ruby slippers/ click your heels

The Independentのライターのブログに非常に面白い表現が満載の記事がありました。

説明不要かもしれませんが、Ruby Slippersと聞いてピンと来るのはWizard of Ozです。かかとを三回鳴らすと、どこにでも行ける魔法の靴を指します。またclick your heelsは、しばしば「カンザスに帰る；故郷に帰る」という意味でも使われるようですが、ここでは「どこかに出かける」という意味で使われているように感じられます。

さらにEmerald CityとKansasもそうですね。Emerald Cityはyellow brick roadの先にあるLand of Ozの首都です。Kansasの農場はDorothyの住んでいる場所です。

ただ記事は（期待して読みましたが）、結構普通のことが書いてあるだけで、少し残念でした。（Othello）

http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/11/08/dont-panic-the-morning-rush-doesnt-have-to-be-stressful/

But the good news is that stress isn’t inevitable. In fact there are tools all around you that you can use right now to help you manage your stress and skip off to your first appointment feeling very zen-like. This is the ‘Ruby Slippers Protocol’. You don’t need to travel to the Emerald City and seek out a mysterious gentleman in a long dress to find out the secret of how to get back to stress-free Kansas. Just as Dorothy discovered, the answers are already at your feet – you just need to understand how to click your heels together and access a stress-free way of life.

Of course it may be too late for today – 8.13am may already have come and gone. But in case you want tomorrow to be a little better, here’s how to do it:

1. Go to bed at a reasonable time tonight. Earlier than you did last night. Make sure you don’t have any light sources in your room. If your brain registers light, it thinks it’s not really night-time and won’t let you have the deepest and most relaxing type of sleep that your body craves. Also, leave your mobile phone outside to avoid its electromagnetic waves that interfere with your brain’s sleep patterns.

2. Wake up and breathe. Sit for 10 minutes with your eyes shut, back straight, feet on the floor and palms up on your knees. Breathe in through your nose. Feel the breath filling your abdomen. Concentrate on the breath in… and out… After 10 minutes of this you’ll feel fantastic. Get step by step guidance on this at www.stress.org.uk with the free ‘10 minute holiday’ mp3 download.

3. Eat a slow-release breakfast. Porridge is good, as are bananas. Avoid sugary snacks – they lead your blood sugar levels on rollercoaster highs and lows that will leave you tired.

4. Use technology to tackle your personal stress points. Forgot your USB stick? Store work in applications like Dropbox which you can access remotely wherever you are in the world on any device. Clip recipes, web pages, phone numbers into a cloud-based memory bank like Evernote – all taggable and searchable for easy retrieval. Don’t like getting wet? Check your smart phone’s weather app to see if you have to take a brolly today.

5. Exercise. To shift stress, you’ve got to get moving. It’s a highly effective way to bust the stress hormones like cortisol out of your system. Exercise will also release your happy hormones – endorphins – that improve your sense of wellbeing. Even regular brisk walks will help.

Good luck for tomorrow 8.13am. Leave me a comment below at 8.14am to tell me how it went…