Former detective Gary Jubelin reveals how he deals with stress
Former homicide detective Gary Jubelin admits murder investigations sometimes took him “to dark places”. But a mix of exercise for both body and mind kept him balanced even at the toughest times of his career. He shares the practices that helped him deal with stress and which he still follows today.
Lifestyle
Don't miss out on the headlines from Lifestyle. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Gary Jubelin made one of the world’s toughest jobs his own. But during his 34-year career with the NSW Police Force, more than two decades of that spent as a leading homicide detective, he had to find his own way to cope with the pressure.
But while some of his colleagues turned to alcohol, or worse, Jubelin took a different approach.
When the pressure of the job became too much, he turned not to the drink, but to meditation to help clear his mind.
“I’ve been doing qigong for about 25 years,” he tells Health Hacker.
“If you can picture tai chi, it’s quite similar. It’s a form of moving meditation.
“One of the things it gave me was an idea of exactly where I was at mentally. I had a stressful job as a homicide detective, and sometimes I’d come home completely wired.
“But qigong let me know when I needed to slow down. Sitting there quietly meditating gave me the balance I needed.”
It’s not all Zen all the time for Jubelin, of course. He talks about the need to find balance in your exercise routine, mixing hard workouts with softer, relaxation training. Or “balancing the yin and the yang”, as he puts it.
He retired from the police force earlier this year and is now working on a memoir, but his approach to fitness hasn’t changed, and so you’re just as likely to find Jubelin in a boxing ring as you are with his legs crossed and eyes closed.
MORE FROM HEALTH HACKER:
Tips on how to meditate with your family at home
How to eat you way to better mental health
But while we all know exercise can change your life, for Jubelin it did so much more.
“I think exercise saved me. I honestly believe if I hadn’t have had that, what with all the stress with my work, I don’t know how it would have played out,” he says.
“You can go to some dark places. I’d been investigating homicides for 25 years. You feel that pressure. Someone has been murdered and you need to figure out what’s happened.
“But with exercise and my martial arts, I could go to the gym and really find that balance.”
Pre-order Jubelin’s book here.
FAST FACTS ON … HACKING STRESS RELEASE
1. Exhaust yourself
“I find when I’m stressed that If I lay down I can go to sleep very quickly, but I wake up at 2am, too,” Jubelin says.
“And that’s another good thing about training – if you flog yourself enough you’ll sleep well regardless.”
2. Train hard and soft
“I was super fit, but then I’d walk past someone who had a sniffle and I’d catch a cold,” Jubelin says.
“That’s when I knew I had to balance it out, and so I got started with the qigong meditation. That gave me the balance I needed.”
3. Talk to someone
“Blokes being blokes, we’re not good about talking things through,” he says.
“But we’ve become much more aware now, and you can, and should, talk to your mates about it.”
* Send your health questions to adam@themanshake.com.au
GET FIT AND HEALTHY WITH ADAM MACDOUGALL
Lose the beer gut without losing all the beers at themanshake.com.au
Adam MacDougall is the creator of The Man Shake. A new, healthy, weight loss shake that is low in sugar, full of protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals that you can have on the run and leaves you feeling full.
For FREE Health & Fitness tips, follow Adam on:
FACEBOOK:
TWITTER:
INSTAGRAM: