"The groundwork of all happiness is health." - Leigh Hunt

For fans, the World Series is a marathon, not a sprint.

Millions of baseball fans will attend the opening game of the World Series tonight. Boston Red Sox vs. St. Louis Cardinals. Sportswriters are saying that it’ll be an interesting series between two well-matched teams.

It's easy for football fans. They only have to sit down through one big game to determine the champion of the yr. For us baseball fans, it might take seven games in nine days to find out this yr's champion. (Or it could just be 4 games in five days, as happened in 2004 when the Red Sox beat the Cardinals.)

That means fans must approach the series as a marathon, not a sprint. Here are some suggestions for getting through the series while maintaining your physical and emotional health.

Sleep: All seven games are scheduled to start at 8:00 PM ET. This could make for some late nights. If you get a probability to take a nap on game day, go ahead and do it.

Exercise: Physical activity — and I'm not talking about adjusting the La-Z-Boy or opening a bottle of beer — is technique to do away with pre-game jitters. Go for a 20- or 30-minute walk, run, swim, or whatever helps you calm down. It can be good for blood pressure, which might be high during stressful sports.

the meal: Super Bowl Sunday is gluttony. About Acceptable because it is a in the future feast. But doing it night after night can leave you feeling irritated and affecting your weight. If you normally snack while watching baseball, try some healthy alternatives to chips and sour cream dip. Examples include whole wheat crackers and hummus or guacamole, dried fruits and nuts, or celery and carrot sticks.

Wines: If you drink, achieve this sparsely. Being sleep-deprived and hung over for nine days isn't good to your health, and it actually won't endear you to your members of the family or co-workers (although a few of them is perhaps in the identical boat). are).

Emotions: Some people may watch the World Series with disinterest. I’m not one in all them. As a Red Sox fan, my mood goes up and down with the team's success. The anxiety that fans like me have is definitely rooted in evolution. The human body reacts to a threat—physical or emotional—with the “fight or flight” response. The adrenal glands pump the hormone epinephrine (also called adrenaline) into the bloodstream. This causes the center to beat faster than normal. Blood pressure increases. Extra oxygen is distributed to the brain, which increases alertness. Sight, hearing and other senses are heightened. Blood sugar (glucose) and fat are released from storage sites within the body into the bloodstream.

This is sensible when the danger is short-term. But when it lasts for hours, and even days, this stress response might be harmful. If you end up feeling stressed, respiratory deeply and slowly for a minute or two while saying a comforting word like “win” can assist.

Who knows why we get so caught up within the fate of our teams? Evolutionary biologists will tell us that the urge to discover strongly with a gaggle evolved because our survival depends upon it. “Defend your clan” has modified to being true to your team. It can sometimes make us watch games with anxiety, even anger. Once you get into that way of thinking, it's hard to search out happiness.

I've realized that I enjoy watching sports more when my team isn't on the sphere. I appreciate talent and spectacle. And I’m sometimes rewarded with a satisfying, live drama.

Maybe we fans can approach this series with that sort of appreciation. The Red Sox and Cardinals are two extremely popular teams. Observers indicate that these guys play the sport “the right way”. The players themselves say it’ll be fun.

Let's see that We Remember that baseball is a game. This World Series ought to be fun to look at. So whoever you're rooting for, enjoy watching.