Sunday, April 15, 2007

Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Management

In today’s hectic world of fast paced living and competitive work arena, it’s no longer a wonder that a lot of people suffer from the negative effects of depression, anxiety, and stress. These three issues have seemed to become a part of daily life for millions of people around the world –every day they deal with shallow breathing, rapid heartbeats, and the “feeling” of suffocation from the “choking fog” that surrounds them all through their normal daily activities.

Let’s take a closer look at what depression, anxiety, and stress really are, and what they do to the body. Depression is that emotion of being hopeless, “down”, or losing interest in doing things or activities. It may last for a short time such as several weeks, or last longer like months or even years; it may be triggered by significant events or biological reasons. It may disrupt one’s family life, as well as lead to alcohol and drug abuse, and affect one’s ability to work.

Anxiety disorders on the other hand, are disorders that entail apprehension and fear about future happenings. This can result to excessive worrying and can disrupt the life of a person –irritability, fatigue, restlessness, muscle tension, and impaired sleep and concentration.

Stress is the body’s reaction to events that confront it; on the whole, stress can be connected with anxiety and depression at times. When depression, anxiety, and stress unite overwhelmingly, it becomes a form of overstress. Overstress will take its toll on the body, both physically and mentally, and so it is essential that one takes action to manage overstress.

Depression, anxiety, and stress management is an important step to reducing or eradicating the negative effects that these three factors can give the body. There are various options for depression, anxiety, and stress management, and its effectiveness will depend on what works best for the individual’s need. Generally, the aim of depression, anxiety, and stress management, is to lessen the pressure load, help the individual to cope with their depression, anxiety, and stress, at the same time as helping the person get back to being “healthy” again.

Some helpful tips for reducing one’s pressure load includes: lessening the “pace of change” in one’s life; reducing school or work obligations; diminishing social obligations; saying “no” more often; reducing environmental toxins; postponing changes in one’s living situation; and eliminating possible environmental or food allergens. Keep in mind that the initial step to an effective depression, anxiety, and stress management is taking action before it starts to “take action on you”.

Sunday, April 08, 2007

Stress Management Advice

Not until recently, there has been a growing interest in stress research when it was proven that stress are precursors to just any kind of diseases. And this has led to the development of several stress management advice and strategies.

Why is there so much fuss over stress and its management? Researches on stress had shown that stress is a chief reason for many illnesses and disease. It doesn’t cause directly these illnesses and disease but the way it promotes general ill feeling is one major contributor.

Not all stress management advice and strategies are effective by the way, but most are fairly effective in helping people cope up during this stress period.

Here are some of the highly effective stress management advice and strategies. You’d be surprised how routine some of them are.

Feeling Your Emotions
Stress is literally a nervous system response of the body. If you have read and made research about stress, you’d know that stress is one describe as the “fight or flight” response of the body. In itself it isn’t harmful, but these unused energies over time can create a physical degradation of the body. So if you’re happy, laugh it at. Dance and skip. That’s one way in releasing that energy. If you’re angry, then be angry. Do not bottle emotions up.

Exercise is the best way in channeling energy. If you’re angry, go to a gym and practice your punches. Your body, when you’re angry, gets primed up for a fight. One way of releasing emotions is doing motorized self defense of the body. That is boxing.

Control Your Anger
Did I just say “feel your emotions”? Negative emotions, like anger, should not be easily entertained though. That’s why establishing a strong patient attitude gets you stressed less. If your can control your anger, there’s no way the “fight or flight” response of the body can take place.

Time Management = Stress Management
One of the timeless stress management advices is time management. Yes this is another side of stress, what we call business stress. And this kind of stress is more often than not caused by time, or its lack. Effective time management always equate to effective stress management.

Live Your Life Happy
General feeling of well being is of utmost important. And this is purely psychological. So treat it that way and be very happy. Take time to ask yourself: What can I do now to be happy? If your psyche tells you to watch a movie with a friend, then by all means arrange it on the next Friday night.

Saturday, April 07, 2007

Time Management = Stress Management

How do you say that Time Management = Stress Management?

Though stress can be of different origins, the most common stressing factor by far is time, or the lack of it. Looming deadlines, unfinished tasks by the end of the week, projects approaching completion, mounting work, all these contribute to stress in the workplace.

Though time management isn’t that unheard of, it surely is one of the implementations many find very hard to follow. I find time management real pain to follow, especially if I see a mile long list and I’m still checking the uppermost part. That’s why I make my plans of time management in a non conforming way.

Really, the real root of the problem of compliance lies in the disheartening arrangement, as all lists of “to do” is always regarded a chore. But there are ways to make time management less upsetting and more positive. Here are some of my recommendations for a Time Management = Stress Management plan:

The Action List
The action list is always indispensable to any sort of planning. Even lawyers jot down their time, and for me they are the least kind of persons that need time management = stress management. The only thing is that, making a list you seem to avoid later won’t do any help to you. And trust me, after you finish writing that action list of two pages, you will feel like avoiding it.

It doesn’t have to be a list. For me, stickies function as my action list. No more seeing what goes next; I won’t be bothered by the next subject until I finish what’s on top. You can do it this way too. Write each entry on one Post-It pad, arrange it according to the level of necessitate. Bind them together with a clip.

So what’s the merit of this? You won’t be constantly reminded of how many tasks you need to do.

The Routine
One of the more enjoyable techniques of time management is the setting of routine. Arrange something on your head, say you wake up at 7am, shower and breakfast until 7:30am, and enjoy your news until 8am. You leave the door at 8am and take a brisk walk to the office. This works for everyone, and yes once you get a system running, it’s hard to deviate on what you get used to.

It is really Time Management = Stress Management, the only obstacle is enforcing your lifestyle to follow a routine, and follow your stickies.

Friday, April 06, 2007

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Stress Management

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy originally surfaced as a psychotherapy treatment aiming for influencing positive emotions. Acronym as CBT, it is a modification treatment on everyday behavior and thoughts that would generate an ‘artificial’ (if such is the case) positive emotions that would also precedent several positive aspects, e.g. like inner healing, survival desire, and general well being and positive life outlook.

That being said, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy makes better use too, as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Stress Management.

During the advent of mass researches to stress and its treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy was then seen as one of the cost effective but evidence based treatment. It was used then primarily for several mental disorders, but such same treatment that produces inspiring solution to mental disorders looks splendidly inspiring also on stress and its management. Cognitive behavioral therapy for stress management became then one of the most prescribed treatments.

The Basics
Cognitive behavioral therapy for stress management can be said as an act of rebooting emotions. From the word cognition (think) and behavioral, the therapy aims to rebuild the body physically by psychologically exerting positive thoughts, emotions and behavior to the individual. So for one suffering depressing stress, the normal output would be inactivity, and several health debilitating factors: no sleep pattern, no cohesive diet management, no proper hygiene; cognitive behavioral therapy inclines to change such outlook until the depression state passes away. No, it does not let the sufferer avoid the depression; rather the treatment helps the sufferer deal and copes with it without succumbing to the effects of stress.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is seen as cost effective and evidence based treatment. That is because it’s healing mechanism deals more on the person’s psyche, which does not need anything really for treatment. There are several guiding principles for cognitive behavioral therapy for stress management. They are:

Identifying the Activating Event – or in short, the stress trigger. For cognitive behavioral therapy for stress management to be effective, the trigger must be identified.

Identifying the Negative Outputs – these includes the emotions, thoughts, withdrawals…etc.

Identifying the Consequence – many people take for granted the consequence. But once the consequence is deliberated over and over, comprehension takes place. Then follow the motivation.

Reframing – after the identification of the negative beliefs and its consequences, Reframing happens when the patient takes the challenge of reframing. This is usually the actual modification treatment on everyday behavior and thoughts that should generate those positive emotions and also begin the healing.

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

7 Solutions to Practical Stress Management

7 Solutions to Practical Stress Management - “Your direct perception of higher truth sets you free” is what Tom Russell points out with his 7 Solutions to Practical Stress Management. Discovering how to make use of daily life experiences to shake awake the natural wisdom that lies within, will help an individual to break free from the daily stress of life.

Stress is astonishingly unrelenting, sometimes it’s even seductive –one gets used to the feeling of being tense and tight. Although positive thinking have its “piece of say”, unless it’s supported by practical wisdom, it will be inclined to get overpowered and weaken away. Here are the 7 Solutions to Practical Stress Management for a better and proven stress handling approach:

“Control your Reaction with these 7simple words”
This first step of the 7 Solutions to Practical Stress Management involves remaining watchful when people attempt to put you down with anxious attitudes and comments. Replying with seven simple words “I have nothing to say to that” cuts off any infectious effect of a stressful assault.

These simple words obstructs the tendency of accepting and imitating depressing words, and not falling down to the point of nervous remarks, but instead let’s you remain higher than it. Remember, negative people will want you to be involved in their defeat, saying simply “I have nothing to say to that” stops them from luring you in to be their victims –“a silent refusal to enter the battlefield is a perfect reply”.

“Let go of painful grudges by living in the present moment”
Hate is similar to poison that eats one up inside and kills any possibility of renewal. One must give others the equal chance to change or it’s like shutting one’s own development. The clandestine to stress-free success is realizing one’s own newness many times every day.

“Observe negative thoughts with the aim of understanding them, instead of trying to suppress them”
Self-observation plays a major role in stress-free living; don’t claim stressful feelings and thoughts, instead understand them.

“Pause often and enjoy a deep breath”
Breathing away the tension helps remove habitual resentful and anxious attitudes, and restores a clear mind to reveal what’s good for you.



“Realize you have far better things to think about”
Negative images in the mind often claim one’s energy; snapping out of these spells can lessen stress and provide a new vitality.

“Stay clear of negative zones of influence”
Widespread negative influences are always on the loose; staying clear of these stressful zones and living in peace with the heart will create a better stress-free environment for you.

“Refuse to make stressful or angry comments”
This last step in the 7 Solutions to Practical Stress Management involves keeping in mind that stress starts small, and if indulged in becomes bigger and bigger –stop it at its infancy. The best place to get rid of stress is “before it leaves the mouth”.

These 7 Solutions to Practical Stress Management is a very good way to follow to help melt stress in one’s life. Being aware of one’s innate ability for wisdom and doing things according to this rightful wisdom will ensure happiness and eliminate stress.