Stress Impacts Health

In physical therapy, I frequently see patients that are overwhelmed with the circumstances of their everyday lives. They come to therapy with an injury but also present with additional family stress, work stress, financial stress-the list goes on and on.

This in turn impacts their overall health, ability to heal from injury and also puts strain on their personal relationships.

One of the most common mistakes I see is the failed ability of a patient to put themself first! This only heightens the negative feelings and stress felt from day to day. It’s important to put ourselves first sometimes. It doesn’t matter how you do that and it doesn’t have to be in the form of exercise (let’s be honest, I know a lot of people don’t like to exercise!).

You can find joy and release from stress and anxiety in the simplest of ways!

So what can you do to help?

Make a list. Make a list of the things you like doing with your time and set aside time to actually do them! It can be simple things like: looking through old photos and reminiscing on happy times, taking a bubble bath, spending time with children or grandchildren, baking or cooking your favorite recipe-again there are no rules here! It can be any activity that you enjoy!

Take a break from social media. Research shows social media increases feelings of inadequacy & dissatisfaction. This in turn makes us feel more depressed and more anxiety ridden and less able to focus on ourselves and our relationships.

Focus on the things that mean the most to you. For me, it’s spending quality time with my family. When I’m happy they are happy. Putting my focus on them eases my stress and eases feelings of negativity.

Take a break, period. Sometimes life gets you to a point of burnout and that’s ok! It’s ok to take a break, it’s ok to take a step back, it’s ok to say I need to make a change,

it’s ok to ask for help from those around you. The ones who love you want you to be happy and want to see you be your best!

It’s not tough to understand these concepts but it has to be a choice you make to put yourself first! If you can accomplish even some of these tasks, I promise you that you’re going to improve yourself, your overall health and your relationships!

Physical Therapy , Health & Wellness , Chronic Pain , Back Pain Relief , Neck Pain Relief , Aches & Pains , Blog

Improve Your Work From Home

Written by Molly Hoppenjan, PT, DPT, ATC

Still working from home?!?

At this point, if you are still working from home, you may not see an end date in the near future, however you probably have come to figure out the positive and negatives of this working situation.

On the down side:

Have you found it hard to focus with kids and animals running around you all day?
Do you miss the morale of being with your coworkers?
Have you been noticing more aches and pains from not having the most ideal set up?

On the up side:

Your schedule may be a little more flexible
Who doesn’t love being able to get a load of laundry going in between meetings or phone calls?

Take breaks!

These breaks actually aren’t a bad thing at all. Research supports the use of shorter breaks more frequently throughout the workday to help decrease musculoskeletal pain, while actually maintaining productivity. Taking a short break every 30-45 minutes is beneficial for your body and your brain.

The breaks can be as simple as walking to the printer instead of having it right at your desk, or walking around the house while you are making a phone call instead of sitting in front of your computer.

How’s that desk set up?

While getting up and moving throughout your work day is very important, so is your workstation set up. Check out the Patient Resources page of our website for a handout of an ideal desk setup to keep your body in the best possible position. This may require you to be a little creative with what you can use to make this happen.

Remember those old textbooks that you kept because you thought that you would use them? They could now double as a computer monitor stand or a foot rest.

If the chair that you are using doesn’t have great back support, a rolled up towel or T-shirt placed behind your low back can do the trick.

What should you do during your breaks?

Now that we have you set up for success, there are a few things that you can do during your breaks to maintain those good mechanics. This spring we created a work from home video series that you can reference on our website, Facebook and Instagram to follow along with stretches and exercises. While these exercises and stretches are great, it is also recommended to get 30 minutes of dedicated exercise a day.

Working from home may even allow you a little more flexibility of when you can squeeze your work out in, whether it is over your lunch break or between meetings. If you are finding it hard to complete your workouts due to aches and pains, the physical therapists at Dubuque Physical Therapy can help you out.

Get up and try it!

Try a few of these things and let us know how it goes! We would love to hear from you on social media or through reviews on Facebook and Google!

Putting Yourself First Isn’t Selfish!

Stress Impacts Health