Articles on Stress Management
Stress: How much is
too much?
To get an idea of the level of stress you are currently operating under,
read each of the events listed below and calculate the number of events
which have occurred in the last year… (Read
more)
Choosing better sleep
habits
Getting a sound night’s sleep is crucial to mental and physical
health. Studies show that even one night of broken or poor sleep lowers
our IQ by up to 5 points. If you think that you “just can’t
think straight” after a restless night in bed, you are right…
(Read more)
Coping with Anxiety
Is anxiety getting the better of you? Is it controlling the way you
live your life? Has your quality of life diminished because of chronic
low-grade anxiety or are you experiencing acute anxiety attacks in addition
to a daily dose of anxiety… (Read
more)
Anxiety: The new plague of
the millennium
Stress and anxiety have overtaken the contagious diseases that once
plagued our grandparents and are regarded as the new epidemics of the
21st century. Having developed vaccinations for any number of communicable
and deadly diseases, we are now left with the unease of the mind…
(Read more)
The Benefits of Positive
Thinking
There are probably a thousand books available on the benefits of positive
thinking and the use of affirmations. Affirmations are “affirmative”
statements about yourself, such as “The interview will go fine.
I will get this job!” Or “I am happy and calm. I am in control
of my life”… (Read
more)
Food and Mental Health
The food we eat has an important effect on the way we feel. And the
more stress we are under, the more important it is that we eat regularly
and well. A poor diet is known to lead to minor ailments, such as indigestion,
as well as major diseases such as heart disease, and cancer. But just
as we must be careful with our diet if we wish to remain healthy physically,
it is also important to take care of our mental health via the food
we eat… (Read more)
5 ways to beat stress
Hands up who’s feeling stressed? Stress is a highly contagious
“dis-ease” and few of us are immune to its effects. Over
time, stress can have serious effects on the way our bodies function,
often leading to physical as well as emotional illness. It therefore
makes good health sense to address the early signs of an overstressed
system. Here are some great ideas to help inoculate you against this
modern epidemic… (Read
more)
More Ways to Eliminate
Stress
Stress is part of life, but it’s how we deal with stress that
makes the difference to whether we feel challenged or overwhelmed. When
it’s “overwhelmed” time, that’s our signal to
change the way we are currently running our lives. Here’s some
ideas to help you cope with life’s inevitable dilemmas... (Read
More)
5 Ways to Clear Thinking
Mental clutter is like physical garbage; it clogs our lives and stops
us from seeing the big picture. Here’s how to get rid of it…
(Read more)
Pamper Yourself – You’re
Worth It!
Feeling run down? Feeling unappreciated? Feeling depressed? Feeling
anxious? Sounds like it’s time you booked yourself in for a well-earned
tune-up. Neglecting your physical health will ultimately lead to poor
mental health, so check out the super pampering tips below to get you
back into peak running order. Your mind will thank you for it…
(Read more)
Learning to relax (1)
Continually stressed to the max? Do you have days when you want the
world to just stop? Perhaps learning to relax should be on your agenda:
here are some helpful tips on getting back into your comfort zone…
(Read more)
Learning to relax (2)
Correct breathing is an essential part of learning to relax, so today
we’ll look at how to recapture the way we all used to breathe
as a matter of habit. Breathing plays a large part in the ability to
relax because breathing has a psychological as well as a physiological
effect on the body. Just as thoughts can change breathing patterns,
so too can the way we breathe affect the way we think. Slow breathing
promotes calm. Rapid breathing encourages over-stimulation of the nervous
system… (Read more)
Learning to Relax (3)
Relaxing doesn’t always mean taking an hour to go through a full
yoga relaxation routine. Taking time out can also be as simple as stopping
everything for three to five minutes and focusing on the outside world.
Making a habit of taking short breaks in your daily routine can do wonders
for your overall mental health and productivity. Try it… (Read
more)
Learning to Relax (4)
As children, we all knew intuitively how to relax. We didn’t need
special classes on how to “let go”, or special mind and
body routines that would help us to relax. We just did it! So, with
that in mind, let’s revisit the typical things we did as a child
when we relaxed, and see if we can incorporate some of these natural,
basic activities into our everyday lives… (Read
more)
Stress Relief with
Aromatherapy
Smell is one of our five basic senses and is strongly associated with
mood. Often a brief whiff of a particular fragrance can carry us away
to other times and other places. The smell of canvas may remind us of
camping holidays in our childhood, the smell of moth balls can bring
back memories of Grandma and Grandpa and long-ago visits to their home
when we were small… (Read
more)
Seven Goals for Good
Mental Health
Feeling less positive than you’d like? Lost that spring in your
step and the joy of living? Is depression and anxiety starting to encroach
on your day-today life? It could be time for a mental and physical tune-up…
(Read more)
Garden your way to Peace
If stress and anxiety are regular visitors to your world, then it may
be time to head out into the garden for some drug-free (and cash-free)
therapy. Any seasoned gardener will tell you that gardening makes you
feel better, but as is required by scientific theory, all hypotheses
must be proven, and the good news is that gardening has been shown to
be beneficial to your mental health… (Read
more)
Sex and Stress
Well, we all suspected that sex can reduce stress levels but now scientists
in the UK have proven that the physical act of sex can reduce stress,
bodily tension, and lower blood pressure… (Read
more)
Just what is stress anyway?
Stress is the definitely the pop disease of the 21st century. Just a
few years ago, the condition was simply known as “stress.”
Today it has many common subcategories such as road rage, telephone
rage, image stress, technostress, mid-life crisis, early mid-life crisis:
the list goes on… (Read
more)
Stress and Television
Want to feel more relaxed and in control of your life? Want to lower
your overall stress levels and feel free from worry and niggling anxieties?
Want to build up your coping reserves so that when stressful events
occur you are better able to cope? Then turn off the TV at least one
night a week... (Read more)
Junk Food and Mental
Health
Would it surprise you to know that a diet rich in junk food makes for
an increase in the occurrence of mental disorders? This is the latest
research emerging from the Annual Society for Neuroscience Conference
in California. But it hardly needs to be spelled out to us that eating
too much junk food is not only bad for the way our bodies look, but
also how our brains work.. It’s yet another case of garbage in,
garbage out… (Read
more)
Cleaning Up Our Act
Not too many of us made it through childhood and adolescence within
being told on numerous occasions to clean up our room. Most of us hated
it! But, in hindsight, when our mothers hounded us to “clean up
our act” they were unknowingly giving us a gift. A gift that we
can use to our advantage for the rest of our lives. So how can cleaning
up our room in adolescence have an effect on our later lives…
(Read more)
De-Stress
the Natural Way
Changing your mood can be something that can be achieved with just a
little effort and a surprisingly short space of time. Here are some
ideas that can turn a gray day into a sunny one, often in just a few
minutes... (Read more)
Dealing with
Reality
One of the many causes of emotional breakdown is failing to deal with
things as they really are. When we deny reality, we are asking for trouble...
(Read more)
Practical
Ways to Build Self-Esteem (1)
We are not born with high self-esteem. Or low self-esteem for that matter.
Self esteem in either form is bestowed upon us by our primary caregivers,
usually our parents. It is modified over time by our peer group, and
significant others... (Read
more)
Practical
Ways to Build Self Esteem (2)
Lani is 28 and hasn't had a serious relationship for over four years.
She believes that she is dull and unattractive, and this is confirmed
in her mind by the fact that men show little interest in her. A couple
of "arranged" dates set up by friends failed miserably...
(Read more)
Practical
Ways to Build Self-Esteem (3)
In our last article on Self-Esteem, we looked at the cases of Lani and
Kane. Lani was attractive but believed she wasn't. Kane was a success
in anyone's book: except his own. Let's find out why both Lani and Kane
have such a warped sense of their own self-worth... (Read
more)
Using Food to Change
Mood
Prefer a natural alternative to changing your state of mind? While major
chronic mood disorders require counseling and intermittent drug treatment,
often we can make small but significant changes to our diet and lifestyle
to assist us to get out of a bad frame of mind... (Read
more)
Are You Running the Show
or is the Show Running You?
There are all sorts of formal definitions for what stress is, but one
of the basic criteria that characterize stress is: do you feel in control
of your life, or do you want the world to just stop while you catch
your breath? (Read more)
Music Therapy
Music as a form of therapy is a powerful aid to stress release and is
useful for a number of conditions including anxiety disorders, depression,
post-traumatic stress disorder, even autistic spectrum disorders...
(Read more)
Are You Lonesome Tonight?
The relationship between loneliness and mental health is a well established
one. In fact, the relationship between loneliness and health issues
of many persuasions has been well documented by numerous researchers...
(Read more)
Sing Your Way to Calm
Anyone who has suffered from debilitating anxiety will know that correct
breathing is one of the principal weapons against anxiety and panic
attacks. There are countless references to the importance of breathing
correctly in many schools of relaxation therapy, including yoga... (Read
more)
Stress and Digestion
Stress affects most organs of the body and the stomach is no exception.
Stress can cause those familiar knots in the stomach, some types of
ulcers, constipation, diarrhea, poor absorption of nutrients leading
to further ill health, and oversecretion of stomach acids... (Read
more)
Five-finger relaxation
technique
Interested in a fast, yet effective way to relax? Like all methods of
relaxation, this exercise is simple. But, of course, that doesn't necessarily
mean that it will, by definition, be easy for you to relax immediately...
(Read more)
Is noise driving you
mad?
Have you ever noticed that when a person gets momentarily lost while
driving in the car, the first thing they do is to turn off the radio
or CD player? (Read more)
Anxiety and sleeping
problems
If you're an anxious person, chances are you also experience sleeping
problems from time to time. Depending on individual anxiety levels and
environmental stressors in your life, the natural sleep process can
be easily disturbed by stressful events which, in turn, lead to further
stress and fatigue... (Read
more)
Do you indulge in "Stinkin'
Thinking"?
Stinkin' Thinkin', otherwise known as thinking negative thoughts, is
a common but unhelpful pastime. Imagine all the extra energy and creativity
we could muster if we weren't bogged down by thoughts of doom and gloom.
Let's have a look at some of the most common forms of "Stinkin'
Thinking... (Read more)
Stop talking dirty to yourself!
In "Do you indulge in Stinkin' Thinking", we looked at all
the ways we tie ourselves up in knots by the way we think. Today we
look at how to go about untying those knots, so that we can let go of
self-limiting thoughts and behaviors and get on with our lives... (Read
more)
Dealing with Negative
People
Do you know someone who never has a good thing to say about anything
or anybody? Nothing ever seems right for these people; the weather is
either too hot or too cold, or they complain that others are never doing
the right thing. Over time these people can really bring you down...
(Read more)
Dealing with your own
negativity
In "Dealing with Negative People", we looked at strategies
for coping with negative friends, family and co-workers. Negative people
can really sap your happiness levels and over time really bring you
down... (Read more)
The Power of Friendship
In the recent blogs, Who is your best friend? and Be your own best friend,
we looked at the importance of befriending yourself and genuinely liking
what you see when you look in the mirror.... (Read
more)
Smash those irrational
beliefs
Many of us lead limited lives, never reaching our full potential because
of irrational beliefs. Somewhere during the course of our early life,
we have picked up these beliefs and made them our own. But we can change
the way we think about ourselves... (Read
more)
Do you suffer from Mondayitis?
Do those Monday morning blues descend with monotonous regularity at
the start of every week? Are you blaming your job, or the fact that
everyone goes back to work and school and a week of household drudgery
awaits? Well, maybe the famous Mondayitis is not all psychological in
origin... (Read more)
Lift your spirits with
a "Happy Box"
Sometimes the world does not seem such a wonderful place; the skies
are gloomy and so are you. Your problems seem overwhelming at present
and you are enveloped in a cloak of doom and unhappiness... (Read
more)
Have you got your
priorities right?
Perhaps you've heard the story of the professor and his philosophy students
before, but it's a good metaphor for discerning what is important and
what is unimportant in our lives. Let's have another look at this story
that's traveled the world a thousand times over, yet its message still
rings true... (Read
more)
Reclaiming your place
in the world
Compared to our parents and grandparents, most of us live in an overwhelmingly
synthetic environment and our bodies struggle to maintain our connectedness
with the natural world around us... (Read
more)
Do you have problems?
Join the club!
Everyone has problems, although when we are going through a dreadful
time it is very easy to look at others and wonder why their lives are
so good compared to ours. They may seem to roll through life smoothly,
while we stumble and lurch from one disaster to another... (Read
more)
Could YOU have a breakdown?
There isn't a person alive who is so strong, both physically and emotionally,
that they are impervious to having a breakdown. Mental collapse can
happen to anyone. Yet not everyone will experience clinical anxiety,
depression, and other emotional disorders during the course of their
lifetime... (Read more)
Inoculating yourself
against a breakdown
Wouldn't it be great if we could somehow take steps to prevent ourselves
having a breakdown? As we read in "Could YOU have a breakdown?"
emotional collapse can happen to anyone given the right circumstances...
(Read more)
Is your past affecting
your present?
Did you choose your life partner because he or she was physically attractive
to you and has qualities that you find important? You may believe that
you chose your partner based on the thoughts and feelings you had about
them at the time you met them. But other, deeper forces may have been
at work... (Read more)
Are you pulling
the plug on life?
Do you find yourself unhappy and frustrated for much of your day? Have
you lost that sense of joy in your life? When was the last time you
were truly happy? Here is a simply, yet effective way to increase your
happiness quotient, and recapture the essence of your own powerful life-force...
(Read more)
Friends and Mental
Health (1)
It goes without saying that having good, stable friendships is important
to your mental health. So how do you know which of your friends are
contributing to your health and which are subtly, or not so subtly,
undermining it? Most times we know instinctively which people are "good"
for us... (Read more)
Friends and Mental
Health (2)
Last blog we looked at the importance of having positive people in our
lives and the detrimental effect that negativity from others can have
on our mental health... (Read
more)
Still holding onto that
grudge?
It's only human to feel resentful when somebody hurts us, particularly
when they hurt us emotionally. Personal attacks bruise our self esteem,
shatter our confidence, and cause profound disturbances which may leave
deep wounds in our hearts... (Read
more)
The Old Wives Were
Right: Tea Is Good For Stress
Remember in those old movies where the hero or heroine would undergo
a trauma or suffer a terrible shock and some motherly type would step
in with the classic line: "How about I go put the kettle on?"
The next scene would demonstrate the apparent miraculous qualities of
tea to perk up our hero or heroine (it was usually a woman) and step
back into the fray again... (Read
more)
The Stress of Constant
Noise
Never underestimate the effect of unwanted sound on your stress levels.
Although many of us live in cities and are used to a certain level of
noise, when that noise reaches a certain threshold, the symptoms of
stress will begin to manifest... (Read
more)
The Power of Laughter
They say that laughter is the best medicine and they're not wrong. Not
only is laughing fun to do but it has long-term health benefits, especially
for mental health. And it also contributes to you leading a longer (and
happier!) life... (Read more)
Stress: Always
Look for the Bigger Picture
It's a strange fact, yet I encounter it over and over again. The people
who have relatively minor worries in their lives often stress more than
those who have genuine life-threatening or life-destroying illnesses.
Now this doesn't seem to make sense... (Read
more)
Dogs, Unconditional Love
and Mental Health
I read in the recent weekend paper where our local animal shelter had
registered an alarming increase in the number of dogs and other pets
being handed in because the owners could no longer keep them. Skyrocketing
pressures on the family budget appear to have claimed yet another victim:
The family pet... (Read
more)