Hot weather = grumpiness outbreak?

In the UK we seem to spend most of the year yearning for the warm weather; when it arrives all we do is moan!

Too hot, too sticky, too humid were all phrases I heard yesterday and the fact is that particularly in hot humid conditions tempers do seem to get frayed more easily.

This doesn't just apply to adults, children can get the grumps too, as my almost two year daughter demonstrated last night.

Cold drinks and a fan will help, but just as we get used to the idea of high temperatures, the weather forecasters tell us that it is about to end. Light showers are expected and we'll probably moan about that whilst being just slightly pleased by the return of cooler temperatures.

If you are feeling very frazzled you could always try my Ultimate Relaxation download here.

Some considered thoughts on the 'No News' experiment

In June I started an experiment where I actively avoided the news. I stayed away from the news on TV, I changed channels on the radio to avoid it and did not buy a newspaper.

I wanted to see what would my response would be to not having that negative deluge of information flooding my thoughts.

First off; it's hard to avoid the news media! This stuff is pervasive, in a modern western culture like the UK it's difficult to avoid seeing or hearing some part of the news media.

Some examples:
I went to the pub.......Channel 5 News was on the pub TV.
I went to visit a company......Sky News was on a TV in the reception area
Go to the supermarket to buy some groceries.........the first thing you walk past is the newspaper stand
I logged into my Yahoo email account..........there are the news headlines on the home page

So the 24Hour news media is hard to avoid; you can, as I did choose to disengage from the endless negativity but it harder than it seems.

So practical consideration aside, what happened?

I gained at least 30 minutes extra time in the morning. I used to watch the news every morning from 6-6.30am (I'm an early riser). Now I use that time more constructively to plan my day or finish domestic chores. I don't miss the highly repetitive nature of the morning TV news show.

With my new found extra time I went back to freshening up some skills that had become a bit rusty. A positive result.

Not watching the late night news meant that instead of having the news agenda on my mind as I went to bed I started thinking much more about the things that are of importance to me and my family.

I thought that I might feel somehow cut off from events without watching the news or listening to it on the radio but the media is so pervasive that it is still possible to know roughly what is going on even when avoiding the nightly bulletins.

At the end of the experiment I feel I have changed, for the better. I make more effective use of my time (surely our most valuable resource) and I'm learning (or relearning) new skills.

I recommend you give it a try. I found it a liberating experience, it's just possible that you may feel the same way too.

Watch out for increasing stress levels

An old work colleague called the other day. It was a while since we had last spoken. He started a new job about six months ago and then the company got bought out; there were redundancies and he had to re-apply for his own job. All very stressful.

As we chatted he mentioned his problem; on his way into work he realised the side of his face felt funny. His eye lid was drooping and his lips felt loose as if he had been injected with pain killers at the dentist.

Clearly something was wrong...but he still went into work!

His work colleagues were aghast when they saw him, one side of his face had drooped alarmingly and they were afraid that he may have had a stroke. They offered to call an ambulance and he said NO to that. They sent him off to hospital though, after much examination the Doctor said "Bells palsy".

If you have not heard of it before, here is the description from Wikipedia.

Bell's palsy is a paralysis of cranial nerve VII (the facial nerve) resulting in inability to control facial muscles on the affected side. Several conditions can cause a facial paralysis, e.g., brain tumor, stroke, and Lyme disease. However, if no specific cause can be identified, the condition is known as Bell's palsy. Named after Scottish anatomist Charles Bell, who first described it, Bell's palsy is the most common acute mononeuropathy (disease involving only one nerve) and is the most common cause of acute facial nerve paralysis.

Now this man is being forced to take a three week holiday. Thankfully the symptoms are subsiding and he is almost back to normal. In his case the Doctor believed that stress possibly coupled with a viral infection probably caused the problem.

Sometimes we really should pay more attention to our own health and the level of stress we are under. This time it was a warning to take things a little easier, next time? Who knows.

You can help to de-stress yourself with the aid of my free MP3 relaxation recording. Go to www.gift4life.com and put your email and name in the on-screen form. You could be relaxing in just a few minutes time.

Day 7 of the 'no news' experiment

Subversion!

I have recognised that part of me really wants to catch up on the news. So far, I have for the most part been able to resist the siren call of the Today program on Radio 4 or the purchase of a newspaper, but it is suprising just how strong a hold the instant news media has on my thoughts.

It's as if I feel I may be missing out on something. (Missing out on by upset with politics or world events, that does not seem to make much sense.)

Actually I think it may be more to do with our perception that if something is 'on the news' we are somehow involved with it, that we can be part of the grand debate.

But the reality of course is that very few of us are part of that debate. I may write to my MP but does anyone else in Parliament listen? Probably not. I can make a change with a vote every few years but what about the time in between?

So the logical conclusion I am begining to come to is that I (and perhaps many other people) am just a little bit delusional.

What?

Delusional in the sense that in the past I have seen the act of watching and listening to the news as being involved in 'the process'; as being engaged as a citizen. The truth is rather more humdrum, listening to the the news is not being engaged with the process. If this were the case our two cats would be politicians considering the amount of time they spend curled up near the TV.

So new choices become apparent, I could join a political party and get 'engaged in the process' that way. Not bloody likely; too many compromises to accomodate the mass of people in a party.

I could engage in more local politics but I have a feeling that this would rapidly be dragged into party factionalism.

Or (and this feels like the right approach) choose who and what I engage with and limit what I do to the places and things where I can make a measureable change.

If you or I complain about something (Politicians for example) we can only do so because we have a idea of how things could be done better. Complaining without being able to change anything is a recipe for frustration and feelings of impotence.

Since our complaints are for the most part ignored, we are destined to put ourselves continually into that bubbling pot of frustration, impotence and discontent.

It's sounds obvious but if you can't change things you still have choices:

Move away from what you don't like (emigrate, change location or situation)

Put up with what you don't like (shrug your shoulders and carry on)

Change your perception of what you don't like (Yes the situation is rubbish but it's not my rubbish)

Ultimately you can only change what's local to you. If you are a Prime Minister or a President, local may mean a whole nation, or it may just mean what you grow in your back garden. Trying to change anything else puts you back into that bubbling pot and that place does not allow us to grow, get stronger, develop or change.

Day 5 of the 'no news' experiment

I am now starting to feel slightly disconnected from the mainstream news events.

It's a little like when you go on holiday and only see the news through the medium of the occasional three day old newspaper flown into the resort.

Now the positive changes are becoming more apparent; I am getting stuck into some tasks that were continually being pushed to the back of the queue and have reclaimed at least an hour of time each day.

The results are positive enough that I plan to continue the experiment and report on what I find.

Day 3 of the 'no news' experiment

This is getting harder.

Last night I wanted to watch "Have I got news for you?" on the telly.

My wife said "But it's news, you said you wouldn't watch the news".

My response? "It's comedy, I'm watching!".

It is getting difficult to avoid mainstream news though. It just goes to show how pervasive the news media is and just how 'plugged in' I have become.

I have however successfully avoided the main TV news on any channel, the Today program and PM on Radio 4. Web sites are a challenge as there is almost always a news snippet on the from page of Yahoo and iGoogle. It is so easy to get sucked in to the agenda of the day.

Am I feeling any different? Not much change so far but it is still very early days.

Listening to Denis Waitley on CD

Yesterday I listened to a CD of a seminar that included a session by Denis Waitley. It was very inspiring stuff, totally different in style to Jim Rohn.

On this particular CD he talked about the current Global Trends (including the greying of the population) and the impact they have on all business. He bangs out the quotable lines like a machine gun, "I looked in the mirror and saw my problem; me".

Denis said "The mind always towards it dominate thought, if you're not setting a goal MTV will set one for you" he might also have said the news media in place of MTV.

I had not heard of Denis before but I will looking at his published works now.

Day 2 of the 'no news' experiment

I set myself the challenge of releasing my inner News Junkie a couple days back. Yesterday was my first full day of avoiding the negative programming of the global news media.

What can I report?

Well I did get hit by one 90 second news update from the BBC, they sneak it in between programs. I also caught myself checking the headlines on the newspapers in the supermarket. Clearly the News Junkie is looking for a fix.

Apart from that no other changes to report in my outlook but then it is very early days.