Stress is a natural part of anyone’s work environment, but if you learn to handle it in positive ways, you’ll enjoy greater job satisfaction.

Learning to deal with job stress can take time and effort, but there’s no better time than the present to get started on your journey to successfully handling stress and enjoying your job, day after day. It makes a better work environment for you and everyone you work with.

What Causes Your Stress?

There are mental and emotional manifestations of stress, but there are physical ones as well, and recognizing them can help make it easier to understand where most of your stress is coming from.

Knowing where you experience most of your stress won’t remove it, but gaining an understanding is the start of finding ways to lower your stress levels.

Some things that make you stressed on the job can include:

• Performance evaluations
• Deadline
• Making mistakes
• Work overload
• Training
• Office conflict

Even if there are a lot of things going on with your job that cause you stress, you can let that stress go and feel good again.

Letting Go of Job Stress at Work

Some people unleash their stress by yelling, acting out, and verbally attacking others around them. This can happen all too easily in an office environment where people are packed close together, but you can avoid these kinds of things and release your stress properly and gently.

Try these strategies to release your stress at work:

1. Remember to breathe. Breathing is vital for survival, but it’s also great for calming you down when you breathe effectively. Inhale slowly through your nose, and feel the air fill up your abdomen, not your lungs. Then exhale slowly through your mouth. If you do that a few times, you’ll feel calmer and less stressed. It’s great for anxiety, too.

2. Squeeze a stress ball. They’re small, lightweight, and designed to be squeezed when you feel stressed out. Even if you feel a little silly at first, they can be very beneficial.

Letting Go of Job Stress Away From the Job

When you get home from a challenging job, leave your stress behind. Avoid carrying it around with you as you go about the rest of your day. What happens at the office should really stay there, but that may be easier said than done.

Some things to consider when you let go of stress at home include prayer, meditation, yoga, exercises, talking things over with friends or family, playing with a pet, or anything else that makes you feel joyful and peaceful. You can create the kind of atmosphere you want in your own home, even if it’s not possible to do that at your job.

When you let go of job stress on a daily basis as it happens, you avoid going around frustrated and angry. It helps your relationships with other people, your own health, and the way you feel about yourself.

Some people turn to medications to deal with stress, but you have the ability to handle your job stress effectively on your own. Practice breathing, practice any activity that makes you happy, and practice appreciating what you have!

Whether you’re battling work stress every day or just once in awhile, there are some effective techniques you can use to relieve it. Learning healthy ways to release your stress and even how to prevent a stressful reaction in the first place are critical to your health, success, and peace of mind.

Here are some strategies to combat work stress:

1. Practice effective communication. If coworkers are causing you stress, ask yourself, “Why?” There’s a good chance that the two of you aren’t really communicating.

• Put yourself in their shoes to better understand their point of view.

• Listen to their needs and see if they can be met. If you can satisfy their requirements, a source of conflict is removed and so is the stress associated with it.

• Also, if you can better communicate your own needs, others are more likely to agree with your requests.

2. Think positively. When things turn sour, you may be tempted to fall into a negative pattern of thinking. It’s easy to say that you hate your job, but are you doing anything to improve the situation? If you adopt a positive attitude, it’ll be easier to maintain the drive you need to overcome problems at work.

• It’s quite possible that everything at work is not as bad as you think! If you focus on the things that are going right, it’ll bring you more patience, less stress, and increase your overall job satisfaction.

3. Take care of yourself. If you’re really dedicated to your job, you may begin to lose yourself in it. No wonder you’re under a great deal of stress! You may feel as if your job has become your whole life. In these instances, it’s best to take a step back and focus on taking care of yourself.

• Take regular breaks and enjoy something that’s not work-related when you’re not working.

• Avoid working overtime or taking work home with you. On rare occasions, it may cause you less stress to stay and finish a project, rather than be late in completing it. However, it might also help you to work on strengthening your time management skills if this occurs frequently.

• Take care of your body by exercising, eating nutritious foods, and getting enough sleep. While that sounds so simple, how often do we rush around on 4 hours of sleep, a coffee, and a donut all day long?

4. Accept that everyone’s human, including you. The drive to be perfect is an automatic stress inducer! Everyone makes mistakes – you, your coworkers, and your clients.

• Trust that other people will get the job done right. You and your team can still produce quality work, even with an occasional mistake. If you remain flexible, you’ll be less likely to feel stress.

5. Understand other points of view. When you know where someone is coming from, you’ll be better able to understand the situation without all the stress. For example, if you can understand your manager’s expectations, you can take action to meet them, or you can communicate your own more realistic expectations.

6. Get organized. Organization can be a key factor for job stress relief. If your workplace is disorganized, it can also cause disorganization in your mind. Your thoughts may become scattered and you’ll be less likely to think on your feet effectively, causing even more stress.

7. Take responsibility. If you take responsibility for your actions, you can also reduce stress. When you keep yourself accountable, you’ll be focused on constant self-improvement without the lies, blame, or cover-ups.

Reducing stress at work will take a little practice, but the results are well worth the effort. Follow these work stress strategies daily and soon you’ll find less and less situations to feel stressful about.

Manage Stress and Problem People

Problem people are not just confined to the workplace but in other aspects of everyday life that require you to work together. However, it is more pressing to address this issue at work since the company’s productivity is in the line. If you are leading a group of co-employees wherein you need to work at a given task, you have to know what to do in order to manage them properly. Or else, you’d fail to meet the task deadline and end up suffering from high levels of stress. Here are some strategies you can employ:

• Be tough. If you find that some of your co-workers or employees are not pulling their weight, you need to impose authority in order for them to realize the need to provide quality workforce. You can do this by setting standards and work boundaries for employees to live up to.

• Communicate assertively. Openly discuss with the people you are working with about each of your responsibilities to a given project or task. If possible, try to approach the matter objectively and free of any emotional leverage. Emphasize your aim to produce an efficient working relationship that results to higher productivity.

About Unreasonable Demands

Most jobs entail their own set of demands. However, there are certain instances wherein unreasonable demands could arise. You need to learn how to identify one against the other in order to know which ones to attend to first. One way to do that is to analyze your job description and what type of work is expected of you by the company. If any demand outside of your work description arises, you need to know how to turn it down while focusing on your job priorities.

This is not to say that you must refuse to attend to real emergencies in the workplace. However, this must not involve just one person but everyone who is concerned. You need to work together in coming up with an effective solution to any of these problems when they arise so you can reduce the level of stress produced by that given situation.

Producing Better Teamwork

If you’re serious about reducing job stress, then you need to come up with an efficient checklist system for your team design. This will enable you to raise awareness about issues or problem areas experienced by your team when working on a given project or task. One way to produce better teamwork is to encourage a feedback system. With this, you can remained focus on increasing performance and relieving team stress.

When coming up with a team design, you need to consider the following important factors:

• The number of people in your team.
• Do you need to work together? Or, must you perform separate and individual tasks towards a common goal?
• Does it require technical skills?
• Does it require social skills?
• Does your team have all the resources it need?
• What is the time frame for working on the project?
• How effective is your feedback system?

Proper Team Negotiation

Much of the job stress involved with working on a team project is rooted in your inability to resolve conflicts within the group. Therefore, having proper team negotiation skills will help you conquer the stress. Although neither an aggressive nor a passive approach will help your cause, you need to come up with a solution that is agreeable to both parties and one that will benefit the organization.

Different situations require different manners of negotiation. Therefore, you need to use this point to determine exactly what the source of conflict is. Is it lack of resources or lack of proper communication? Then, you can plan a solution accordingly. Once you have worked out possible solutions for the problem, then you will realize how it can significantly reduce the amount of job stress and you’d achieve a more productive working environment.

Medical Care Professions

Doctors, nurses, social workers, or medical assistants have an understandably stressful job. The nature of the job in itself is quite difficult, given that the health and well-being of others are put in your hands. Plus, there is an added pressure of their action potentially resulting to negative impacts to one’s health. Therefore, so much weighing in on their job that there’s almost no room for mistakes.

One way to deal with stress is to identify its source, in order to determine the proper coping mechanism to employ. This will also doctors and other medical professionals to learn how to cope with the possibility of committing mistakes while on the job since that is one of the leading causes of reduced performance levels.

Law Enforcement Jobs

As with the medical professionals, there are also a lot weighing on law enforcers. It is, after all, their responsibility to protect the community, maintain peace and order, and employ judicial efforts. That is aside from the personal security risks involved.

You can eliminate or reduce stress in your profession by giving yourself a break in between. This will allow your body and mind to recuperate from the amount of work you’d have to deal with. Since law enforcers typically have a lot of work on their itinerary, having proper time management and organizational skills will also help you deal with stress.

Teaching Professions

While there are a few who enjoy the teaching profession, it does reach a stressful level too. First off, dealing with a wide range of kids can be difficult, much more being able to successfully teach them. Inner city teachers are also considered being in a stressful job since these types of environments are rather harmful due to the high levels of crime known in these areas. On top of this, teachers are also expected to attain an emotional relationship with students as a vital aspect in learning. They are also under the close scrutiny of the community, which continually expects them to be role models in the society.

Teachers can deal with these stressors by trying these strategies:

• Be flexible. This will enable you to adjust to the differences in your students’ behavior and opening up more opportunities to build an emotional relationship with them.

• Set realistic goals. When you aim to teach your students something, you need to take it one day at a time. If not, then it will only frustrate you and lead to further stress.

• Take care of yourself, whether physically or mentally.

Jobs Involving Sales

This type of jobs are very stressful knowing that your employment lies on your ability to produce sales. Jobs involving sales therefore require you to meet high levels of standards and often requires you to deal with the public and their demands. Since most of the stress involved in this job is associated with the results, learn how to not focus much on the results. Instead, if you are really in line with sales, use your skills and creativity to get people to buy the products you are trying to sell. After all, potential buyers know how to spot hard sellers. And if you do end up one, you’d become all the more stressed out.

Telecommuting Jobs

This is one naturally stressful job description, from having to meet deadlines to taking care of multiple clients and their inquiries. One way to reduce stress is to examine ways in which you can produce more organization into your work. If you want to achieve more work in less time, you must try to keep off any type of distraction so you can work peacefully and at a pace that you like.

Whenever you feel stressed out, give yourself a break and do some deep breathing. Another contributor to stress is when you force yourself to speed up the pace. Try to slow down once in a while, especially when most of your deadlines are self-imposed. The less stress you have with the job, the more productive you become.

When nothing is sure, everything is possible. – Margaret Drabble

Do you still have a job? Are you one of the “survivors” after the massive waves of lay-offs, buy-outs and early retirements? Are you working in an organization where staffing, resources and perks have been cut drastically and repeatedly over the last year or more? If so, I don’t have to tell you how stressful this is. Not only is there the guilt when friends and colleagues are leaving. (Why him? He was a great worker and an incredibly nice guy.) There is the fear. (When will the other shoe drop? When will it be ME?) And then there is all the work. (I’m already ‘buried”; how can I possibly take on all her work, too?)

The aggressively “thinned” ranks of staff left after all these rapid, and often, disturbing changes, are under not only tremendous pressure to produce and to do more with less, they are also at very high risk for the negative effects of chronic stress, and ultimately, burnout.

What is burnout anyway? The simplest definition from the APA (American Psychological Association) is: “A state of emotional, mental and physical exhaustion caused by excess and prolonged stress.” Burnout occurs when people begin to feel overwhelmed and unable to meet the constant demands of their work, sapping their energy and leaving them feeling increasingly more helpless, cynical, resentful and hopeless. Eventually those who burn out feel totally “tapped out”, exhausted and that they have “nothing left to give.”

Ironically, those who care the most about the quality of work they do and about the clients, patients or customers, are the most susceptible to burnout. It is because they care so much that they have a hard time setting limits on how much they do, paving the way for overwork and lack of self-care.

How can you tell if you are at risk for burnout? If you are under chronic, unrelenting pressure at work, you are at risk. If every day is a bad day, you are at risk. If you are feeling tired and drained, have stopped taking care of yourself well, and your outlook is increasingly cynical and negative, you are at high risk.

Coaching Tips

What can you do to prevent the negative effects of chronic stress and burnout? The answer is: a great deal, and, the most important thing is to take control, and take control immediately of as much as you can. Here are some examples:

1. Take care of yourself. Adopt an elite athlete mindset. Treat your body as if it needs to run a marathon each day. Make exercise a scheduled part of your day. Pay attention to eating for optimum nutrition and energy throughout the day. Stay hydrated and make sleep a priority.

2. Talk with others at work about reducing stressors and preventing burnout. Surround yourself with supportive, appreciative people who also have a shared goal of staying healthy, doing high quality work and functioning well as a team.

3. Figure out what the biggest stressors are and work with others to reduce or eliminate as many as possible. Don’t underestimate this. It is surprising how often one small change can really make a difference in how manageable the day feels.

4. Take a break daily, from everything, but especially from electronics and technology. Turn off all cell-phones and other electronic devices. Stop checking your e-mail. Go for a walk, do some stretches, meditate. Close your door and close your eyes, (or, if you must, go out to your car), and practice just relaxing and breathing. Far too many people have long ago given up anything that resembles a “lunch hour.” Don’t give up breaks, too.

5. Start and end your day right. Develop a “positive ritual” to begin and end your day. It need only take five or ten minutes. Stretch, pray, write down three things you are grateful for, listen to an especially soothing piece of music. Be creative and experiment with this until you find an activity or short ritual that helps you begin and end each day in a good way.

6. Change the organization. Consider coaching for key leadership staff or training for teams centered around reducing stress in the workplace. While it may seem counter-intuitive when budgets are extremely tight to bring in outside resources to help, when one considers the skyrocketing health care costs resulting from the effects of chronic stress on employees, and, the threat to the viability of the entire organization when the company’s best performers stop caring about the work, the return on investment of such programs is obvious.

Lisa Pasbjerg, LMSW, DCSW, is principal and founder of Focused Coaching, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and providing executive coaching and training services nationwide and throughout parts of Canada. She and her associates serve the needs of executives, managers, and other “high-potentials” seeking powerful change in themselves, their organizations and the world we live in. For more information contact Lisa at Lpasbjerg@focusedcoaching.net or go to our website at http://www.focusedcoaching.net for numerous tips, strategies and free resources, and to sign up for our newsletter.

In our last article we talked about two of the top five signs that your budget is causing too much anxiety-disrupted sleep pattern and drinking more than usual. We have three more to cover. Hopefully you will pick up some tips to help calm the storm inside of you.

Sign #3: A sense of panic. Stress can cause our bodies to naturally tense up. You may feel tightness in the chest, dizziness or difficulty in breathing. Please check with your physician if you experience shortness of breath, chest pain or any of the mentioned symptoms to be sure there is no medical issue.

The fix for this one is really cool. Grab a bottle of bubbles and blow through the wand. You can only create a bubble if you are not blowing too hard or too soft. The key is to normalize your breathing. A slow, deep, cleansing breath in through the nose and out through the mouth will help. So will visualization. Imagine breathing in a beautiful healing color and exhaling a stressful color. Go ahead and try it; it may work for you!

Sign #4: Snapping at your kids or significant other. Loved ones always get the brunt of our heightened stress and anxiety levels.

Do a self check on this one. If there is lots of chaos in your house, you may need private time to unwind. Otherwise, find ways to reconnect. Family recreation and exercise is always a healthy and fun distraction from anxiety and stress, and you will become closer as you interact!

Sign #5: You’re drinking way too much coffee. It’s natural to turn to caffeine when you feel that you need a lift. However, the extra caffeine may cause you to become agitated, and can also keep you awake at night.

Remember that giving up caffeine can cause headaches. Start slowly by using a half decaf blend or just cutting the amount of cups per day. Maybe herbal teas at night will soothe you into a restful night slumber.

Hope these tips gave you an idea or two that will help you through these stressful times. Some things are out of your control, as in the stock market, economy or even your job security. Focus on the things that are in your control and you will feel the anxiety levels drop back down.

Think happy thoughts and focus on the positive. We are all in this together!

Bernadette Maluso
Brand of the Free
http://www.brandofthefree.net

Are you sitting there wondering if your job is safe? Or worse yet, have you already been painfully downsized, and now searching for new employment? Take solace in the fact that you are not alone. People are feeling out of control and feeling the effects of “money stress”.

The key is that you don’t allow the stress to control you. I came across the following five signs that money, as it relates to your budget, is causing way too much anxiety. Do any of these signs sound like you? If so, there are simple steps to take to overcome that uncomfortable feeling and take control.

Sign #1: You can’t sleep. A disrupted sleep pattern is one of the most common signs that you’re too worried, whether sleeping too much or too little. You may have trouble falling asleep or wake up during the night and can’t fall back to sleep. Or maybe you plain don’t want to get up in the morning.

Your bedroom should be your relaxing haven for sleep. Watching news might seem like the perfect way to end your day, however, it adds to your stress and does not promote relaxation. Follow a routine that includes a shower or candlelit bath time, reading, soft music, and maybe some romantic time with your spouse. With a relaxing routine, your mind and body are readied for sleep. Hmm..I’m getting sleepy already!

Sign #2: You’re drinking more than usual. Maybe you are asking “What would be more relaxing than a few drinks”? Although you may fall asleep quickly after consuming alcohol, you’ll be more likely to wake during the night, which will disrupt your REM cycle. You will not get the benefits of that deep sleep that your body needs.

Exercise is a better option. Through exercise, endorphins are released in your body, reducing pain and inducing euphoria. That leads to a sense of well being.

Check Part 2 for Signs 3-5.

In the meantime, think happy thoughts and focus on the positive. We are all in this together!

Bernadette Maluso
Brand of the Free
http://www.brandofthefree.net

Job loss ranks among the highest in stress causing situations, with only major illness, going to jail, divorce and death of a spouse ranking higher. Retirement is only slightly lower in rank.

If you would like to get some relief during this traumatic time, check out these 6 strategies to managing stress during the transition created by the loss of your job.

• First, allow yourself to grieve. You may experience the same stages of grief that people endure when they have lost a family member. Those stages start with denial, and move in to anger, bargaining, depression and finally, acceptance.
• Take care of yourself. Get plenty of sleep, eat balanced and regular meals, and participate in some form of exercise, preferably one that provides you with enjoyment.
• Stay in touch with former colleagues. It is very easy to sit in your house, and slowly isolate yourself. You need the interaction with others to feel supported, and to keep your thoughts on an even keel. Most importantly, increasing your circle of acquaintances is a good way to find work.
• Don’t react to the situation by saying or doing things you may regret later on. Express your feelings to trusted friends and family members so that you can get them out of your system. An excellent way to maintain emotional control is by participating in an exercise that will release some of that energy, such as walking, jogging, bicycling or swimming.
• Make time for fun. You must take regular breaks from the anxiety and frustration of searching for a job. Get together with friends or get caught up on some of your hobbies. It is important to relax and find some pleasure throughout the day.
• Finally, acknowledge your daily efforts and accomplishments by keeping a journal. It’s very easy for us to forget all the things we have done over the span of a week. A journal will help you realize how much you have accomplished. And, if you are inclined, write down three things you are grateful for each day. This will help you keep things in perspective.

Each of us copes with this type of transition in our own unique way. No matter what you do, there will be times when you feel completely overwhelmed. The good news is that you can limit those times by utilizing the strategies outlined above.

Georgia Feiste is a career, business and personal life coach, writer, and workshop facilitator creating a safe space for people wanting to make significant changes in life. Her website is: http://collaborativetransitions.com

You must have heard the old saying, ‘money is the root of all evil’ although it is not necessarily always the case but yes, in today’s world it is commonly the root of several personal, business and relationship stresses. It has been often noted that couples divorce over it, societies disintegrate due to its poor distribution and businesses collapse because of its mismanagement.

But here we are not talking about societies or businesses, we talking about you. I understand that money is a very important part of every individual’s life, but remember, your health comes first and then comes money and stressing yourself is not going to help you in anyway other than give you sleepless nights and high blood pressure.

I know it is almost impossible to eliminate stress from your life especially when you are faced with major financial crises and you have an entire family to take care of. However, this article should help you deal with stress without making any major changes to your schedule. Read on as a stress braking tips are covered.

The first step to counteract your tension is to try to relax. It is our nature to worry over everything but worrying itself will not solve the problem, only action will. You should never let any situation get the better of you, because if you do, it is only then when you lose control over the situation and make things difficult for yourself.

Okay, to deal with your situation, we will divide the process into two halves, in the first half we will work on stress and in the second half, we will take care of your finances. Remember, this article is just a guide to make things easier for you, but it is you who will ultimately make it happen.

• Forget about your finances for a few days. Take some time off to get back to your normal self. Indulge yourself in different physical activities like playing different kinds of sports that you like, workout to an exercise tape or go for a few brisk walks.

According to many researchers, walking is one of the most efficient ways to release stress. You can get yourself a treadmill so that you don’t have to go out for walking if your exercise time is short or you can consider going out in the morning or evening for a 20-30 minute walk before or after school or work. If you find your job particularly stressful, try to do your walk after work so that you can work out some of your tension.

When you are getting ready for your walk remember to think positive thoughts. Think about how the exercise will relieve some of your tension, how it helps your circulatory system, and how it uses your lungs. Feel the air as it goes into your lungs, and in your mind follow it around your to all parts of your body. As the oxygen moves through your body it picks up tension and replaces it with relaxation. Then as you exhale, feel the anxiety leave your body. With each breath you will be replacing unnecessary agitation with cleaner, clearer thoughts. Do this with the first few breaths every time that you walk. Follow this advice at least for a few days and you will be able feel and see the difference in the way that you feel and think.

Next, let us look into your finances. There may be several reasons, like credit card debts, loans, the recession or higher grocery prices that may lead to financial tension. But whatever the reason may be, the bottom line is you are facing a financial crunch. In order to overcome the crunch there are a few things that you need to do, like:

• Track your daily expenditures and see where you can save a bit here and there. Sometimes just cutting back on how much you eat out or spend at the local coffee shop can add up. I know that for my husband and I together were spending almost $9-12 a day on coffee and a danish in the morning. That’s about $300 a month! Since I was making coffee for us in the morning any way, I just made a bit more and we take our coffee from home.
• What about bringing your lunch from home instead of purchasing it at work? Again the saving will add up fairly quickly.
• Reduce the amount of fabric softener and laundry detergent that you use. Most of us don’t measure properly and over use on both. For fabric softener, I have cut back to using it only when it’s really needed and not by habit
• Do you drink bottled water? Using tap water with a filter can save you money and the environment. If you like the convenience of bottled water, then only use it when you leave the house and use the filter tap water while you are at home.
• Design a saving strategy if possible. You may not have enough to save now, but plan any way, then as soon as you are able you’ll have a plan of action.
• Take advantage of sales. You might want those new sheets and bedding in December, but these items goes on sale in January. Can you wait 2-3 weeks in order to save 50%? Probably, so why don’t you?

Once you have worked on these aspects well enough, you know you are well on your way to put an end to your financial issues. You may be starting by saving nickels and dimes but these will add up. No, its not silly and they will indeed add up. When interviewing the top financial minds, it has been found that the richest of the rich are often what many of us would consider penny pinchers. They would often reuse items that most of us would throw away and make do with what they had. They did not need to have the latest and greatest in electronics and are often behind the public when it comes to technology.

The daily habits of many of the wealthy made them wealthy.

Remember, your aim should be to make the best use of the money you have, and how you can save where possible. But you can only think clearly which is only possible when your mind is fresh and not overstressed, like during your walk. So, feel free to follow what we have discussed and you will soon find your finances and your life back on track.

It’s a fact that walking is excellent for your health. If your short on time use a treadmill. Then you can have dinner cooking or watch your favorite show while you burn fat and release stress. There is no better time than now to purchase a treadmill as prices have never been lower and the selection has never been this large. Purchase direct from the manufacturers and save big at Discount Home Fitness.

Are you feeling some Financial Insecurity? Most of us are concerned if not anxious.

Most people are paying close attention to the dramatic changes in world financial markets. We can not avoid the media frenzy and the feeling in the pit of our stomachs. Have you lost any sleep thinking about what has happened and wondering about what will the future bring? Some people get that pain in the neck or shoulders, or a tighter than normal jaw, as we attempt to control the upheaval in the financial world by the force of our “will.” Many people are checking their blood pressures or finding an elevation in their heart rate as we respond to the drama…

All of these reactions are caused by our individualized habit patterns that respond when we are experiencing stress. This stress may not be coming from a direct physical threat but our fears and anxieties are triggering this survival response. We can be distracted by our body’s reaction to stress. The “quality of our lives” is reduced by fear and uncertainty. If you are not in denial about the negative effects of financial stress, then you probably want to not be a victim to your body’s reactions to external financial uncertainties.

The first thing to do is to be aware that this reaction is a normal reaction to uncertainty and understand how your unique habitual response manifests. Everyone inherits or learns a pattern of response to emotional stressors. For every physical system that reacts to the stress of change, you can learn to minimize or stop this habituated response. The second thing that you will need to learn is to control your body’s stress response by “letting go” of your habit of holding physical stress in certain systems. This does require some time and some dedication, but you can learn to break your habit pattern. When you can control your body’s reaction you are not only “empowered” but you can save lots of time and energy. This saving of time and energy comes from reducing the waste of energy to physically held tension and reduction of the mental distractions that cause mistakes, accidents, or which slow you down.

So if you want to feel better and perform at a higher level then you must invest some time in the regular, and preventive, practice of an effective stress management strategy. I recommend that you try several forms of relaxation (stress management) and find the one that works for you, and that you feel comfortable with using in a preventive way. Consider learning and using Autogenic Training, Progressive Relaxations, Visualization or Imagery for Relaxation, various styles of Meditation, and possibly, some Yogic practices. Biofeedback technology can offer objective feedback regarding whether your chosen form of stress management is actually effective and providing the benefits you require. You can find the best ways to control your reactions to stress and to improve your quality of life!

Remember, the things that are the most stressful to you, are the things that you care the most about but that you can not fully control! Without full control, our minds create the fears and anxieties that drive our increased stress responses. So, even though we can not control the abrupt changes in the financial markets, we can control the way we respond to these financial fluctuations. These are desperate times for our finances, but for most of us, it is not an immediately life threatening situation. Let’s practice minimizing our stress reactions so we can have more grace in the way we cope with these difficult situations. At the very least we can be good role models for other people in these trying times.

Please take good care of yourself. This will help us ALL survive the anxieties of our uncertain times.

L. John Mason, Ph.D. is the country’s leading stress management expert and the author of the best selling “Guide to Stress Reduction.” Since 1977, he has offered Success & Executive Coaching and Training.

Please visit the Stress Education Center’s website at Stress, Stress Management, Coaching, and Training for articles, free ezine signup, and learn about the new telecourses that are available. If you would like information or a targeted proposal for training or coaching, please contact us at (360) 593-3833.

If you are looking to promote your training or coaching career, please investigate the Professional Stress Management Training and Certification Program for a secondary source of income or as career path.