Entrepreneur, author, founder, and physician Dr. Josh Axe talks about managing your stress the healthy way for businesspeople. Hear Dr. Axe's full interview in Episode 75 of The Action Catalyst.
For stress, here's what I think a lot of people don't realize is that, and I know that you do realize this, but stress is healthy if it's taken in doses. My wife and I work out all the time and But we always take at least one day a week off and typically two. And the reason is, is when we work out, we work out hard. It's when we don't schedule in times of rest that you're going to have an issue.
And so, again, you can work as hard. I mean, in most cases, you can work really, really hard, be into things and give it your all. But you have to take at least one day a week off. And you have to schedule things throughout your day that get your mind off things and allow your body to rest. And so your mind, in a way, is a muscle. It has to work if you never rest it.
It's just like if you're trying to work your biceps over time, if you give it too much of a load, day after day after day, you're lifting these heavy dumbbells. Eventually, you're going to tear it. You're going to injure it.
and the same thing can happen with our with our with our minds and our emotions if we overdo it and so one of the things i've had my patients do over the years is get out a sheet of paper have them write down on the left side everything that is stressing them out and their work hours and kind of all you know we kind of brainstorm and write out all those things on the right shot side of the sheet of paper i have them write down all of the things they love to do things that bring them joy things that help take their mind off things
And, and whether that be going for a walk or going to the mall or watching a movie by themselves, whatever it is, we kind of write down all those things that they love to do. And so we go down the left side and we start figuring out, okay, how do we better deal with this situation? What can you get out of your life? Because a lot of times we have too many things we're doing.
and what's things that you can say no to. And then on the right side, we start scheduling those things in because a lot of us have a work schedule. We have scheduled in to bring kids to soccer practice or whatever it is. You really need to schedule in times of rest, times of joy, you know, in times to live life. And I see this in a lot of people in business professionals.
This is something where I understand I'm type A. I will go out there and I I'll put it in an 80-hour week, or I would if I didn't have scheduled in times of rest and understanding this. In fact, there's a great book that really hits on this topic. It's called The Powerful Engagement. It's a great business book that everyone might enjoy, but they really talk about this.
And they actually have done studies on business executives, and they found they were much more effective when they schedule it in times of rest. And that might look like you once a day taking a 30-minute walk in the afternoon and and kind of letting your brain recharge and get refreshed. Even something as simple as that makes a big difference.
Even taking your time into working out in the middle of the day. Even if it's just 30 minutes, that allows to reset your brain. In fact, in the book, they really talk about it takes 20 minutes of not thinking about and concentrating on something for your brain to reset.
And if you can take 20 to 30 minutes completely away from thinking and being engaged, it really allows your body to sort of reset there. So anyways, I think in terms of stress, You know, that's an important thing to consider. And I talked about the business side. It's a similar thing, though, with parents, whether you're a business exec or not. I know a lot of moms out there.
They're with kids all day and they probably get zero alone time in an average week. And so one of the things I work with those moms are doing is getting three hours by themselves a week. And so they can walk through the mall or do lunch with the best friend or whatever it might be. This is really I think it's important for everyone to try and do.
you know, I know everyone has a different spiritual beliefs, but this is a, this is something, you know, taking a Sabbath or a day off from, from, from the beginning of time. And if you look in other cultures, both in Asian culture, European culture, there is a very long time in the middle of day where people are resting. So,
You know, in Europe, lunch is definitely longer, typically an hour and a half to two hours in some cases. In Asia, again, there's times for tea and those sort of things in the middle of the day. And so a lot of times I know business execs in the U.S. are working from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. I mean, that can be common.