What is Stress?
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Physically we experience stress from poor nutrition, illnesses, surgery, fatigue, family difficulties, emotional upsets, relationship problems, workplace pressures, unable to make the choices that are right for you
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Our suburban environment is a stressful place to live in because of noise, traffic, neighbours, too much use of chemicals in the home, homes these days are very noisy with TV’s, stereos in every room
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Family - extended family living together, both partners working and trying to raise happy well-adjusted children, mortgages, family pressures to fit their mould and caring for elderly relatives.
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Workplace - dealing with difficult situations, long hours, heavy workloads, lack of support from co-workers, co-workers bring their emotional stress to work and creating unhealthy atmospheres, conflicting expectations
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Career worries, job insecurity, lack of opportunity for growth or advancement, feeling stuck about new opportunities
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Unemployment brings its own problems including poverty, lack of appropriate training
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Unrealistic thinking - our beliefs and thoughts determine the intensity of our feelings when faced with stressful situations. Over-estimating the consequences of any event can be stressful.
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Not setting priorities and learning to slow down. |
How can I recognise that I am stressed?
Do you suffer from repeated:
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muscular aches and pains |
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difficulty sleeping |
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stomach upsets |
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persistent tiredness |
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headaches |
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sense of rushing |
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always short of time |
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racing heart |
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shallow breathing |
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feeling light-headed or faint |
Lack of control over our lives contribues to nervous tension and stress.
To be healthy it’s important to be able to relax. Make time in your life to practice relaxation techniques.
Don’t be a perfectionist, work at changing beliefs, choose to spend your time wisely, develop good problem solving skills, don’t put off making decisions, get organised.
Many people use drugs to control stress, in some cases this may be needed, but they should be used as little as possible to minimise problems with addictions and side effects.
Natural methods which help with stress are meditation, breathing exercises, visualisation, massage, yoga, walking or other exercise, tai chi, counselling, kinesiology, learning to say no.
Maintain a sense of humour!!!!
I hope you like this story......
A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, "How heavy is this glass of water?" Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.
The lecturer replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it.
"If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes."
He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden."
"So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can." "Relax; pick them up later after you've rested. Life is short. Enjoy it!
Source Unknown
JUST LET GO
It's the most powerful medicine.
It works instantly and it works long term.
At Healing and Growth we teach you the tools and techniques to handle stress.
We can come to your workplace and we also offer private Stress Management consultations.
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