11/8 Mental Toughness Thursday

Heather and Brian with great position through the second pull of the power clean. 
Are you addicted to stress? When someone asks you how you've been is your reply, "oh, I've been so busy" or "I'm so stressed out"? Are you always saying you're too busy to do something? If someone could grant you one wish would it be for more hours in the day?
Our culture places a high value on busyness and not enough value on setting boundaries. I think people feel compelled to "out-busy" each other. I see this with in particular with women. Many times I have watched my female friends one-up each other on all of the tasks, errands, and things they "need" to do. I wish we would support each other in saying no, taking care of ourselves, and just slowing down instead. How cool would that be?
You know I like the smart and thoughtful Whole 9 Life folks, and they came up with these series of questions as a gut-check on your addiction to busyness. How do you respond to these questions?
1. Are you always on tight deadlines, multi-tasking within an inch of your life or creating ridiculous schedules for yourself?
2. Are you a perfectionist in everything you do, even when it doesn’t really matter?
3. Are you an inattentive listener, checking email, paying bills or cleaning while on the phone?
4.Are you constantly worrying about “what if,” stuck in an endless loop of dreaming up worst case scenarios?
5. Do you rush everywhere, all the time, because there are other things elsewhere you should be doing?
6. Have you lost all sense of patience, losing your cool when faced with even a minor telephone hold, appointment delay or grocery store line?
7. Are you always saying, “Things will calm down soon,”but they never, ever do?
8. Does the idea of a restorative yoga class, meditation or sitting quietly for 15 minutes make you want to crawl out of your skin?
If you answered yes to and of these questions  then click here to learn more about the effect of stress on our bodies. 
Remember, cortisol (the stress hormone) is released in response to stress. Too much cortisol leads to systemic inflammation and a cascade of other hormone imbalances. Get your stress under control and you'll get your hormones under control. Get your hormones under control and your sleep will improve, your ability to cope will improve, shoot - everything will improve. 

Stop the glorification of busy. Next time you ask me how I've been, you know what I'm going to say? "I'm enjoying my life because I know I can handle whatever comes my way.”

Click Here for The WOD

We are doing a Veteran's Day tribute workout on Monday to support the WOD for Warriors program. Click on the image above to learn more about WOD for Warriors and to support our team. ​