I was there. I’ve also enjoyed small treats like a bubble bath or a few squares of dark chocolate.

What are your top tips to deal with stress? Please share with us in the comments section.

Image: Townend Photography

In an idyllic world, you could file your stress along with completed assignments when the clock strikes five. In reality, it tends to follow you home after a taxing day at work. If throwing on a pair of cozy pajamas and sinking into your sofa with a good book just isn’t enough to rid your mind of worries, try aromatherapy. This fragrant method of therapy can alleviate much more than just anxiety:

If humdrum routines have faded your passion into apathy, take a bath enhanced with peppermint essential oil to awaken your zest for life.

We all feel out of touch with the world sometimes, so combat those occasional sentiments of loneliness by mixing a little marjoram essential oil into your body lotion.

Have minor disputes caused you to fly off the handle lately? Well, you don’t need a counseling session to abate your heightened sense of irritability. Just burn some lavender incense and let the calm wash over you.

Whenever you’re feeling blue, add several drops of neroli essential oil to a bowl filled with steaming water, cover your head with a towel and inhale this uplifting scent.

You’re always up to speed on the latest trends, but scanning through all those fashion magazines is hardly a ticket for high self-esteem. Light a sandalwood essential oil soy candle and show your insecurities (and the magazine) the recycling bin.

Interested in around-the-clock relief? Make your own essential oil perfume with these aromas and soothe these emotions all day long.

Image: estrilda