The New Dalai Garth

Bill Cosby via last.fm

Is it just me, or is 2010 so far all about lousy health? It’s true that I have just spent the last 2 hours wading through a mountain of “Explanation of Benefits” (which is a gross perversion of both words) documents while I attempt to recover from Bill Cosby’s Mushmouth syndrome after a particularly lengthy trip to the dentist. And I have two kids in pre-school and we’re all surviving a “real” east coast winter for the first time, which makes for almost daily visits to the doctor to treat the green plague. So maybe I am not a scientific survey sample. But it seems like everyone I come in contact with (and that’s a ton of people) is stifling coughs, has a raspy voice, or is just completing their third round of antibiotics. The H1N1 didn’t kill everyone all at once; we’re just going to all slowly retreat into self imposed quarantine.  Good thing our fearless leaders can agree on a course of action for remedying the situation…OK, enough of that. I assume you don’t come here to listen to me gripe about personal maladies -that’s what Twitter is for. What I really wanted to report on is a topic that is a daily fact of life for the busy salesperson (redundant, I know) and is closely related to poor health: stress.

As part of my recent networking binge I attended a BIG Council meeting last week that featured a Wellness Expert named Dr. Cynthia Ackrill. When I first saw the topic, I instantly had the “yeah, that looks interesting but I don’t have time” reaction that flashes through my brain about 50 times a day. Luckily, the event was hosted by JetPool who promised a tour of their fleet of private jets, so I decided to check it out. What I got in return was well worth the time, and provided me with some follow on suggestions for managing stress that I first listed in Stressed Out Sales Guy.

The main point of the session was that “stress happens,” and is intertwined with traits and lives of even the most successful people. However, it is creating a humungous drag on the economy in terms of health and lost productivity costs. Dr. Ackrill suggested that the first step in combating this trend was for people to recognize and confront the stressors in their individual lives and then implement the “3 R’s of Stress Balancing: Reduce Exposure, Realign Perception, Raise Resilience.”  She then went on to  demonstrate some amazingly simple and  effective breathing exercises- I was shocked to find that the more or less continual ringing in my ears actually tempered during the session!

You can find out all about Dr. Ackrill and her magic cures at www.well-spark.com. Here are a few new ones for me:

• Image via Wikipedia

  Let go of items based on old stories. (example, being stressed about cleaning the house when you can easily afford a house cleaner - you just don’t get one because your mother always cleaned the house)
• Make sure your “authority matches your responsibilities.” I see this imbalance crippling employees at Jigsaw and customer executives alike and it makes us all crazy!
• Align your actions with your values - make sure you get the most fulfillment out of the things, activities and relationships that cause you the most stress.
• Work on your breathing - yoga, meditation, whatever works for you.
• Be mindful of yourself - make a plan, prioritize you, don’t just run around half cocked and ready to blow all the time.

Just like with all educational endeavors (sound familiar, sales training veterans) I’m sure most of this will dissolve into the ether of daily life over time. All I know is that I’m going to keep an eye on my breathing, because my involuntary process is not doing all it can.

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