Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Getting Stress Relief At Home And Work

Learn To Deal With Stress At Home

Learning to Deal With Stress at Home Learning to deal with stress at home is not an easy thing to do. Many of us have a list of things going on that can cause us to feel over-whelmed. Some situations at home, we may have no control over, so we need to examine the situation to see if there is any possible resolution. If there is nothing we can do, then we have to try to adjust our thought process. If the situation that is causing us stress can be resolved, that should be done as soon as possible, even if means a life style change. There is an endless list of factors, which may make a person feel stress at home. Stress can originate internally or externally. Stress has the potential to disrupt a person’s health, wellbeing and/or ability to function to their fullest.

Research has found that the pressures of every day life that everyone experiences can have a huge impact on our health and well-being. Everyone is under a certain amount of stress every day. Most stress is situational. A woman or a man trying to balance home life, children, work, social events, financial needs, sexual needs, marriage, and etc., may feel over-whelmed. Sometimes, one has to stop and reassess their life to see if something can be changed, in order to lessen the stress at home. Due the present economy, most people are feeling home stress even more. A good example is financial stress. Many people are loosing jobs and homes due to the economy. In a situation like this, we have to make a big effort to rethink and find a solution. We can’t do anything about the economy; however, we can adjust our thinking and take a different path in our life.

When we experience stress short or long-term it affects our heart rate, blood pressure, thinking and hormonal changes occur. Sudden and unexpected stress will temporarily jump our blood pressure, pulse and respiration rate, much higher then normal. Once the experience has resolved our vital signs and organs should return to normal.

If someone is experiencing stress at home on a continual basis, their vital signs will stay in an emotional turmoil. Stress not only affects our vital signs, stress affects our muscles, especially our heart muscle, and nerve cells. This is when it can really affect our health, by throwing our body out of balance. Our body's systems are made to function together in harmony. When we experience stress it throws all these systems out of control. Some examples would be the pancreas will produce more insulin, the stomach tends to produce more acid, creating indigestion or gastrointestinal reflux and the heart rate becomes irregular, in turn causing possible shortness of breath, dizziness, or chest pain. Our vital organs that work in harmony go into flight mode. This can harm our health long-term, if we experience it day in and day out.

We need to try to control our emotions when under stress at home, and take a firm stand, as if our life depends (and it does), to make the necessary changes needed. If there is something I can do to change things, then I need to do that. But, it the situation is out of my hands then how, and what, can I change to help myself cope?

We need to learn to control and manage the stress that threatens our behavior or outward actions. Stress not only affects us and our health and wellbeing it will affect our loved ones, friends, children and just everyone around us. What happens in the home usually is not left there. We tend to pack our stress up, and, take it to work with us, we are only human. This will affect our job performance, and the people that we work with.

Research has found that the person, who is under undue stress, needs to learn how to relax and control their surroundings. This in turn will cause minimal disruption of our thinking and inward emotions. This will help us to improve our home life. If stress is out of control and the person is at a loss of what to do, then, they should consider speaking to a professional, who will help them cope. This is not a bad thing, because you are on the road to improved mental and physical health.

How To Learn To Deal With Stress At Work
Dealing With Workplace Stress

In the current economic climate, there is little worse than being unemployed or underemployed. But for those employed, the workplace has become a place that is stressful for many, and dealing with that stress becomes more of a job than work itself. To deal with stress at work, one has to know who and what the real enemy is and how to alleviate what it brings. Stress is not a situation or a person, it is a state of mind that has to be wrestled with.

The common cause of workplace stress is the lack of understanding of what is expected at work. Americans in general are of the "workaholic" variety and are highly competitive in the workplace. We extol high salaries, the window seat, and the big corner office as measurement of work success. What is perhaps in essence is missed is that there is much that is given up in quality personal and family life, and personal accomplishment in an effort to be what are generally overblown perceptions of what we should be. And what is that? Productive, consistent, and reliable. There is no salary or 401k that will pay sufficiently for that. That is a task of self-development and personal pride in what one does for a living and well it is done for the time that it is done. Very little is appreciated after five pm and even less on Saturday mornings. If you do not believe that, just observe what the company heads and vice-presidents, and managers are doing on those hours. They are spending quality time with family and doing other things.

Workplace stress is also created and manifested in how we work. At times how we work in cramped spaces and recycled air makes for anxiety, and stress related diseases. Computer monitors, repetitive hand and eye movements are really doing a number on the health and well-being of millions of American workers. Why? We do not take breaks every fifty minutes and walk around, and we do not exercise the hand and finger muscles. We do not take care of the small stuff. What we end up with are poor eyesight and carpal tunnel syndrome. We will eat fast food for lunch and snack the whole time at work, and wonder how the extra twenty pounds crept up on us. Some would say that these behaviors are just individual choices, but this is the workplace culture and it is very much stress related. Take away the coffee, donuts, and cookies, and the fast food, the workplace might become a place where more work can be done at a level that is not killing people. What is the alternative? Nutritious food, lunch walks and exercise clubs at work. These additions would alleviate the stress and increase the health and well-being of those in the work environment. What would sweeten the deal? If companies actually reimbursed employees to participate, lowering insurance costs and overhead for sick days and sick pay for everyone.

The best way of all to deal with workplace stress is to take the personal assessment and ask, "Is what I am doing for a living good for me, and if not, how do I change that?" It may mean that the sixty hour work week and no vacations are actually doing more harm than good, and some changes need to be made. There is an adage that says, "If you cannot change the things and people around you, then change the things and people around you". Too much stress may be the alert that what you may be doing for a living may be taking the living out of you. The first way to alleviate workplace stress on the personal level is to look at those entities that are allowing stress to permeate. Taking on too many projects, saying yes to everything, and not taking time off does take its toll. No one admits that stress is a problem at work, but then no one wants a sick employee. Dealing with workplace stress may mean that you say no, take time off, and occasionally leave early on Friday to take the family to dinner. Life balance does not include life stress in any form. Balance is living stress free.

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