Stress management for better living » stress

Negative views and stress

David — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 22:24:17 +0000

With all the pressures that people have today its no wonder that stress is such an important issue. Stress can do a lot of damage to you physically as well as emotionally. Much has been written about how stress can be controlled through therapy or other techniques. But maybe you should be thinking about the root cause of your stress and how the way you negatively look at things creates that stress.

Self-examination is in order to correctly determine the source of your stress. Is it work or home or is it your feelings in general that gives your stress and anxiety. Much can be learned from how you think in certain situations. Are your thoughts negative and hopeless when you are in these situations or do you feel this way all the time? It might be helpful to write down your thoughts for a short period of time and see if you can pinpoint which things bring the stress on.

After a few days you might find that you become stressed in most every situation. So it really isn’t the situation as much as it is how you are looking at things. Changing the way you think and feel can be difficult but not impossible. It took time to develop this bad habit of constantly thinking negatively about things and it will definitely take time to change that process. The idea of positive thinking seems simple but it is also powerful. Although it may not be enough by itself to prevent negative thinking it’s a good start.

Remember that if you feel that you can’t do it alone check with your doctor to see if they what they would recommend.

Feel free to comment and please subscribe to this RSS Feed

Thanks

What is chronic stress?

David — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 20:06:36 +0000

Everyone in life has had stress sometime during their lives. It could be due to your job, your personal relationships, and your children or just about anything that causes anxiety and worry. In fact some stress is good so you don’t want to eliminate it completely but the problem is when stress becomes a regular or chronic part of your life. Then you have to do something about it.

Everybody know the feeling of stress, the knot in their stomach, the sweaty palms, the headache and irritability are just a few of the short term symptoms. But those can all go away if the stress is temporary or if you have your stress under control. What if they aren’t temporary and you continually have trouble dealing with stress then you might find yourself with chronic stress.

Chronic stress is where you are bombarded with stressors in your life. The stress is so constant and so deep that you can’t do anything about it. Not only are you affected emotionally by chronic stress but also physically. This type of stress can lead to stress burnout.

Long term effects of stress on your body.

Causes you to have sleep problems.
High blood pressure
Possible heart problems
Lowers your immune system which in turn makes you more susceptible to other illnesses.
Back problems

Another possible side effect of chronic stress is drug and alcohol addiction. With there is too much stress in life many folks turn to alcohol and drugs to help self-medicate themselves. Of course this leads to more problems than they already had.

What to do about chronic stress?

There are various stress management techniques that you can learn on your own or with the help of your doctor or counselor.

Some of the therapies and treatments are

Without engaging someway to control stress your health and emotional wellbeing will suffer greatly.

Feel free to comment and please subscribe to my RSS Feed

Thanks

Stress and burnout

David — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:24:33 +0000

You have become numb from all the problems in your daily life. Your job is terrible and in jeopardy, your home life isn’t much better. You constantly worry about your money situation. Stress has eaten you alive and you feel that you can’t even muster up enough strength to fight it. You are a victim of burnout caused by the unrelenting stress that has taken over your life.

Is stress and burnout the same?

While stress and burnout are closely aligned with each other there is a difference between the two. Stress should be understood first because it can lead to burnout.

Stress is a term that seems to encompass many meanings. But when we think about stress we think about a reaction to something that is happening around us or to us. The idea of “fight or flight” is closely related to stress and how we react. Stress brings on physical reactions such as the increase of adrenaline that enables the body to become heightened and on alert for danger. If the stress goes on too long our body gives out.

Now imagine constant stress over a long period of time. You are at the point where you can’t fight or flight. The exhaustion is too great and you just give up because you have nothing left to give. You are experiencing burnout.

Burnout like depression puts you a place of no hope, of helplessness and general despair. You go through the motions at home and at work, your productivity sinks.

What can you do?

Acknowledge that there is a problem and you need to fix it
Try relaxation techniques such as meditation, deep breathing and yoga
Take a rest, a vacation, just get away from it all and see if that helps.
If taking a rest isn’t effective then seek help from a Doctor or a counselor, someone who deals with these issues all the time.

Don’t let stress and burnout control your life.

Feel free to comment and please subscribe to my RSS FeedThanks

Stop stress eating

David — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 15:37:16 +0000

How do you handle stress? Do you exercise on a regular basis or do you meditate when the pressures of life get to be too much? Exercise and meditation are two good ways to keep stress under control but unfortunately some people handle stress in a less than healthy way, such as eating when they get stressed.
Eating when you feel stressed out is the only bad habit that you can use as a crutch, smoking is also bad. However with smoking you can give it up entirely (although it can be very difficult) you can’t give up eating entirely. And how long does the stress eating give you any relief? It’s not very long before you start to feel bad again and reach for some more junk food. If you fruit when you were stressed out it won’t be a problem unfortunately fruit doesn’t have the caffeine and sugar in it that makes you feel good.
What to do about stress eating?

Start exercising on a regular basis; this would definitely help relieve some of the stress that is bothering you.
Meditation can be done almost anywhere and the sessions can be any length of time. A short meditation might stop you from eating the wrong thing.
Get into the habit of eating healthy snacks. This is a tough one, but you can eat an apple instead of a candy bar if you try.
Don’t keep the tempting junk food around the house.

You just don’t need the junk food to fight stress, there are other ways.

Stress during the recession

David — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 03:00:40 +0000

Stress is always a part of everyday life. You worry about everything such as health, unexpected problems and even the traffic. But with the current economic situation it seems that your worries have doubled. Is your job in jeopardy? Can you pay the bills? What will you do?
The first thing to do is to take a deep breath.
After you have gained your composure then you need to make an assessment of all the things that are worrying you.
Take stock of all the problems that you may have and write them down. If you are worried about your job write it down. Before you do anything else take a minute to clear your thoughts and think. Think about what you would do if you lost your job. Your probably would go on unemployment first. Then you should plan out a job search strategy unless you win the lottery of course. Now write down on your piece of paper under where you wrote ‘lost your job’ the job strategy. Don’t worry if you can always change it later and add on to it. the important thing is that you are making a plan and when it is written down the anxiety of the unknown goes away.
You may need to get more paper because you should write down each problem that you have and write down the solution under it. I know that it sounds too easy but you have to do something to ease your mind of the unknown, stress flourishes when things are unknown.
So this is a start, just a start, to controlling your stress and anxiety of future challenges.

5 ways to stop feeling overwhelmed by life

David — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 02:53:02 +0000

At one point or the other life has a way of overwhelming the best of us. Time is so limited and the amount of things that you have to do is staggering. It’s no wonder that you feel helpless by it all. In order to save your sanity and general health you must stop feeling over whelmed by life.

Stop what you are doing and take a breath, get away from the all the things that are driving you crazy. Relax, clear your head of all the stress that life has dropped on you. Try relaxation exercises like autogenic training or meditation.
Take out a piece of paper and write down all the things that need to be done. Things might not be so taunting once you see them on paper.
Every thing is important, but you have to prioritize. Rank all the things that have to be done in order.
Plan how you are going to do things and how much time you will take on each item.
Without interruption go to the first item and work on it till completed. Don’t start another thing before finishing the task that you are working on.

The key to all this is time management and staying focused on one thing at a time.

Autogenic training for stress management

David — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 02:45:25 +0000

If you feel that you are under stress constantly and you don’t want to take medications then you might want to try Autogenic training for stress management.

Developed in 1932 by a German psychiatrist Johannes Schultz, autogenic training is a relaxation technique that can be done in just a few minutes each day. The key to this technique is visualization. If practiced on a regular basis two or three times a day autogenic training can be beneficial to relieving stress. Like hypnosis, this technique works on the power of suggestion so it is vital that you go into with an open mind.

How does autogenic training work?

This technique can be done lying down or sitting down in a comfortable position. Like progressive relaxation techniques you start out at your feet and repeat phrases to achieve relaxation. Make sure that the place that you do autogenic training is quiet and you wouldn’t be disturbed.

For example

My feet are heavy and warm. Repeat this 3 times and move to your legs.
When you get to your chest, concentrate on your heart and say ‘My heart is calm and serene’.
After you have gone through all the parts of the body repeat the phrase ‘I am relaxed and stress-free”
Repeat all the steps at least twice, three times a day.

It is important to practice this regularly because it takes time before it is effective. Usually 2 or 3 times a day will be enough.

What is passive aggressive behavior?

David — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:25:35 +0000

Are you anger on the inside? Do you know someone that is? And does that person act out that hostility in a passive way, not blaming themselves for anything. Maybe that person or you have a passive aggressive hostility.

What does this have to do with stress? Usually the person who has this type of behavior can live with it without much problem. Unfortunately the people around the passive aggressive become much stressed and they are the ones that have to convey to the passive aggressive that they can’t live that way.

The person with passive aggressive hostility usually comes from a non-nurturing background where they felt inadequate which develops into a history of low self-esteem. They aren’t usually hostile toward other people in a confrontational manner. They work out their hostility and anger by being non productive and being unhappy in the situation that they are currently in. They have a difficult time accepting authority and just accepting advice in general. People who have passive aggressive behaviors are at a greater risk of becoming depressed as they become older.

Healing passive aggressive behavior

One method to help an individual overcome their passive aggressive behavior is for them to become more assertive with their feelings.

Another area that needs to be worked on is their low self-esteem.

Their negativity toward everything says more about how they feel about themselves rather than their surrounding.

Communication or lack of it is also a drawback for those with passive aggressive behavior. Learning to communicate more effectively will increase their self esteem and assertiveness.

Learning that other’s feeling toward them doesn’t have an effect on who they are, is very important.

Aromatherapy and stress reduction

David — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 02:18:42 +0000

Certain scents or smells always bring out particular emotions in folks, whether it is something cooking in the morning or the smell of cologne or perfume. It makes you think of something as simple as you are hungry or it could remind you of a person or place you used to know. Of course it could also bring the opposite effect; certain smells may remind you of things that you would rather forget. The sense of smell is very powerful and can be used in a very positive way. Aromatherapy uses plant oil extracts or essential oils as a form of therapy to help with such things as reducing stress, depression and pain among other things.

Plant oils have been used since the beginning of time for therapeutic treatments and aromatherapy has been used for about the century or so. The Greeks and Egyptians were early users of fragrances as well as the Romans. The French started to use essential oils not only for therapy but also for medicinal use at the beginning of the century.

The two basic ways to use aromatherapy are by inhalation and by applying it to the skin. Putting a few drops of essential oils on a cloth or spraying them gently into the air will do the trick or by using lotions, body oils and other products with essential oils in them.

Aromatherapy can be very useful in the reduction of stress and anxiety as well as muscle relaxation.

Time management tips

David — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 01:40:52 +0000

One of the greatest sources of stress is trying to find the time to do everything. You have to do this and you have to do that and don’t forget that other thing you were supposed to do. If you life is divided up minute by minute with all the tasks that have to be done, then you are probably have a lot of stress to deal with. So how do you deal with it all? You need time management tips.

Through organization and thoughtful planning you can manage your time and help elevate the stress that comes with worrying if you are going to get everything done.

Make a list of all the things that need to be done. Don’t analyze them at this step. Just write them down.

What really needs to be done? Make sure that only the most important things are kept on the list
Can you enlist volunteers to help with your list? Look for help.
stay focused on the tasks at hand, don’t let anyone disturb you from finishing your chores
Limit the amount of time you spend on each item on the list. You don’t want one task to bog you down.
Get plenty of rest and exercise. Healthier folks get more things done.