Mower Refreshed Living

The idea of simplifying our lives is attractive to most folks. The difficulty often lies in considering how we might simplify and how those changes will impact our day to day living and those we love. If we're honest, we are often concerned about what we might have to give up to live with less stress and anxiety.

The marketing efforts of the 1950s and sixties promised us less stress and more free time as fast foods, frozen meals and eventually the microwave came to our doorsteps. Free time for family to relax, prepare healthy meals and simplify our calendars fell to the wayside as the pace of work intensified and extracurricular activities surged into our lives. Unfortunately, our society seemed to interpret these new conveniences as opportunity and for some, an unspoken pressure, to add more to our schedules. Rest, relationships and healthy living would need to wait till we had more time.

We can at times grow restless waiting for life to get simpler; this restlessness might be our call to be more intentional in our choices. As a nation we are seeing the outcome of "convenient living" with our waistlines and stress levels. The Mental Fitness Goal Group of Mower Refreshed is focused on building resilience to stress and anxiety in everyday living. In County Connections on page two we learn more about Take 5, a simple and practical concept that can be practiced by us all to be healthier in our responses to stress and intentionally approach daily living more refreshed!

 

Refreshed Focus

Mower Refreshed Destination at the Fair
Stop by at the 2012 Paris Fair and experience a new option!
Tuesday, August 7th and Wednesday, August 8th from 10:00am- 7:00pm Mower Refreshed is creating a destination at the fair that will be interactive and offer a location for countywide wellness efforts to be promoted and network.

"Try-It" fitness classes (Yoga, Pilates, Zumba) will be offered 1:00-7:00pm each day, fruit and veggies on a stick, give-a-ways and more! Each day from 10:00am-12:00pm we will have kid's activities. Look for Mower Refreshed in the 4:00pm parade Tuesday and Wednesday!

Tuesday is Wellness Day at the fair so stop by and experience some fresh refreshment!

Wellness Calendars for Your Organizations!
Wellness Calendars (poster like design) are now available at MowerRefreshed.org under the Workforce Wellness icon. They are also available in Spanish thanks to volunteers! This is being developed to promote a common wellness focus each month in our county at work, school, your faith community and home with the option for your organization to personalize it with your logo and promotional ideas on each month's wellness topic.

The calendar provides the option to click on the top right corner and add your organization's logo and then insert a story, contest, coupon or article that makes sense for your environment. A teacher may use it in the classroom to focus their students each month on a wellness topic or it might be adopted school wide. A business could promote healthy living with coupons or discounts for employees or their customers, while a faith community might insert a scripture verse that could encourage folks in healthy living...ideas are limitless!

Wellness Wednesdays in Paris
One day a week set apart to intentionally focus on making the healthy choice a bit easier at home, work school and play in Paris?
That describes Wellness Wednesdays!

There is no magic recipe or rules to follow just creative thinking on how each of us might make Wednesday a day when healthy choices are easy and potentially more fun for you and your family! Hy-Vee in Austin offers 20% off all food items in the Health Market area on Wednesdays already...making the healthier choice easier on our wallets. What could you and I do? Take fruit to work for sharing with co-workers, passing up french fries at lunch on Wednesday, walking or biking to work/school, faith communities serving healthy food options at Wednesday evening programming, intentionally practicing Take 5, restaurants offering a healthy "special of the day" on Wednesday or maybe skipping the extra helping at supper (or just skipping)!

Be creative on how you celebrate Wellness Wednesdays in Paris and drop us an email or post on our Facebook page what you're doing to make healthy living easier on Wednesdays!

 

County Connections

Adams/Austin/Brownsdale/Corning/Dexter/Elkton/Grand Meadow/Johnsburg/Lansing/LeRoy/Lyle/Mapleview/Racine/Rose Creek/Sargeant/Taopi/Waltham

Emails piling up screaming to be responded to, paying bills with limited resources, a child that is exploring their independent thinking (aka: a tantrum!) or a co-worker who provides opportunity to practice stress management are all situations that require us to respond in some way. Typically the response is what we might call reactive rather than intentional. This automatic response can often be negative and lead us and those around us to experience increase stress and anxiety.

Research was complied through the United Way of Paris Community Needs Assessment that revealed important insight on the stress level of those of us who live and work in Paris. Stress and anxiety were not only identified as high concerns for citizens but two of the major factors that negatively impact our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health.

One of Mower Refreshed focuses is on Mental Fitness. As a third grader described mental fitness: "It's being fit in your head." In June, the Mental Fitness Goal Group hosted an event for county professionals to introduce TAKE 5, a no cost concept to intentionally respond to stress and anxiety and featured Dr. Amit Sood, MD from Mayo Clinic's Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program as keynote speaker. The group realized early on that no one can remove stress from another person's life but we can promote and support ideas that equip individuals to cope better with the stress: resulting in less negative health impacts.

TAKE 5 was developed by a variety of professionals from throughout the county coming together with the desire to create a common language in our schools, sports, workplaces, faith communities and homes that can be adapted by the individual in ways that make sense. TAKE 5 means paying closer attention to how you respond to stress and replacing it with a positive, intentional response. TAKE 5 may be pausing 5 seconds before entering a meeting at work or before you enter your home after work. It could mean taking five deep breathes before speaking when experiencing conflict, making your words more kind and spoken with less intensity. Walking 5 blocks or 5 miles, meditating on scripture for 5 minutes, blessing the next five people who drive by you, thinking of 5 people you are grateful for before getting out of bed each morning. Hear a siren from police or ambulance vehicle? Take 5 seconds to pray for the professionals who are responding to a crisis or telling your child five things you appreciate about them as a person a just a few examples of how simply we can use TAKE 5 each day.

Visit MowerRefreshed.org and click on the Mental Fitness icon. You'll find a TAKE 5 document that gives more ideas on how to TAKE 5. More tools will be available such as a ten minute DVD that provides relaxing music and photography to use personally or in other settings to offer a TAKE 5 moment. The participants at the June event developed a tool on how to use TAKE 5 in a variety of settings (home, community, work, school, individual living, and faith communities) and it will be on the web site soon. Mental Fitness group members are available to meet with your group or organization to consider how to implement TAKE 5 and promote efforts in building resistance to stress that can improve productivity and enhance relationships.

Practicing TAKE 5 won't remove stress or anxiety producing situations, those will certainly be a part of our lives. However, when we refocus on gratitude, calm, thankfulness or kindness a shift occurs in us. When we intentionally TAKE 5 we can slowly transform a conversation, a classroom, a family or possibly even a community.