Stress Relief Action Guide

It’s a fact that stress is part of our every day lives. Stress should be handled properly to avoid harm to one’s self. We should not allow stress to govern our choice to be happy and relaxed.

Stress left unmanaged leads to harmful effects in our physical, mental and emotional aspects. A person who is in stress tends to be short-tempered, thus leading his/her family members, co-workers, friends, or significant others to be hurt. Some people are likely to be violent while some lose their sanity when they have high levels of stress. It happens when people are not willing to help themselves handle those concerns.

Hurting someone just because you are stressed is never a justifiable reason. As much as possible try to cope with stress, manage your stressors and choose to loosen up while doing your daily activities. Here are 3 tips to treat stress:

1. Bodywork and Manual Therapy – This therapy involves body movements. Manual therapy is a form of massage, bodywork on the other hand makes one execute different body movements to realign the body parts, especially the muscles. After a long day’s work, you will probably feel pain in your waist, butt, shoulders, and neck areas due to incorrect body positioning while you were at work. Bodywork and manual therapy will release stress from your muscles and stretch them back to their normal position wherein it will make you feel relaxed and give you a soothing feeling of peace.

2. Humor – This therapy allows the person to release anxieties, resentments and, of course, stress. Study shows that laughter changes the brain chemistry and enhances our immune system. Try to smile most of the time and laugh often. Indeed, laughter is the best medicine.

3. Guide your thoughts – All your senses are being used here to direct your imagination into a relaxed state. Your mind and body connects, that is the reason why your body responds to what you are thinking. For example, when you are thinking about strawberries, your mouth starts to drool, then you start to crave for them. This is how our body reacts with imagination. Achieving a relaxed state could also be attained by visualizing that you are in a beach, a garden, a waterfall or in any of the beautiful nature spots. You then will start to divert from stress and be in a positive mood, relaxing and happy thoughts fill up your imagination.

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I used to be a manager.  I gave it up.  Too many hassles.  Too little free time.  Lots of stress.

But that’s not true of all managers.  Some people are born to be good managers.  However, even good managers sometimes struggle with all the responsibilities.

I recently ran across the following article by Brian Tracy.  If you haven’t heard about Brian, you should check out his many books and programs relating to personal success.  He is an excellent motivator and a guru when it comes to setting and meeting goals.

Here is his article on managerial stress:
Dealing With Overwhelm
Too Much to Do, Too Little Time
The most common form of stress that managers experience is the feeling of being overwhelmed with far too much to do and having too little time to do it in. In fact, “time poverty” is the biggest single problem facing most managers in America today. We simply do not have enough time to fulfill all our responsibilities. Because of budget limitations, staff cutbacks, downsizing, and competitive pressures, individual managers are forced to take on more and more work, all of which appears to be indispensable to the smooth functioning of our company or department.

Become An Expert
The solution to this problem of work overload is for you to become an expert on time management. There is probably no other skill that you can learn that will give you a “bigger bang for the buck” than to become extremely knowledgeable and experienced in using time management practices.

Be Open to New Ideas
The most foolish manager of all is either the manager who feels that he has no time to learn about time management or, even worse, the manager who, while being overwhelmed with work, feels that he already knows all that he needs to know about the subject.

Never Stop Learning
The fact is that you can study time management and take time management courses for your entire business life and you will still never learn everything you need to know to get the most out of yourself while doing your job in the most efficient way.

The Keys to Time Management
The two indispensable keys to time management are: 1) the ability to set priorities; and 2) the ability to concentrate single-mindedly on one thing at a time.

Since there is never enough time to do everything that needs to be done, you must be continually setting priorities on your activities. Perhaps the very best question that you can memorize and repeat, over and over, is, “what is the most valuable use of my time right now?”

The Best Question of All
This question, “what is the most valuable use of my time right now?” will do more to keep you on track, hour by hour, than any other single question in the list of time management strategies.

Start With Your Top Tasks
The natural tendency for all of us is to major in minors and to give in to the temptation to clear up small things first. After all, small things are easier and they are often more fun than the big, important things that represent the most valuable use of your time.

However, the self-discipline of organizing your work and focusing on your highest value tasks is the starting point of getting your time under control and lowering your stress levels.

Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to get your time under control.

First, make a decision today to become an expert on time management. Read the books, listen to the audio programs, and take a time management course. Then, practice, practice, practice every day until you master time management skills.

Second, set clear priorities on your work each day, before you begin. Then, discipline yourself to start on your most important task and stay at that until it is complete. This will relieve much of your stress immediately.

Brian Tracy is the most listened to audio author on personal and business success in the world today. His fast-moving talks and seminars on leadership, sales, managerial effectiveness and business strategy are loaded with powerful, proven ideas and strategies that people can immediately apply to get better results in every area. For more information, please visit Brian on the web at: www.BrianTracy.com

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I read with interest an online article published by the Chicago Tribune a week ago titled “Holdout smokers: Who they are and why they can’t quit”.  In this article, it states

“Beyond the physical addiction, smokers repeatedly pointed to the stress relief that smoking provides.  “Cigarettes are just adult pacifiers,” said three-pack-a-day smoker Deborah Israel, 56, of Chicago. “You stick ‘em in your mouth when you get stressed.”

I guess the same could be said of drinkers, who take a drink whenever they get stressed and need to “calm down”.  The alcoholic buzz and the warm glow helps to smooth the rough edges.

The problem with these  “stress relievers”, and other misused alternatives (pain pills, muscle relaxers, illegal drugs, etc.) is the danger to go too far with them.  In the case of the stressed out smoker above, evidently she is getting stressed 60 times a day.  (20 cigarettes to a pack and three packs a day).  That’s every day.  That’s way too much stress to deal with on a daily basis.

But I suspect her stress is not that often.  My guess is that she uses “stress relief” as her validation of why she can’t quit smoking.  And that’s probably true of the other alternatives to reducing stress.  All of these are highly addictive, and produce more bad effects on the body than good.

What do you take for your stress?  Have you stopped to think about it?  Do you subconsciously reach for something to calm you down?  It doesn’t have to be items that are considered bad by society.  How about candy?  Mints?  Snack food?  Sodas?  More coffee?

A bedrock of dealing with stress is to be aware of what is causing you stress and to consciously make decisions as to how to address these “activating events.”.  Remember our “ABC Model”?

Choose your stress relievers wisely!

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I just came across a report on a new study published by Daniel K. Mroczek, a professor of child development and family studies at Purdue University (West Lafayette, Indiana).  The study looked at personality traits and how they affected mortality rates.  They found

“that having worrying tendencies or being the kind of person who stresses easily is likely to lead to bad behaviors like smoking and, therefore, raise the mortality rate.”

The researchers followed 1,788 men over a 30 year period.  They looked at their personality traits and smoking behaviors, to see if there were any connections.  What they found was that those men who exhibit higher levels of neuroticism tend to “self-medicate” themselves by using tobacco, alcohol, or drugs.

Neuroticism is excessive worry over minor events in which there is an expectation of negative consequences or an inability to deal with those events.

What does this mean to you?  Well, first of all, if you’re a person who stresses easily, such as worrying about events that are outside of your control, then you need to take affirmative steps toward realizing that you may be at risk.

Make your motto:

DON’T WORRY.  BE HAPPY!

When you do worry, do you turn to bad habits to see you through?  If you do, you are setting yourself up for future medical problems.  At the very least, make the conscious connection that you’re reacting to stress in your life when you turn to these vices.  Understand each time your partake in a smoke, drink, or pop a pill, you are reacting to stress.  Once you understand this connection, you can begin to deal with the real cause of your stress.  And in the meantime, eliminate the temptations to turn to these vices.  Remove them from your environment.  Instead, turn to healthy alternatives.

I know it’s easy to say, hard to do.  But your life is at stake.  Realize that it really is cutting your life short and it should be easier to attack the problem.

Stress Less and Live More

Dillon

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Everyone could use a break from the hustle and bustle of life.  With everything that’s going on in our lives, it can take a toll on us if we don’t take a breather.  You need to take a vacation away from it all, even if it is for a few days.  It helps to get rejuvenated for the next tasks at hand.

As you may have noticed, I’ve been gone for a while.  That’s because I was taking my own vacation.  My family, pretty much at the last minute, decided to go to the beach in Florida.  Now for many people (and you Florida natives can relate) going to Florida in August is not their idea of a vacation.  But we didn’t care.  We love the ocean and the beach.  We spent most of our time in the water, just enjoying the feel of the waves, the sun, and the wind.

Here are some tips for getting the most out of your vacation:

• The best way to take a vacation is to get away from your familiar surroundings.  Even if the destination is a few hours away, it can help to take your mind off what you’ve been doing.  The relaxation and rest will be good for you.  People get so engrossed in their work that it’s hard for them to see the forest from the trees.

• Go somewhere different than where you usually go for vacation.  Look for somewhere that’s unfamiliar to you.  There are lots of places to choose from.  If you’ve never been on a nature trail, there are many parks that have them.  I highly recommend vacations around nature.  When you’re in a city or amusement park, the stress of lines, people, and money just seem to take away from the experience.  If you’ve been stressed, you need to feel calm and uplifted.  Get those feelings from nature.

• The key to enjoying vacations is lists.  “Lists, you say?”  Yes, lists.  I know for a lot of people, the work you do to get ready for a vacation is stressful.  Making sure your work is caught up at your place of employment, making sure the mail and newspaper are stopped, making sure you have your hotel reservations, and on and on.  You need to get these details out of your head and onto a list.  Then the tasks at hand are in front of you and you’re not stressing because you imagine those tasks are bigger than what they are.  Methodically set dates for tackling those tasks so that the day before you leave is quiet and stress-free.

• And don’t forget lists for getting back home.  No need to spend time relaxing and relieving your stress, just to get back and have to deal with everything you need to do to get ready to go back to work.  Use lists.  They work.

If you have any tips for making vacations enjoyable and stress-free, share them with us.  As Americans, we probably work more than any other country.  We need vacations to rejuvenate ourselves.  It’s really important to use them to unwind and relax.

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Normally we all automatically associate the word “stress” with “bad”. But in actuality, we all need stress to grow and become all that we can be. It’s that management of the fine line between “good” and “bad” that becomes the hard part.

Good stress is also known as eustress. The prefix “eu” means “good”. (Contrast that to “dis”, as in distress, being “bad”.)

For instance, let’s say that you are getting ready to make an important speech. All eyes will be on you and you want to do well. The stress accompanying this task causes you to focus on the speech and nothing else. As a result, you practice until you are comfortable with the words and relax to be able to deliver it.

The same goes for a big competition. Your nervousness leads to more intense practice sessions to get you ready. Your pulse quickens but it strengthens your resolve to do your best.

Any time that stress is related to physical activity it produces endorphins. Those who are involved in practices and big sporting competitions reap the reward of good feeling endorphins from the physical exertion. The endorphins make us want more of the same to keep us in that feel good mode.

Have you heard of the fight or flight response? It is what happens when we are scared or confronted by someone who may want to hurt us. Adrenalin is released. Our senses become more acute as the body prepares to hit the ground running or stand and fight.

In those moments, our basic instincts take over and we are primed for the best response in the situation. You hear about extraordinary situations where people have lifted cars off of their loved ones who were hurt in an accident. Or, someone thinks to use their cell phone to call from the trunk of a car when they’ve been kidnapped.

People wonder how someone can think of those things but it is the fight or flight response that occurs when we are in the midst of those harrowing experiences. This response extends to people like hostage negotiators who talk a kidnapper into releasing his hostages or the doctor who is performing emergency surgery to save a person’s life.

Good stressors abound in our lives but often go unnoticed in favor of the unhealthy stress. A dose of good stress can save our lives. Cultivate good stress in your life.

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Reading the news today I saw a report of a new study linking stress and weight gain.  The author of the study, Jason Block, M. D. , M. P. H. , a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health & Society Scholar at Harvard University, said

“Today’s economy is stressing people out, and stress has been linked to a number of illnesses – such as heart disease, high blood pressure, and increased risk for cancer.  This study shows that stress is also linked to weight gain.”

Some other findings of this study suggest that people who are already overweight get heavier with stress, but not for people who are lower weight.

There are also differences by gender. Women tend to eat more when stressed by financial problems or a difficult work environment, strained family relationships, and a feeling of being limited by life’s circumstances.

Weight gain for men tended to be more likely affected by work problems rather than family problems.  Examples include lacking decision authority or lack of skill discretion (the ability to learn new skills on the job and performing interesting work assignments).

“Our findings show that stress should be recognized as a threat to the well-being of adults, especially those who are already overweight.”

I’m not surprised at the findings.  Stress is such a negative influence in our lives that I would wager that most of the illnesses we suffer are a result of chronic stress.  I think it’s only a matter of time before more studies show the direct linkage.

I think the good news out of this study is that you first recognize that if you have a higher BMI (body mass index), then you need to be watchful of your eating patterns.  If you start to gain weight, take a moment to evaluate whether the stress in your life has changed, possibly increasing.  If so, take active steps to counteract the stress.  Take more walks, make sure you have healthy snacks around, and identify what activating event is causing your stress.

Knowledge is power.  Use it to your advantage.

Stress Less and Live More

Dillon

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I get a lot of dialog about my use of the term “activating events”. Of course, you can’t blame me for it. I wasn’t the first to use it. Albert Ellis, the psychologist, first coined the term to describe those events in our environment that cause us to stress out. But I agree, it does sound a bit academic. But it really doesn’t matter what you call it, the term describes those events outside our control that drive us nuts.

I’m sure you’ve got a lot of examples. The ones that really get me are people who merge onto an interstate where the traffic is going at least 70 (probably more like 80) and they’re merging in at 50, talking on a cellphone and oblivious to the fact that I’m getting pinched between them and a huge 18 wheeler that is as big as the Empire State Building. Or when I always choose the wrong lane at a checkout. You see, I’m in my 50′s now. I don’t have a lot of time left to just stand around in lines. Leave that to the 20 somethings.

Anyway, I could go on and on. You can as well. It’s just important to know it’s not the events that cause our stress. It’s what we think about them that causes the stress. It’s like when you were a kid and someone called you a name. Remember “sticks and stones may break my bones . . .”? Same thing. You choose what you allow to have power over you.

Personally, I don’t like to have people or events to have power over me. I like to be in control of me. Don’t you? Then you need to start becoming aware (ever heard the term “mindful”?) of what has power over you. Do some thinking the next time you feel your heart racing. Come to a conclusion on what is causing it and how you can react differently the next time. Start becoming “mindful” of what these external events are doing to you (the power they have over you) and start to react differently.

You’ll stress out a lot less and you’ll begin to grow as well. Remember when the name-caller as a kid didn’t get to you anymore? That’s what it will feel like!

Stress Less and Live More
Dillon

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