STRESS FREE
Stress (psychology), an unpleasant state of emotional
and physiological arousal that people experience in situations that they
perceive as dangerous or threatening to their well-being. The word stress means
different things to different people. Some people define stress as events or
situations that cause them to feel tension, pressure, or negative emotions such
as anxiety and anger. Others view stress as the response to these situations.
This response includes physiological changes—such as increased heart rate and
muscle tension—as well as emotional and behavioral changes. However, most
psychologists regard stress as a process involving a person’s interpretation and
response to a threatening event.
Microsoft® Encarta® Encyclopedia 2003. © 1993-2002 Microsoft Corporation. All
rights reserved.
Contents
Four ways to have a stress free day
1. Bring back control . . . to yourself
2. Create certainty before leaving the house
5 steps to a perfect night's sleep
1. Wake at the same time every day
Maintain regular sleep habits.
Keep stress out of your bedroom
Don’t drink caffeinated beverages
Related Procedures for Insomnia
Here
are four ways to have a stress free day
1. Bring back control . . . to yourself
2. Create certainty before leaving the house
3. Soak the mind with balanced voices
1. Bring back control . . . to yourself
At the core of our feeling of stress during the day is that so much of our life
is out of control. We leave our home in the morning feeling stressed at the lack
of control we have with our boss, our customers or our colleagues. We feel
helpless as we get in line at the coffee shop and someone in front of us slows
down our momentum forward. We get to work and there’s a so called “emergency”
which forces our day to turn upside down or we’re given challenges to deal with
back at home with the kids, which we didn’t expect.
The root of so much of our stress is our incessant need to have some level of
control and certainty in our life — from the situation at work to the coffee
shop to the circumstances at home.
By realizing that while we cannot control the chaos out there in so many parts
of life, what we can control is ourselves. That we are the masters of: our own
mind, the way we think and the actions we take. That’s the source of our freedom
from stress — an innate ability to redirect our focus from outside mess to the
inside mind.
We can’t control our boss, our customers or even our kids but what we can
control is ourselves. Our own thoughts, our choices and our actions. This is
where we ought be focusing our mind. By redirecting our attempt to exert control
over the outside life to the goals we wish to accomplish during the day, we can
begin our path to a stress free day.
2. Create certainty before leaving the house
Since most of our day is unpredictable, we need to create a sense of certainty
before leaving the house in the morning. By getting up a little earlier and
following some daily rituals, we can create that certainty.
Physically moving the body through exercise first thing in the morning does
wonders for increasing the level of positive energy through natural blood flow.
Meditation, prayer, reciting morning affirmations, kissing the kids, hugging our
spouse or listening to upbeat music or an inspirational message on Youtube is a
great way to create solid seeds in the mind which we harvest the rest of the
day.
3. Soak the mind with balanced voices
So many of us encounter toxic voices during the day. Whether it’s colleagues at
work, difficult customers, the overly emotional people in our lives or sometimes
even our own mind. All these voices make us overthink often debilitating us from
moving forward.
The good news is that emotions are infectious, positive ones as well as negative
ones. Whether it’s smiling at the guy at the coffee shop or speaking with a
friend or loved one during the day can break the pattern of negative voices,
providing much needed balance in our emotional state. Turning off the news and
tuning in to an inspirational voice on YouTube or a podcast can also help us
balance out the voices of self doubt and stress during the day.
Moving forward on a project at work, a goal to get more fit or making the call
to a new customer, taking action makes us feel better because we get some
semblance of control back into our life. For those focused moments of energy, we
get to be in charge of our little universe that allows us the freedom to create,
build and share the potential that we have inside of us.
It doesn’t have to be large scale action. It can be as small and simple. Make a
call. Send an email. Write a presentation. Visit a customer. Brainstorm with the
boss or colleague. Working on something deeply especially if we enjoy it, can
help us reduce so much of the stress of the day. Action creates positive emotion
within us forcing us to leave behind the stress that comes with overthinking and
allows us to start creating a life that we want and a career we wish to build.
Ultimately, reducing stress is not necessarily about quitting the job and moving
off to a faraway island (although that does sound appealing). It’s about
recognizing that we do have control over our thoughts, our ideas and our
actions. And that control is never lost as long as we look within.
© 2013 Bob Miglani, author of Embrace the Chaos: How India Taught Me to Stop
Overthinking and Start Living
Author Bio
Bob Miglani, is an author and accomplished executive with a Fortune 50 Company
in NYC for the last 20 years, grew up running his family’s Dairy Queen Store and
came to America from India about 35 years ago with only $75 and the desire to
pursue the American dream.
The circumstances that cause stress are called stressors. Stressors vary in
severity and duration. For example, the responsibility of caring for a sick
parent may be an ongoing source of major stress, whereas getting stuck in a
traffic jam may cause mild, short-term stress. Some events, such as the death of
a loved one, are stressful for everyone. But in other situations, individuals
may respond differently to the same event—what is a stressor for one person may
not be stressful for another. For example, a student who is unprepared for a
chemistry test and anticipates a bad grade may feel stress, whereas a classmate
who studies in advance may feel confident of a good grade. For an event or
situation to be a stressor for a particular individual, the person must appraise
the situation as threatening and lack the coping resources to deal with it
effectively.
Stressors can be classified into three general categories:
A Catastrophes
B Major Life Changes
C Daily Hassles
In addition, simply thinking about unpleasant past events or anticipating
unpleasant future events can cause stress for many people.
A person who is stressed typically has anxious thoughts and difficulty
concentrating or remembering. Stress can also change outward behaviors. Teeth
clenching, hand wringing, pacing, nail biting, and heavy breathing are common
signs of stress. People also feel physically different when they are stressed.
Butterflies in the stomach, cold hands and feet, dry mouth, and increased heart
rate are all physiological effects of stress that we associate with the emotion
of anxiety.
A Physiological and emotional arousal
B Disease
C Decreased Immune Response
D Mental Illness
People who cope well with stress tend to believe that they can personally
influence what happens to them.
Coping with stress means using thoughts and actions to deal with stressful
situations and lower our stress levels. Many people have a characteristic way of
coping with stress based on their personality. People who cope well with stress
tend to believe they can personally influence what happens to them. They usually
make more positive statements about themselves, resist frustration, remain
optimistic, and persevere even under extremely adverse circumstances. Most
importantly, they choose the appropriate strategies to cope with the stressors
they confront. Conversely, people who cope poorly with stress tend to have
somewhat opposite personality characteristics, such as lower self-esteem and a
pessimistic outlook on life.
A Problem-focused coping and emotion-focused Coping Strategies
B Social Support
C Biofeedback
Biofeedback is a technique in which people learn voluntary control of
stress-related physiological responses, such as skin temperature, muscle
tension, blood pressure, and heart rate. Normally, people cannot control these
responses voluntarily. In biofeedback training, people are connected to an
instrument or machine that measures a particular physiological response, such as
heart rate, and feeds that measurement back to them in an understandable way.
D Relaxation/Meditation
E Aerobic Exercise
5 steps to a perfect night's sleep
When it comes to sleep, timing is everything. Here are five ways to set the clock and start sleeping well
1. Wake at the same time every day
When it comes to sleep, timing is everything. Once you learn to synchronize your body’s biological clock, your body will know when to sleep and when to be alert. Here are five ways to set the clock and start sleeping well.
1. Wake at the same time every day
A good night’s sleep actually starts in the morning. The second your eyes flutter open, light shoots down the optic nerve and into the brain’s biological clock. There it stimulates the production of a smorgasbord of hormones that regulate growth, reproduction, eating, sleeping, thinking, remembering—even how you feel from minute to minute.
“Sunlight
activates the brain,” says Frisca L. Yan-Go, M.D., medical director of
the UCLA Sleep Disorders Center. And activating it at the same time
every morning synchronizes your body’s biological clock. Then your body
has a clear direction that at midnight it’s supposed to be asleep and at
noon it’s supposed to be awake.
Wake up at a different time
every day and the clock is out of sync. You feel groggy and hungover for
hours, and even when you start to feel a bit more alert after that
first Starbucks, you really never achieve the mental edge of which
you’re capable.
2. Hit the sheets only when sleepy
No, not just tired. Sleepy, as in your eyes are droopy and you keep losing track of what people are saying to you.
3. Get up
Sleeping
from 11:30 p.m. until 2:00 a.m., tossing and turning until 4, then
sleeping until 6 gives you eight hours in bed but only 4 1/2 hours of
sleep. That’s a huge mismatch that can actually inhibit your sleep drive
and cause insomnia all by itself. To prevent that from exacerbating
your sleep issues, when you wake at 2:00 a.m., get up and go read a book
in the living room. Being up increases your sleep drive—which just
could make you sleepy enough to actually fall asleep when you return to
bed.
One caveat: Don’t stay in bed when you’re awake. A part of
your mind will begin to associate the bed with being awake rather than
being asleep. And that can turn on a nasty “I’m-not-going-to-sleep!”
anxiety that will rev your engines whenever you get into bed. It’s one
of the most insidious—and potent—causes of chronic insomnia.
4. Give yourself an hour
The one right before bed. You need it to wind down and transition from the woman-who-can-do-everything into the woman-who-can-sleep. Unfortunately, most women are not giving themselves one single second. According to the 2007 National Sleep Foundation poll, during the hour before bed, around 60 per cent of us do household chores, 37 percent take care of children, 36 percent do activities with other family members, 36 per cent are on the Internet, and 21 per cent do work related to their jobs.
5. Beware Sunday night insomnia
Staying up late on Friday and Saturday nights and sleeping in on Saturday and Sunday mornings is frequently the gift we give ourselves on weekends after a hard week at work. Yet that little gift—small as it is—is enough to screw up our biological clocks. Even if you get to bed early on Sunday night, you will not be ready to sleep, and you will not end up being the happy camper you were expecting come Monday morning.
Sleep to be Sexy, Smart, and Slim, Reader's Digest Canada
Insomnia
Insomnia is a general term that refers to difficulty falling or staying asleep. It’s not really a disorder, but a symptom with many causes.
Maintain regular sleep habits.
Keep stress out of your bedroom
Don’t drink caffeinated beverages
Related Procedures for Insomnia
What is insomnia?
Insomnia is a general term that refers to difficulty falling or staying asleep. It’s not really a disorder, but a symptom with many causes. We all have occasional sleepless nights, and insomnia that sticks around for just a day or two isn’t much of a problem, but if you have it for longer periods, you’re likely to pay a high price. Research has shown that people who have frequent insomnia are four times more likely to suffer from depression than people who sleep soundly. You’re also more likely to underperform at work and have difficult family relationships. More frightening, you could really hurt yourself (or your loved ones): The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that insufficient sleep contributes to more than 100,000 car crashes annually.
It’s hard to define insomnia because everyone requires different amounts of sleep. The bottom line, sleep experts say, is how you feel the next day. If you frequently wake up feeling dull and unrefreshed—either because it took you forever to fall asleep or you woke repeatedly at night or got up too early—there’s a good chance that insomnia is taking its toll.
Who is at risk for insomnia?
Most insomnia is triggered by temporary upsets—emotional stress, for example, or flare-ups of arthritis or other painful conditions. Once your life returns to normal, the quality of your sleep probably will, too, but sometimes it doesn’t work that way. Some people get so frustrated when they can’t sleep that they continue to feel anxious after the original problem is long gone. This can result in long-term, or chronic, insomnia—disturbed sleep at least three times a week for a month or more.
Treatment for insomnia
Your doctor will most likely take a three-pronged approach to exploring the causes of your insomnia. The first step is to identify—and correct—any underlying physical or emotional problems that may be keeping you awake. After that, you’ll probably be asked to make a few lifestyle changes to promote better sleep. Finally, you may be given over-the-counter or prescription drugs to break the “insomnia cycle” and help you get some much-needed rest.
Medications for insomnia
Good sleep habits are the best way to overcome insomnia in the long run. But when you need fast relief, your doctor may recommend over-the-counter or prescription drugs. These might include:
- OTC antihistamines. Two popular ones, diphenhydramine (Benadryl) and chlorpheniramine (Chlor-Trimeton) act as mild sedatives and are very effective for occasional sleepless nights.
- Analgesics. Aspirin, ibuprofen (Advil), naproxen (Aleve), or acetaminophen (Tylenol) often relieve sleep-disturbing pain.
- Prescription sleeping pills. Also called hypnotics, those commonly recommended for insomnia usually belong to a chemical family known as benzodiazepines. They’re extremely effective and can be taken for months without losing their potency. They sometimes can be habit-forming, although not addicting. If you have trouble sleeping through the night, your doctor might recommend a long-acting benzodiazepine, such as flurazepam (Dalmane) or clonazepam (Klonopin). If your main problem is falling asleep, or if you tend to wake up very early in the morning, you might need a shorter-acting benzodiazepine, such as zolpidem tartrate (Ambien), triazolam (Halcion), alprazolam (Xanax), or zaleplon (Sonata). Any of these will help you fall asleep, but are unlikely to cause a “hangover” the next day.
- Antidepressants. These medicines are sometimes used to treat insomnia-caused depression. Some, such as amitriptyline (Elavil) and trazodone (Desyrel), cause drowsiness.
Lifestyle Changes
Whether you’ve battled insomnia for years or are experiencing it for the first time, the best place to start is with what doctors call “good sleep hygiene,“ habits that naturally promote better sleep. An hour before your usual bedtime, for example, get into a relaxing routine. Read or listen to soothing music. Avoid stressful activities, such as paying bills or completing work projects. Consider taking a hot bath. Your core body temperature will rise, then fall. That will help you fall asleep more readily—and stay asleep. Don’t take a bath just before bed, however, because it will temporarily increase blood flow and make you more alert.
Maintain regular sleep habits. Go to bed and get up at the same times every day, even on weekends. And go easy on the naps. They’re fine for catching up on occasional missed sleep, but napping regularly makes it harder to maintain a consistent sleep schedule.
A crucial part of sleep hygiene is to keep stress out of your bedroom. Limit what you do in bed to sleep or sex. Don’t use the room as a second study. If you do, you’ll start to associate going to bed with stress and anxiety. For the same reason, leave the bedroom when insomnia strikes. If you’re going to be frustrated because you can’t sleep, fret in the living room or kitchen. Go to bed only when you think you’re really ready to fall asleep.
Two additional things: Shut out bright light and noise. Install heavy curtains or blinds if you need to. Earplugs will block external sounds, or you can mask noises by running a fan, setting the radio to the fuzz between stations, or using a white noise machine.
Your daytime habits are just as important for beating insomnia as what you do at night. Don’t drink caffeinated beverages after about noon. Limit your alcohol consumption to one or two drinks in the evening. Alcohol can make it easier to fall asleep, but it causes more frequent nighttime awakenings.
Exercise is another key strategy for achieving better sleep. It tires you out and lowers levels of sleep-disrupting stress hormones. Just be sure to work out at least three hours before you turn in.
Another traditional remedy for insomnia is drinking a glass of warm milk, and there’s good evidence that it works. Milk helps prevent hunger from disturbing your sleep; it also contains an amino acid called tryptophan, which is converted in the brain into a “relaxing” chemical known as serotonin. Once you’re in bed, try progressive muscle relaxation, a technique that involves tensing, then releasing all the muscles in your body. Start at your feet and move toward your head.
Finally, try to get a handle on the stressors in your life. If you’re in the throes of anxiety, it’s harder to fall asleep and sleep soundly. Some of the best stress-beating activities include yoga, meditation, and listening to soothing audiotapes.
Related Procedures for Insomnia
Your doctor can probably recognize—and treat—many of the common causes of your insomnia. Some conditions, however, can only be detected if you spend one or more nights in a sleep laboratory. Don’t let the name scare you. Sleep labs are like comfortable hotel rooms—except instead of a mini-bar by the bed, you’ll see devices that measure everything from heart rate to brain waves and breathing patterns.
You’ll arrive at the sleep lab about an hour before your usual bedtime. A technician will attach electrodes and other external monitoring devices to your body. Then it’s lights out. The test will show how much (or how little) you sleep and whether you spend enough time in “deep” sleep. It will also pinpoint physical problems that interfere with normal sleep, such as sleep apnea, limb movements, or a curious condition called “sleep state misperception,” which means that you feel you’re getting less sleep than you actually are. Treatment can be tailored to your specific problem.
Alternative Therapies for Insomnia
Certain herbs have been used for centuries to ease insomnia. Valerian, a natural herbal tranquilizer, works best when rotated with other sleep-inducing herbs. Chamomile is a sweet-tasting herb that depresses the central nervous system the way antianxiety drugs do. Lemon balm (also known as melissa) has a citrusy aroma; its leaves are the plant’s medicinal part.
Questions for Your Doctor
- Do you think I might have sleep apnea or another sleep disorder?
- Could my insomnia be related to the depression I’ve been experiencing lately?
- Is there a way you can tell whether post-traumatic stress syndrome is what’s keeping me awake at night?
- I seem to have more insomnia now that I’m going through menopause. Would HRT be good for me?
Living with Insomnia
If you are suffering with Insomnia, here are a few tips to help you take control:
- Start a sleep diary. A 10-day summary of your sleep habits can give you valuable clues about what’s happening. Record when you go to bed, how long it takes you to fall asleep, how often you wake at night, how you feel the next day, and so on. Then pass this information along to your doctor.
- Avoid kava, a popular sleep-inducing herb. Recent reports suggest that overuse could cause liver damage.
- Limit your ZZZs at first. Some experts advise starting with only four hours of sleep—say 3 am to 7 am. Once you’re sleeping well during these hours, add another 15 to 30 minutes to either end or both—and keep adding time until you’re getting the sleep you need.
- Eat tofu or other soy foods daily. They’re rich in estrogen-like compounds called phytoestrogens. Women who regularly eat them are less likely to experience menopausal hot flashes or other sleep-disrupting symptoms.
- Take care with sleeping pills. The short-term use of sleeping pills—often up to a month—is very safe for most people. But there are some exceptions. Watch out if you drink: Combining the pills with alcohol intensifies the effects of each. If you’re elderly or get up a lot at night, sleeping pills may increase your risk of falls or other accidents. The drugs may increase sleep-related breathing problems by depressing the vital “breathing center” in your brain.
Adapted from Know Your Options: The Definitive Guide to Choosing The Best Medical Treatments, Reader
KJV Proverbs 10: 22 The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.
KJV Revelation 7:17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed
them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes.
KJV Revelation 21:1-4
1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Greetings Laff Lovers,
I stumbled across an article this morning about the 12 signs of depression in men. It is entitled, 12 Signs of Depression in Men.
Apparently more than 5 million men in the U.S. experience depression, although it gets reported much less frequently than depression in women.
So in order to educate men of this lurking epidemic the author listed 12 symptoms so the poor bastards cursed with a Y chromosome can diagnose themselves.
They include; fatigue (which boasts fun-sounding side effects like psychomotor retardation), sleeping too much or too little, stomach or back aches, irritability, hostility, stress, anxiety, substance abuse, sexual dysfunction, indecision and suicidal thoughts.
I don't know who the hell wrote that article, but I have at least 8 of those "symptoms" and I'm not depressed. I hate to break it to the author, but a large portion of the male population has a simpler term to describe those symptoms. Being over 45.
Diagnosingly,
TZ
A Loving and Caring Wife
Posted: 28 Dec 2009 08:04 PM PST
A woman accompanied her husband to the doctor’s office.
After his checkup, the doctor called the wife into his office
alone.
He said, “Your husband is suffering from a very severe
disease, combined with horrible stress. If you don’t do the
following, your husband will surely die.
Each morning, fix him a healthy breakfast. Be pleasant, and
make sure he is in a good mood. For lunch make him a
nutritious meal he can take to work. And for dinner, prepare
an especially nice meal for him. Don’t burden him with
chores, as this could
further his stress.
Don’t discuss your problems with him; it will only make his
stress worse. Try to relax your husband in the evening by
wearing lingerie and giving him plenty of backrubs. Encourage
him to watch some type of team sporting event on television.
And most importantly, make love with your husband several
times a week and satisfy his every whim. If you can do this
for the next 10 months to a year, I think your husband will
regain his health.
On the way home, the husband asked his wife, “What did the
doctor say?”
“You’re going to die,” she replied.