Stress is usually most found at work. While stress varies from job to job and person to person, each job presents it own unique challenges and hence stresses. It is critical to understand the types of stress that a workplace produces. Some stresses come with the inherent nature of the job while other stresses emerge from inter personal relationships on the job. Other stresses are due to management and the job tasks. Some job tasks are made more stressful due to time constraints, lack of necessary equipment or lack of adequate personnel. Other stresses emerge from lack of employee challenge or input. Burnout, lack of time for oneself and over working are a result.
Workplace stress is a combination of many factors. Please also review AIHCP’s Stress Management Consulting Program
The article, “How To Get To The Core Of Your Work Stress” by Jessica LaMarre reviews sources of stress found in the work place. She states,
“What I learned is that the root cause of our stress is the suppressing or repressing of our stress response. Bottom line: We are not listening to our body’s response to stress. We are not listening to ourselves! It’s not just a stress problem, it’s a disconnection problem. Which is not a surprise, as we have kids, significant others, employers, customers, etc. all demanding our time. So, we don’t take any time for ourselves. We may feel the stress in our body or sense it in our irritation or frustration, but we suppress it or repress it because we have too much going on – and who has time to slow down, right?”
Stress can kill. The stress response of the body is not meant to be a permanent reality. Furthermore the stress response is not one that is best for existence inside an office. Considering fight or flight is not an option for most jobs, many have to internalize stress. It is essential then to learn to cope and better respond to stress.
Please also review AIHCP’s Stress Management Consulting Program and see if it matches your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification as a Stress Management Consultant.
2020 was one of the most stressful years for anyone. Being able to cope with the stress of the past year and incorporate stress management strategies for 2021 is critical to good physical, emotional and mental health. Everyone for 2021 should take a big interest in managing stress and learning to cope with the challenges 2021 will bring as we come upon new political and social obstacles to national unity and a pandemic that continues to kill.
We need to learn to cope with stress better in 2021. Please also review AIHCP’s Stress Management Consulting Program
The article, “Soothing Anxiety and Stress: Advice From the Year in Well” by Till Lauer from the New York Times looks at a series of articles written through 2020 to help one find better peace and stress management in 2021. The article states,
“For many of us, 2020 was an exceptionally stressful year, dominated by fears about the coronavirus pandemic. Even with the vaccine on the horizon, we’re likely to need some stress management strategies to carry us into 2021. ”
Please also review AIHCP’s Stress Management Program and see if matches your academic and professional goals. The program is online and open to qualified professionals seeking a four year certification in Stress Management Consulting.
Stress plays havoc on health, social life and work. Ultimately it is a killer. For these reasons, it is essential to respond to stress. Without a fight or flight response for many everyday situations, one needs a way to help the body escape the situation or cope with the situation in a healthy fashion. In doing, so there are four types of interventions that can take place in dealing with stress.
Interventions to stress or in many ways we look to fight it within a civil and acceptable way. Since we cannot like our ancestors flee or fight a situation, we do not want to internalize stress and damage our bodies. It is important to look at each stress and see what type of intervention is the best way to deal with it.
Stress kills. It is important to utilize stress interventions in life. Please also review AIHCP’s Stress Management Consulting Program
Life change interventions are one important way to fight stress. It may involve changing how we handle things via organization to a complete restructuring of a career. The changes may be minor, or may be major depending on the level of the stress. Some stressors are internal while others are external. Some we have more control over while others we cannot control. Our life changes all hinge upon that in how severe we can alter a life style. Some changes may alter the extremity of the stress, while others may limit the duration of the stress. Some life changes seek to avoid the stress or limit the stressor’s affect on one’s life. Ultimately, the life change depends on the person’s situation and the stress. Each person is different and what stresses some, may not stress others. Hence the life change is subjective in many cases.
Does one change a career completely, or make smaller changes within the paradigm of the work itself. Hence these changes are based on the person’s individual needs and their ability to deal with the stress.
Not all stresses require outward life changes, but can be managed other ways. One way include perception. How one perceives things ultimately shapes one’s world outlook on life. One can be a glass is half empty person or a glass is half full person. If one perceives a stressor as something that will destroy them, then it will cause a great amount of worry, but if one sees such stressors as challenges or ways to improve oneself, then this outlook totally changes the stress reaction within the person. One may lose a job and see new opportunities, while others may see the loss of income and fear of unemployment. Again, it ultimately lies within the person’s perception. The ability to alter one’s perception to stress is a key way to manage it and make situations better.
Another intervention against stress is emotional response. We can help our emotional responses to stress through a variety of interventions. One includes meditation. Meditation is correlated with many health benefits. Individuals who meditate regularly overall have better health and are able to refresh themselves against stress. Besides meditation, biofeedback is a helpful tool. Biofeedback looks at how our body responds to certain stimuli and understanding what our body does when affected by stress. Most of these functions are subconscious, such as our breathing and heartbeat. Individuals can identify stress and how the body responds and use techniques to control heartbeat and breathing to reduce the damage of stress. There are a multitude of other ways one can emotionally reduce the power of stress in one’s lives. Utilizing these methods can help one deal with a life situation that cannot be altered or changed.
Working out is a great way to respond to stress in a “fight” type response. It allows your body to remove the negative stress responses that are internally taking place in the body
Equal to emotional release, physical and physiological methods of reducing stress are critical to health. These interventions and responses tie deeply with the fight response. Physical response to stress in the gym can be very beneficial. One can lift weights, punch a bag or run to escape the reality of stress. The body responds well to exercise not just for health but also mental health. Endorphins are released that help the body overcome stress damage to the organs. Those in high stress fields, should consider a regular exercise regiment to cope with the daily stresses of life.
Stress interventions are key to good health. Stress kills and one must be able to alleviate the responses of the body through a variety of coping strategies. These strategies can help one cope with stress and increase good health.
Please also review AIHCP’s Stress Management Consulting Program and see if it meets your standards. Qualified professionals can earn a four year certification through AIHCP’s independent study and online program in Stress Management.
Stress can be a killing force especially for individuals who work too much. Work addiction can ruin lives and kill people young. It is important to find a proper balance with work and leisure to avoid stress, burnout and poor health.
Research points out that those who over work, live shorter lives. This is why it is so critical to balance life and not work oneself to the grave.
Are you overworked? Addicted to work? Please also review AIHCP’s Stress Management Consulting Program
The article, “How Work Addiction Could Be Hurting Your Career Without Your Knowledge” by Bryan Robinson discusses how addiction to work can have ill effects. He states,
“You work compulsively and constantly day and night, holidays and weekends, regardless of the deadline. You’re a hard-driving perfectionist, your work is thorough, and your standards practically unreachable. There’s no letup and few periods of down time in your life, and leisure and recreation are rare. ”
Controlling stress is key to good health and a more peaceful, less violent life. It is important to learn good coping strategies for stress. Stress tips vary from meditation to re-evaluation of life styles.
It is difficult to manage anxiety without the proper understanding of what causes it. Please also review AIHCP’s Stress Management Consulting Certification
The article, “Peak Anxiety
? Here Are 10 Ways to Calm Down” by Tara Parker-Pope looks at how we can control anxiety and stress through a variety of steps. She states,
“While there’s nothing you can do to speed election results or a coronavirus vaccine, you do have the power to take care of yourself. Neuroscientists, psychologists and meditation experts offered advice about the big and small things you can do to calm down. Here are 10 things you can try to release anxiety, gain perspective and gird yourself for whatever comes next.”
Please also review AIHCP’s Stress Management Consulting Certification. The program is online and designed for qualified professionals seeking a certification in Stress Management. The program leads to a four year certification.
Stress is a health issue that is overlooked. Many individuals worry about diet, lack of exercise, hereditary illness and contagious disease but never consider stress. Stress is a silent killer that can take a healthy person with healthy life styles and over time kill him or her.
Stress is one of the biggest killers of people in the modern world. It can suddenly cause death or gradually cause illness in the body. This is true in any living creature and not understanding the nature of stress on the body and taking appropriate stress management strategies can lead to an early grave.
Stress can kill overtime. Please also review our Stress Management Consulting Program
The body reacts to stressors in life. Each person reacts to different stressors uniquely. What may be stressful for one person is not for another. When the body’s stress reaction takes place, various systems within the body prepare the body for the fight or flight experiences.
Walter Cannon, a physiologist, was the first to coin fight or flight. Early man responded to stressors or threats by either fighting the threat or fleeing from it. The body produces various hormones after the brain interprets the threat. The hypothalamus and pituitary gland send messages for the adrenal cortex to produce glucocorticoids and mineralocorticoids. These in turn produce cortisol and aldosterone.
Cortisol is the primary hormone that fuels the fight or flight reaction. This is an extremely important process for survival, especially for early man. Increased levels of sugar to burn, allow the body to deal with the stressor.
Aldosterone prepares the body for action. It increases blood pressure, hence permitting the body to transport food and oxygen to other parts of the body. In addition, the adrenal medulla, secretes adrenalin to give the body more energy and strength in any stress or crisis response. Combined, these hormonal changes in the body give it the energy, strength and ability to respond to stressful conditions.
Due to this, the temporary reactions raise blood pressure and increases heart rate. Various other parts of the body also react, including the autonomic nervous system, the gastrointestinal system, the muscular system and even the skin. While temporarily this is needed to respond to stress, over a long duration, these conditions can cause heart attacks, strokes, stomach ulcers and other forms of illness.
Due to modern man’s less primal living situation, one cannot resort to fight or flight responses but must instead internalize issues. One cannot flee a job assignment, yell at a boss, not take an exam, or scream at a customer. Instead, one is forced to deal with the stress and endure the physical reactions within the body.
This over time becomes deadly. Whether the degree or duration, stress kills because of the changes it forces upon the body when proper outlets are not permitted. Long work hours, deadlines, toxic relationships at work and home, poor diet, smoking, and type A personalities more prone to anxiety, anger and impatience all deal with an abundance of stress. This excess stress without proper outlets and management leads to early death.
It is imperative to limit the body’s reaction to stress with stress management techniques which teach one to cope. Stress is part of life but it can be managed. Stress can be environmental or from within and how we react, but how we handle the stressors and learn to navigate them can reduce the wear and tear on our mind and body.
Hans Sele, the Father of Modern Stress Management, conducted a variety of experiments on rats, inducing different rats with different levels of stress and stressful situations. He noted that the rats with the most stress over time developed various conditions to their bodies. These conditions affected almost all bodily systems, from heart issues to ulcers and anything in between. He became aware that stress over time kills.
He pointed out three phases all animals face. First, the alarm reaction. During this phase, the body reacts to stress and exposes the reactionary characteristics of the body to the stressor. Within this phase, the body reacts to stress and if the stress is to strong, the person dies.
The second phase is the reactionary phase in which the body endures and adapts to the stressor. Alarm appearance had diminished and the resistance to the stressor rises.
The final phase according to Seyle, is the stage of exhaustion, where the body’s adaptation energy becomes exhausted, and the alarm phase appearances return, but this time, become permanent and the body dies due to duration of the stress.
Hence Seyle pointed out that if the body does not adapt or remove the stress irritant, one can either die from stress immediately or over duration. This led to the idea that stress kills according to degree or duration. This is why it is important during the second stage, to overcome the issue and move on or if the issue is not life threatening, to learn important coping strategies to deal with the stress itself.
This is difficult with hard and long work hours, definitive deadlines and toxic interpersonal relationships. Divorce, loss, death, unemployment, illness, and other issues can pile upon an already stressful life style and compound the body’s ability to overcome the stressor. Duration sets in and the body’s stress responses in themselves become deadly.
Long hours, deadlines and taxing mental work can lead to unhealthy levels of stress over time
One can take some control though in how the body responds to stress. Meditation, bio-feedback, hypnosis, channeled breathing, prayer, positive outlooks, humor, exercise, diet, and life evaluations can all play key roles in limiting stress. Ultimately it is up to you if you wish to limit the damage stress can do on your body.
Stress Management coping strategies are key to a healthy life. Certified Stress Management Consultants can help others learn how to better cope and deal with stress. Stress Management is becoming more mainstream in a variety of areas beyond just personal health but is also becoming a big service offered in business, politics, emergency response, policing, and other industries that see a high level of stress.
Stress reduction will limit poor health and help someone find a better balance in life. Please also review AIHCP’s Stress Management Consulting Program
If you would like to learn more about Stress Management or would like to become a certified Stress Management Consultant, then please review AIHCP’s Stress Management Consulting Program and see if it matches your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and leads to a four-year certification. In the meantime, limit your stress and live a healthier life.
Stress kills. This not a clique or a baseless statement, but a real statement based on fact and science. Stress causes disease and death in many people every year. Stress can be real, physical, environmental and immediate, or social and psychological.
Psychologist Walter Cannon first studied the stress response of human beings. He termed the popular phrase, flight or fight. The flight or fight response is humanity’s most evolutionary basic response to stressors. When something immediate and threatening approaches, our ancestors fled or stayed and fought. In that process, the stressors were analyzed in the brain and the necessary adjustments were made to the various bodily systems to prepare the body for stress. These systems included the endocrine, cardiovascular, automatic nervous and muscular systems of the body to respond to the stressor or threat. Through these complex systems, various reactions in the body take place that prepare the body for fight or flight
One is not tied to stressors but can react and cope against stress in positive ways
Among these many reactions originating from the brain and then transferring to the various glands that emit hormones include faster heart rate, higher blood pressure, muscle contraction, increased metabolic rate, less fatigue, more energy, and more oxygen. These changes are a result of hormones in the body. Cortisol is a primary hormone that increases blood sugar for energy. In addition, aldosterone is a hormone that increases blood pressure.
These essential changes are pivotal in flight or fight responses. However, over time, these increased hormones and the chemical changes they produce in the body are not healthy. Seyle, the Father of Stress Management, studied the effects of stress on rats and discovered that a multitude of physical ailments befell the rats when over stressed. This is the same truth for human beings. Human beings can injure their bodies through prolonged and intense stress. Heart damage and higher blood pressure, leading to stroke or heart attack are real killers due to stress response. Other ailments can develop over time, such as stomach issues, ulcers and digestive disorders.
Stress does kill. It can kill immediately or over time. It is hence important to understand stress and reduce stress. Stressors all play different roles to an individual. One may be stressful for one person may be a blessing or nothing at all to someone else. How we view stressors and react to stressors play a key role in activating our flight and fight responses. We need to limit these responses to only life altering situations so as to spare our body the changes it deals with during a stress incident.
Unlike our ancestors who could flee or fight stress, modern humanity must deal with stress internally or externally. One cannot flee a job or fight the customer but must deal with the everyday stresses. This leads to chronic stress that modern humanity is not evolved to deal with. So ultimately, it comes down to how one views life, reframes stressors and reacts.
Stress is all about the stressor and the stress response. If someone is stressed in the a traffic jam, he can scream, yell and honk the horn, or take the time to listen to music or reflect on the day. If someone is watching a sporting event, they can become intensely stressed or enjoy the game for the love of the game itself. Ultimately, how one reacts to a stressor depends on the uniqueness of the individual. Life is not about avoiding stress, for no stress is not living and not healthy in and of itself. Instead, life is about sorting out stressors and dealing with the most important ones. One needs to learn to cope with stress by reducing the degree and duration of the stressor event. In doing so, one can limit the natural effects of stress on the body and its natural reactions to stress.
Stress if not controlled can have negative effects on the body due to the body’s own inherent fight or flight responses. Please also review AIHCP’s Stress Management Consulting Program
Ultimately it is one’s health that is on the line. By understanding how the body internally responds to stress, one can see the bodily reactions, which in themselves are healthy in the moment but unhealthy in extreme degree and long duration. Learning to sort out un-needed stress, reframing situations and utilizing stress management concepts such as meditation, one can then reduce the physical reactions within the body to stress.
If you would like to learn more about AIHCP’s Stress Management Consulting Certification, then please review AIHCP’s Stress Management Program and see if it matches your academic and professional goals. The program is online and independent study and designed to help qualified professionals meet the standards of AIHCP for the four year certification.
In the meantime, limit stress and learn to cope better with stress for one’s own physical well being.
Stress causes numerous health issues in life and knowing how to manage it is key. One simple way to manage stress and reduce its impact is through smiling and humor. Studies have shown that humor and laughing are big stress reducers. Learning how to reframe stress and control it through humor can help one get through the day and limit the negative effects of stress on the body.
When stress approaches, are we able to reframe it and find humor in it? Please also review our Stress Management Consulting Certification
The article, “How to Use Humor to Manage Stress” by Dr Clay Drinko takes a closer look at the value of humor in dealing with stress. He states,
“Humor starts to come into play when we start reframing our stressors. You probably can’t reject everything that causes you stress. You are an adult and there are certain things you have to do. That’s when you can try to reframe them.”
Humor is a great medicine and by learning how to react to stressors and reframe them, we can then be able to react differently in a more healthy fashion.
Creating a new paradigm in life is difficult. We are trapped and stuck in the routine mud of life. Many people are held back by beliefs and values that may no longer fit their life style. Others may be unhappy and incapable of change. Stress will continue to eat at the soul of individuals who are unable to change. Grief, depression, stress, anxiety and unfulfilled ideals will force a person to a early grave. It is imperative, if unhappy and overly stressed, to find one’s values for a better life and incorporate positive changes.
Stress can sidetrack life goals. If stress is dictating your life, it is time to re-evaluate your values and work towards a new life paradigm. Please also review AICHP’s Stress Management Consulting Program
Any first step to change is a commitment to that change. It involves writing down one’s values and beliefs and creating a true mission statement of one’s life and where they wish to go in life. Sometimes to better understand oneself, one can meditate upon what others would say about oneself. A co-worker and what they think of your work ethic, your strengths and weaknesses, as well as family and friends. What do you think your image is outside your own sometimes biased self? What is your diet, your exercise habits, your strengths, weaknesses and overall values?
Understanding this is critical in applying the needed changes to one’s life and reducing stress. One needs to work on this change, find obstacles and stressors to it and implement better coping strategies and plans to become what your goal may be. One should choose one thing at a time in this process. Choose one weakness or vice, or stressor and work on it.
J. B. Cunningham in his “The Stress Management Sourcebook” looks at ways to free oneself from the mud of life and overcome stress. He lists 8 primary principles to create a new paradigm and find better meaning in life and reduce stress.
The first principle is “changing the dragon within you”. Cunningham alludes to first developing a positive spin on things. A positive disposition that replaces negative values. This new way of outlook is critical the creation of a new paradigm. It returns to the old adage of making lemon aide when life gives one lemons.
The second principle is controlling your organization. Whether the job is menial or meaningful, find deeper meaning within an organization. While this is more difficult with some jobs and may require new career moves, it still can be utilized temporarily. Look to learn new things, promote goals within oneself and reach those goals. This can be applied to a job, or merely everyday life at home. Home, school or work can apply.
Third, Cunningham addresses the importance of establishing winning relationships. Relationships and how we deal with other people are key elements in what our life is will be like. It is critical to avoid negative relationships and reduce the toxicity they produce in one’s life. It is important to find better support systems as well as be able to communicate and share life’s successes and failures.
Life can overtake one and make it feel one has no control. One needs to take control of one’s stressors and create a new paradigm
The fourth principle is enriching one’s job, career, or schooling. Learning and gaining experience is a valuable thing no matter the situation.
The fifth principle is controlling one’s life’s trials and tribulations. One can fall and not get up or learn from past failures. Avoiding failures and not learning from them can keep one in a pit of despair and loss. One must be able to cope better with stress and deal with the issues at hand.
Principle six deals with our diet. Diet is a key factor in stress and health. Better diets and eating habits can prevent stress and help the body become more immune to disease and illness. Fats, salts, and sugars can destroy the body over time. Combined with stress, they can tear the body down. It is critical to find time to create a better diet and a better healthy paradigm to reduce stress and be more healthy.
Principle seven deals with another part of healthy life style and that is exercise. Exercise can reduce stress. However, it is important to not create routines that one cannot keep. It is also important not to create regiments that are unhealthy on the body. Some individuals cannot endure heavy exercise while others can. So the proper exercise for the particular person is critical for their own health and stress reduction. Like diets, exercise can quickly fade when one attempts to do too much.
The final principle is interior health and deals with spirituality and meditation. Meditation and prayer is important to overcoming stress. It allows the mind to reset and opens one up to higher truths beyond the stress filled temporal ones. Meditation not only clears the mind but also pushes one towards higher values that help make the everyday life have meaning. One can also apply other alternative techniques such as self hypnosis or other spiritual methods to better understand oneself. This is all critical in stress management.
Ultimately, reducing stress and creating a new paradigm involves one taking an active and direct part in changing one’s life. It allows one to play an important part in one’s future. The reduction of stress is dependent upon one’s willingness to overcome the fear of change and the anxiety that goes with it.
One can take control of one’s life and find new meaning if they are face change. Please also review AIHCP’s Stress Management Consulting Program and see if it meets your academic and professional needs.
If you would like to learn more about Stress Management or would like to become certified as a Stress Management Consultant, then please review the program and see if it matches your academic and professional goals. The Stress Management Consulting Program is independent study and online. After completing the core courses, qualified professionals can apply for the four year certification.
When stress strikes, we respond with fight or flight mentalities. We hence physically emit certain physical characteristics with the emotion associated with it. If one can breathe properly, they can reduce stress. They correlate the breathing patterns associated with less stressful emotions. This in turn can fool the mind into a more relaxed state.
How we breathe and refocus during stress plays a large role in how our body responds to stress. Please also review our Stress Management Consulting Program
The article, “Research: Why Breathing Is So Effective at Reducing Stress” by Emma Seppälä , Christina Bradley and Michael R. Goldstein look at how studies show that better breathing can help reduce stress. They state,
“Research shows that different emotions are associated with different forms of breathing, and so changing how we breathe can change how we feel. For example, when you feel joy, your breathing will be regular, deep and slow. If you feel anxious or angry, your breathing will be irregular, short, fast, and shallow. When you follow breathing patterns associated with different emotions, you’ll actually begin to feel those corresponding emotions.”
Please also review AIHCP’s Stress Management Consulting Program to learn more about how one can reduce stress and utilize breathing as an effective strategy in reducing stress.
