I love giving keynote speeches.  Interacting with the audience.  Helping them look at things in new and different ways.  Hearing from them later that I made a significant impact on their business results.  Those are all motivating to me.

But the travel is a different story.  Travel can be both tiring and stressful.  When that happens, I turn to one of three activities – massage, exercise, or sailing.

One advantage of massage is that I don’t have to do anything except get there and get home again.  Massage produces a complete sense of relaxation by simply lying there and letting go of everything.  I don’t have to think; I don’t have to focus; and I don’t even have to be awake to enjoy the massive benefits from massage.

Since I live in Orlando, I use an Orlando based massage therapist whose practice is described at www.orlandomassageandcolonics.com.  Some people prefer Swedish massage; others prefer deep tissue, sport, Shiatsu, Trager®, or Myo-fascial release.  But Paula’s so good and so intuitive that I just tell her, "you do what you sense I need" and promptly fall asleep.

Exercise takes the form of running, walking, and machines.  Each of them produces a different form of relaxation.

Running burns off the nervous energy that has built up during travel and releases the endorphins that relax me and bring me back to normal.

Walking is more contemplative in nature and gives me time to reflect on what’s going on in my life and what I want to be when I grow up.

Using machines produces – for me – a focus on that particular part of my body and produces a zen-like experience with just that particular muscle set.

Sailing, on the other hand, produces a zen-like experience that is more expansive in nature.  The Greeks had a word for this – eudaimonia – which literally translates into "human spirit".  People who have seen me sailing have described it as "a ballet" or as being "one with the boat".

Both true.  Sailing produces a clearing effect which opens my mind and spirit in a way that nothing else does.  I love it.

So there you have it – the three ways primary ways I reduce stress and stay healthy.  Naturally, none of them – including massage – will work for you the way they work for me.  But find your own methods and enjoy the improved health that results.