Your Wellness Options - Stress, Stress, and more Stress

Welcome Message

For those of you who have recently subscribed, welcome. I hope you enjoy the newsletter. Select newsletter articles are available in our library.

I am feeling a little guilty. This is the first newsletter in which I have not written at least one article. I guess the stress of the last month has taken its toll, but the articles I chose for your reading pleasure are informative and guess what, they are centered around stress. Take a little time out for yourself, relax, and enjoy the articles.

If there is a topic you would like us to look into, please e-mail your request to: editor@yourwellnessoptions.com. I look forward to learning more and sharing the knowledge with all who are willing to learn.

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Have a blessed day!
LeeAnn Rahn
editor@yourwellnessoptions.com

Stress Management and Creating Balance
by Gwen Stewart

The World Health Organization calls stress "the health epidemic of the 21st century." Stress resulting in illness is the causative factor underlying more than 70% of all visits to the family doctor, medical doctors suggest. What is stress? We all talk about it but what does 'stress' mean and how does it affect our bodies?

Dr. Hans Selye, who first noted and described the concept of stress, defines stress as "the non-specific response of the body to any demand made upon it." Stress is neither good nor bad. The effect of the stress is not determined by the stress itself, rather it is determined by how we handle the stress.

Effects of Stress

1. "Emergency Response" The emergency response mechanism activates with a physiological change when people believe they are in physical or mortal danger. Pupils dilate, blood pressure increases, and the production of stress hormones increase. The body prepares within seconds to respond, which is known as the 'fight or flight' syndrome. The adrenal glands pour out adrenaline and the production of other hormones is increased by the quickly reacting pituitary-adrenal-cortical system of the brain.

This is a healthy, adaptive response to immediate danger but if continually activated, this emergency response may cause a constantly higher-than-normal level of hormone production that can eventually cause physical wear-and-tear on the body. Health problems related to this constant high level of response include hypertension, headaches, ulcers, heart disease, and increased vulnerability to diabetes and colitis.

2. "General Adaptation Syndrome" In studies, Selye came to believe that diseases of adaptation such as hypertension could be produced by abnormal or excessive reaction to stress. The body would increase its supply of hormones in order to be ready for action to stress. Over a prolonged period of time, excessive stress leads to distress and the accompanying physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health problems.

Contributing factors to distress include a) your attitude to life and b) your mood (optimistic or pessimistic). Both help to create the atmosphere that assists your defence system in repairing small wounds, bruises, and infections. This is also the system that tries to destroy strange cells such as those of cancer, including leukaemia.

In mastering stress, you have to figure out what you are doing that contributes to your problem/challenge and change it. The four categories of change include: change your behaviour, change your thinking, change your lifestyle choices, and/or change the situations you are in. Symptoms of overstress include fatigue, aches and pains, anxiety, problems sleeping, depression, and lack of joy in your life

Practical Steps to Stress Management and Creating Balance

1. Make your life regular like 'clock work.' Go to bed and get up at the same time each day.

2. Give yourself a break today.

3. Say 'No' more often when other people want your time. This includes social engagements, the family dinner on Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc.

4. Postpone making any changes in your living environment if you have been coping with undue stress. Change of any kind is stressful and limiting it until later is a good strategy if you are under a lot of pressure.

5. Reduce the number of hours you spend at work or school. If you are a work-a-holic or school-a-holic you need to reduce the energy drain on your body. TAKE SOME TIME OFF.

6. Nutritional eating habits and eating small meals helps to keep your blood sugar stabilised. Many people reach for something high in sugar content when feeling stressed which compounds the problem. Eat more vegetables.

7. Rest your mind, as mind activities alleviate stress. These mind activities include reading, working on a craft, listening to music, playing a musical instrument, meditation, self-relaxation, dancing, and biofeedback.

8. Have a worry time if you must worry. When you find yourself worrying over a problem, set aside a time (I suggest to my students 7:30pm on Tuesday night) and then put off worrying until that time. Chances are you will not even remember what you were stressing yourself about.

9. Book time for yourself. In your daily or weekly schedule book time first for yourself and then the other activities you are involved in. Don't let anything, except an emergency, usurp your commitment to yourself.

10. Have a massage or another form of self-care activity.

Gwen Nyhus Stewart, B.S.W., M.G., H.T., is an educator, freelance writer, garden consultant, and author of the book The Healing Garden: A Place Of Peace – Gardening For The Soil, Gardening For The Soul. She owns the website Gwen’s Healing Garden where you will find lots of free information about gardening for the soil and gardening for the soul. To find out more about the book and subscribe to her free Newsletter visit http://www.gwenshealinggarden.ca
Gwen Nyhus Stewart © 2004 – 2005. All rights reserved
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/

Simple Tips to Relieve Stress in Your Workday
by Carol Halsey ©2001-2005

Volumes of articles, books and manuals have been written on time management and organization in the workplace. We read all with good intentions, but seldom follow through with any real commitment. And yet we feel overwhelmed and stressed at work.

A little organization will relieve that stress in your work day. It will result in having more confidence in yourself when dealing with customers, competitors and supervisors. Let's touch on a few easy ways to begin the process.

1. A messy, cluttered office can result in incomplete work, missed deadlines and lost information. Your desk is not a storage locker, it's a work surface. It is time to remove those piles of paper occupying your desktop, floor and shelves.

The worst decision you can make is not making a decision about those piles, because no paperwork decision = greater paper buildup. All documents need to have a home, just as your silverware, pots and pans and dishes have their specific homes in your kitchen.

Remember, the time spent searching through your office for a piece of paper, phone number or customer's address is unproductive time and only increases stress. Allowing a few minutes each day to process paperwork pays off in time saved.

As your business and responsibilities grow, so does the amount of paper. Don't let it pile up, as this is when opportunities are lost and stress and chaos set in.

2. Control how others affect your productivity. Where is it written that every time the phone rings you MUST answer it? If the constant intrusions cut your productivity, decide when you will answer it and when you will let others (staff, voice mail or a message recorder) answer the phone for you.

3. If your business is home based, establish clear rules for how and when, if ever, you may be distracted by family members. Let them know a closed door always means "do not disturb," or "knock first."

This may be hard to enforce at times. Explain that by working uninterrupted, tasks are accomplished expeditiously, and in the long run you will have more time to spend with family.

In a business office with several people working in a restricted area, the tendency is to chitchat and gossip during the day. This is a great waste of productive time. By tactfully removing yourself and discouraging socializing, you have gained that time back.

Being organized requires commitment - your commitment - to try something new and to break old bad habits. The methods and techniques I offer are simple, easy to learn, and I guarantee they will work and your job will be a whole lot easier. You will also notice that you are less stressed.

Carol Halsey is an author, speaker and organizational expert specializing in office-based organization for the past 20 years. She consults businesses and coaches people on how to manage their time and paper more effectively.

Beatins Stress - Spinning Mind, Spiraling Health
by Sunirmalya Symons

The negative effects of stress, worry, fear and anxiety upon our health has for many years concerned modern society. In this, the fastest paced, most stressed period that humanity has experienced, it is critical for us to be aware of the strain we are placing upon our bodies just to keep up.

In short, a spinning mind means spiraling health!

This is where meditation excels. An ancient practice that can be dated back to the east at least six thousands years ago, meditation has for years been gaining a groundswell of widespread modern acceptance.

People who meditate have been shown to quickly achieve health benefits such as slower heart rates, lower blood pressure, reduced oxygen consumption and lower lactic acid levels. Some have used meditation to help with everything from headaches and respiratory problems to cancer and coping with death. It is seen as a crucial tool in treating many mental illnesses such as depression or schizophrenia while it has also been shown to actually boost functionality of the immune system. Beyond the science, however, one common health benefit in dealing with stress is perhaps the most important, and that is meditation’s ability to help the practitioner to shut up and listen.

"The clatter of the media, of advertising, of stress and anxiety creates a cacophony of noise that makes it increasingly impossible for us to hear ourselves", says Sunirmalya Symons of the Meditation Society of Australia. A non-profit group with a free meditation course on the web. Sunirmalya says that meditators are more attuned to their bodies and its requirements because they are able to ‘intuitively’ feel its needs.

"Meditation is listening. Listening not for words or sentences but intuitions. We are very complex beings with trillions of physical functions, not to mention the multitude of mental and spiritual dimensions we each possess. From time to time, we need to hear what our body, our mind and our soul are saying to us. Our health - physical, mental and spiritual - absolutely soars when we take the time to listen." He says that people that meditate have been shown to eat more healthily, exercise more and generally possess more vigor.

"There are so many pressures on individuals to ‘try that’ or ‘have this’, that it becomes impossible to actually know what is right for you. With meditation we develop a faith in our own internal dialog, a faith that is fortified by the simple result of it time and again being right."

Sunirmalya says that the free online meditation course at www.meditation.org.au is something everyone should try. "Meditation is for every one without exception, but each of us will meditate in different ways, so try the course if it doesn't work for you - try another one, there's a multitude on the web."

Meditation may be old, but it seems it is one of the most important tools for our health and wellness in our modern world.

Sunirmalya Symons has been meditating for over 24 years and has written a free online meditation course completed by thousands at meditation.org.au