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How to Control Stress by Creating a Productive Environment™

March 27, 2022 by Barbara Hemphill

How often do you feel stressed looking at papers piled on your desk, browsing through hundreds (and for many people, thousands!) of emails, or searching for your glasses, a book, a form, or a piece of equipment?

How to Control Stress by Creating a Productive Environment

Your ability to accomplish any task or goal is directly related to your ability to find what you need when you need it – and that ability is essential to any organization in order to accomplish its mission, serve its customers, minimize legal risks, and reduce overhead costs. In other words, good business requires what I call a “Productive Environment™” – an intentional setting in which everyone can accomplish their work and enjoy their lives.

While current economic conditions require organizations to do “more with less” and technology rushes forward, individuals are overwhelmed with “too much” – of everything – email, paper, projects, meetings, and interruptions. So what can you do to overcome these obstacles? The first step is eliminating physical, digital, and “systems” clutter.

While offices are cluttered with paper, and our computers with electronic files, other types of clutter, such as unused office supplies and outdated equipment, also cost money and take up precious real estate. And then there are those unidentified business cards you collected at networking events months, even years ago, and the mustard packets from the take-out that are how old?

Because most people have never been given a process for eliminating the clutter in their lives, and unless they are “born organized,” were brought up in a family where it was role-modeled, or worked with someone who taught them, they are left to their own devices – which rarely works.

So that explains “physical and digital clutter,” but what is “systems clutter?” A little girl observed her mommy cutting the end off of the ham before she put it in the oven. “Why do you cut off the end of the ham, Mommy?” she asked. “I don’t know,” her mother replied. “Go ask Grandma. That’s what she always did.” The little girl ran to her grandmother and asked the question. Her grandmother replied, “Oh, honey! I didn’t have a pan big enough for the whole ham so I cut off the ends so it would fit!”

How many systems are you holding onto that are not contributing to a profitable, sustainable business?

Few employees are willing to take the risk of getting rid of something for fear someone else – especially the boss – might want it. Besides, it’s boring work, and they have “real work” to do! So here are four simple questions to ask yourself in order to make your office a more productive environment.

Is this item helping me accomplish my work or enjoy my life?
Who else might find this item valuable?
What’s the worst possible thing that would happen if I didn’t have it?
If I got rid of it, and I was wrong, could I live with the consequences?

So here’s my challenge for you! It’s always easy to see what other people need to do to make their workspace more productive, but how productive is your environment? Let’s find out! Click here to get your Productive Environment Score™ now.

And if you’re the boss, be sure to ask about our “Productive Environment Day™” — a one-day event educating and empowering all your employees to make your office a “Productive Environment™” which truly reflects the quality of your products and services, and where everyone can accomplish their work and enjoy their lives!

What is Stressing Out Kids?

February 27, 2022 by Martin Neumann

When people think about who gets stressed out, their last thought is kids. From an adult’s perspective, kids have nothing to stress about. They don’t pay bills, they don’t have to work, and all they do is hang around all day playing, chatting with friends and eating. So what is stressing them out?

Theoretically, all they have to do is go to school and come back home. While this sounds like a dream to most people, there are several factors in a kid’s life that can stress them out quite a bit, and it’s important to address these factors early on so that they don’t develop any problems later in life.

One of the longest running and worst causes of stress for kids is bullying. Adults don’t face this problem nearly as much, because if someone is harassing you in the real world, you can simply leave the situation or file a complaint.

If the harassment is physical, an adult would be arrested for assault. However, kids can’t just leave school or call the police if they’re getting bullied. Some might say that they can just talk to a teacher, but that seldom fixes the problem.

Kids feel as if they’re trapped there at school with their bully, and with no way out of a harmful situation, they can get extremely stressed out every day of the week.

Another cause of stress in kids might be their home life. Unlike teenagers and young adults, kids can’t just drive away from home if it’s not a good place to live. They’re powerless in terms of moving away, and completely at their parent’s mercy.

If a child’s household is full of fighting or has abusive family members in it, the kid might get stressed out about even going home. They could have a fine life at school, but every day they have to go home at some point.

Abusive parents or siblings can absolutely ruin a child’s home life, stressing them out beyond your knowledge. In a similar situation to having a bully at school, kids can’t do anything to prevent or help their situation at home, due to the fact that they can’t escape in any way.

Being unable to leave your situation can cause more stress than anything. Recognizing stress in kids can be either easy or difficult, depending on the kid. In younger children, it will be fairly clear when they’re stressed out, because they’ll usually start to cry.

Young children cry whenever they’re stressed, upset, or feel as if anything is wrong. This type of sign is the easiest to recognize, and you certainly shouldn’t overlook it as them being a “whiny kid.”

There’s almost always a reason for a child to cry – you just have to be able to look for it. If you don’t, they’ll start to develop some long-running issues. Of course, there are many kids who have outgrown their standard crying days.

Older kids have a very different way of showing that they’re stressed out, and this is the point at which it can become more difficult, so you really need to be looking out for these kinds of signs.

One sign that a kid is stressed out is that they start to close off from other people. They might start to become incredibly quiet – not just around you, but also around other kids their age.

While some kids are naturally introverted and shy, this is a totally different situation. When kids start to close off, they won’t even be open with their own parents or with their closest friends.

Another way older kids start to show stress is by acting out. Kids with a bad home life and similar problems might start to act out at school, at home, and elsewhere for the sake of getting positive attention from their friends – something that they desperately need.

Another common sign involves kids becoming reluctant to do certain things. For example, if a child is reluctant to go to school, there might be deeper meaning to it than them just not wanting to go because it’s boring.

They might be getting bullied at their school, and they’re avoiding going because they’re scared of what awaits them. Similarly, they might be reluctant to come home from school if they’re afraid of their home lives.

Another common source of stress for children is if their parents are going through a divorce. Parents are very much acting as a point of reference for children. If one of the parents is suddenly leaving from home, this is quite a significant disruption of the secure environment that the child may have felt at home. These kind of changes can be pretty difficult to digest for a child and causing them a significant amount of stress, so don’t be surprised if your child will close off or get unruly when you are going through a divorce.

There are tons of different solutions when it comes to helping kids deal with stress. The first one is addressing the problem at its source. If it’s the home life that the child is stressed about, then try to improve it by going to family counseling, where the child can clearly communicate their feelings about their home life to a counselor or to their parents directly.

You can also directly address the source of bullying by getting onto the parents of the bully, in an attempt to get the parents to reprimand them appropriately. The bully’s parents might be totally unaware of what’s going on, so informing them might help the situation. Try to understand the circumstances of their family as well. Their child may be aggressive as an outlet of other problems he is facing. Maybe you can help resolve another dilemma in the process.

Another solution for improving a child’s stress is to remove them from a stressful situation. This applies best to the bullying situation. If you’ve already tried talking to the school’s administration, to the bully’s family, and to the teachers, then it might be time to switch your child over to another school or choose a homeschooling option.

This is best done early on, so that the child doesn’t have to endure years and years of bullying. This also allows them to get a fresh start at a new location.

If you feel that you have done whatever needed to adequately limit the bullying, without being able to stop it completely, one of the best options that you can take is to just talk to your child and help them better understand the scope of time that they’re in.

While they might be stressed out about school and all of that right now, they need to know that things do get better. It can be helpful to explain to them how small of a portion of their life this will be.

Show them a timeline of a person’s life from age 0 to 100 and how small the school years are in that line of existence. It’s important to get their thoughts on their own situation as well, because it makes them feel respected, as if they have a bit of power in their tough situation.

We have seen that children can face significant stressors in their lives. If they are kept unresolved, it can develop into more serious problems in adulthood. Find a way to adequately resolve their issues, and your child will thank you for having done the right thing to protect them.

Do you need a guide to help you understand how to cope with Stress in an all inclusive approach? Learn how to combat stress, mentally, physically, emotionally and strategically in your life.

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Handling Stress Before It Happens

January 30, 2022 by Martin Neumann

Stress is something that everyone in the world will experience. Some of us deal with a lot of stress – others, not as much. But one thing that we all have in common is that we all have a reaction to stress.

When something happens to cause stress, we’ll react in either positive or negative ways. The way that you deal with stress will profoundly affect your health and well-being.

Your reaction to stress on one day can affect you emotionally the next day, and even the day before if you’re bracing for it. Unfortunately, there is no escaping stress and there are varying degrees of stress and causes behind it.

Stress Happens to Everyone

There are no groups of people or any single individuals who can avoid stress. Stress doesn’t fit neatly into any one category like a one-size-fits-all event. There are different levels of stress that will vary, depending on the person who’s dealing with it.

There are also different reasons and different times for stress to occur. You might experience more stress at a certain time of the year than other people do. However, stress does fall under the heading for four basic types.

The types of stress are encounter stress, time stress, situational stress and anticipatory stress. Encounter stress has to do with the relationships in your life. This covers your intimate relationships, your work relationships and even stranger or acquaintance relationships.

The type of life that you have can often determine whether you have a high stress level due to encounter stress. People who work in jobs where there’s a great deal of emotions (such as in a hospice care group) might have a higher rate of encounter stress than other people would normally have.

Giving emotional support to a cancer patient

Time stress can occur when you’re feeling overwhelmed with everything that you have to get done – so you fret that you don’t have enough time. You “what if” that you’re not going to get everything done and your stress level rises.

An example of this would be having to be somewhere for an important meeting that you absolutely can’t miss and things crop up to put you behind. Sometimes people will engage in time stress before there’s even an issue.

This “what if” worry can make them feel anxious and depressed because they worry how it will affect their future. The panic it causes can result in even more stressful situations to occur.

Situational stress is what happens when you’re in a situation that causes immediate stress. An example of this can be a car accident, a child becoming ill or a job loss. In situational stress, it’s the situation that causes the worrying and the emotions that go along with it. This kind of stress can be short or long term.

Anticipatory stress is stress that you get because you’re anticipating something that’s coming your way. This might be having to give a speech or wanting to ask for a raise. It can also be about something that’s not even on the horizon.

It’s a fear that the other shoe is going to drop. This type of stress is the kind that has the most “what if” worry involved with it because it’s focused on things that haven’t even happened – and may never happen!

And when the things that you worried about do come to past, they often don’t look anywhere as frightening or terrible as what you thought they’d be. Often we discover that it was not really worth our worries.

Worrying About Stressful Situations Affects Your Health

Thinking about a problem or wondering what’s going to happen isn’t the same thing as worrying about it. When it crosses the line is when you begin to “what if.” You might “what if” about an event, a person or an unknown future.

Plenty of people will “what if” in their mind. Unfortunately, most of them create all sorts of “what ifs” that have a negative aspect to the thoughts. From that negative “what if” can spring a ton of stress that can turn into long term stress if the habit isn’t broken.

There’s nothing wrong with thinking “what if” when you’re trying to brainstorm and come up with a purpose or a plan to deal with stress. But if you do random “what ifs” where you let your mind wonder from one bad possibility to the next, this is futile and can even be bad for your health.

This kind of “what iffing” is a stagnant process that doesn’t get you anywhere. It’s like sitting in a rocking chair moving back and forth and expecting to get from point A to point B.

This negative “what iffing” doesn’t help anything and all you gain is fear and a sense of foreboding about the situation or your future. When you engage in unproductive, negative “what ifs,” you can start to experience a host of various health problems.

You can develop headaches or stomachaches. You might start to encounter muscle problems. Worrying about stress is bad for your heart health. When you worry about stress, studies have shown that this habit is known to cause high blood pressure, tachycardia and shortness of breath.

Worrying about stress can even cause heart disease. The reason that it can do this is because when you worry about stressful situations, your body gets an influx of stress hormones.

Having a regular dose of stress hormones puts additional pressure on your heart because of the high blood pressure that goes hand in hand with raised stress hormones.

Besides affecting your body’s health in a myriad of ways, worrying about stress affects your emotional health and your mental health, too. If you worry about stressful situations to the point that it becomes an ongoing habit, you can be at risk of having a mental breakdown.

This usually happens when thinking about and dealing with stress reaches the point where a person simply can’t deal with it any longer. When that happens, he or she can lose the ability to go about their day as they normally would.

It’s an abnormal response to stress that’s linked with worrying about stressful situations and feeling like there’s no relief for the stress in sight. When worrying about stressful situations reaches the point where someone is having trouble eating and begins to deal with insomnia, that’s the point where something must be done immediately to alleviate the worry.

The 4 Types of Pre-Meditated Stress Analysis

People cope with stress in different ways. These coping mechanisms can be labeled four different ways. The first one is problem analysis. With this type of coping mechanism, people think about the problem.

This way of thinking usually means the person is using “what if” in a positive way. They’re not simply turning the problem or situation over and over in their minds. They’re looking for how they can define exactly what the problem is.

This is the first step that often motivates people to reaching for a solution to the problem. When someone engages in problem analysis, they can see the problem objectively without internalizing it to the point that they dwell on it long term.

This kind of coping mechanism is highly effective and doesn’t lead to emotional or physical problems that can happen with dwelling on a stressful situation. The type of people who use this method are the type that are able to separate their lives and self-worth from the problem.

They can look at something that needs to be solved and then lay it down without it causing them to lose sleep. The second type of coping mechanism is plan rehearsal. Someone who copes this way is usually an analytical thinker.

He or she won’t dwell on negative “what ifs.” Instead, this person will think about what he can do to bring the situation to a resolution. Someone using this coping mechanism rarely thinks that there isn’t a solution to a situation regardless of what the problem is.

The person who deals with stressful situations this way usually comes up with several solutions and analyzes each one for the best outcome. People who use plan rehearsal don’t usually carry a stressful situation over into the next day emotionally.

Stagnant deliberation is one of the poorer methods that people use when dealing with stress. This is the type of person who will “what if” and think about the problem, but won’t get anywhere.

They don’t come up with a solution and so they don’t move forward. With stagnant deliberation your emotional and physical health can be affected to the point that it can make you ill.

The fourth coping mechanism is outcome fantasy. With this way of dealing with stress, people fantasize or daydream that they won’t have to deal with the problem because it will be somehow magically solved. This coping mechanism can affect emotional and physical health as well.

It’s rare that a person always uses just one type of coping mechanism. You can use a mixture of all of them but the type of people who use problem analysis and plan rehearsal don’t get stuck in the “what if” or the negative thinking about stressful situations. They might pause there, but they don’t get stuck.

How to Make an Action Plan Ahead of Time to Handle Stress

By knowing how to act rather than react to stress, you can handle stress before it becomes an issue. In every situation that happens, prioritize it. Ask yourself if the situation is yours to handle.

Too many of us deal with things that we don’t have to deal with. We take on other people’s stress. We handle things for friends, a spouse and coworkers that we shouldn’t take on.

It can be tempting to want to help and to want to fix someone else’s stress, but that’s a way to quickly become overwhelmed and stressed yourself!

Take action steps to handle stress before it happens by identifying where you feel the pressure start to build. If you know that you’re going to be pressed for time, then look at what has to be done.

Use to-do lists and pare it down to only the necessities to get you through that day or week. Let go of things that don’t matter in the long run for your health or happiness. Give yourself extra time to accomplish tasks and learn to say no to things – and people – that will eat up time to the point you know it will cause stress to begin.

Don’t focus on the things that you can’t control. For example, if you have a joint project with a colleague and you’re ready with your part, but he isn’t, don’t focus on what he didn’t do.

All you’re responsible for is what you were supposed to do. Let that person suffer the consequences rather than you suffering the stress. When you know that a situation is coming up that has the potential to turn stressful, take the time to write out a list of possible solutions.

For example if you’ve heard that your company is going to be laying people off, instead of worrying about it, write down all of the steps that you’ll take if it does happen. Once you do that, let it go. You’re prepared!

Don’t give in to negative “what if” thinking. You don’t want to attempt to cross bridges before you even come to them. You might find that the bridge never even appears in your life and you don’t want to waste time needlessly.

Do you need a guide to help you understand how to cope with Stress in an all inclusive approach? Learn how to combat stress, mentally, physically, emotionally and strategically in your life.

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Are You Addicted to Stress?

January 2, 2022 by Martin Neumann

When you think of things you might be addicted to, stress is never on your list, is it? Some people might put alcohol or nicotine, caffeine or even social media – but stress isn’t even considered.

The idea of stress addiction might seem rather strange, thinking that most of us hate feeling stressed. However, many people don’t realize it, but stress can become an addiction over time. It’s all due to the subtle scientific reactions within your body, when the stress hormone cortisol floods your system and allows you to deal with harrowing situations.

Your adrenaline increases and you find yourself powering through tasks and completing projects with ease. When you’re not under pressure, you find yourself dragging on, procrastinating and struggling to the finish line.

Some people laugh this off by saying they “work better under pressure,” and this is why. It’s an addiction to the stress from a chemical standpoint. It’s not just a mental preference.

The problem is, when you start suffering from chronic stress, it not only puts your health at risk, but it also affects your personal and professional relationships. Over time, your quality of life diminishes and you reach a point where you’re unable to accomplish anything without stress – a very sad way to live your life.

What Does It Mean to Be Addicted to Stress?

Stress is something that can give you a reaction in the brain that’s a similar feeling to what you get from taking drugs or drinking alcohol. This kind of high is a result of the brain releasing chemicals that make you feel good.

Some people may not realize their stress addiction until they start analyzing their habits. If you tend to procrastinate until something happens that puts pressure on you where you get a dose of stress and use it to fuel your productivity, that’s a stress addiction.

You feel good because have a lot of energy and your feelings are high. All of this occurred because of whatever stress that happened. You can also tell if you’re addicted to stress by what your life looks like.

There’s rarely any peace within it. In fact, your life is like an advertisement for stress. You’re rarely calm and you’re always frazzled. You don’t find it boring because there’s always something going on.

There are rarely any down moments because you’re too busy racing from place to place. It feels like you practically live in your car because you’re never getting any down time.

Driving a car - Photo by Ketut Subiyanto from Pexels

Relaxation isn’t something that’s in your vocabulary. You might think about it every now and then, but you don’t ever get to do it. Or, it could be that you’ve got a full load of pressure.

There’s drama and stress and it always seems like there’s a personal or professional fire to put out. You might be stretched too thin, feeling like you’re burning the candle at both ends, but it doesn’t really bother you.

Life isn’t bad, you tell yourself. It’s just hectic and when you handle all the stressors that come your way, you end up feeling empowered, like you’ve accomplished a lot. An addiction to stress also manifests itself by what you reveal about your life to other people.

One way that people do this is by putting stuff on social media. For you, social media isn’t really a place you go to in order to see how your friends or family are doing. It’s usually all about you – how other people made you mad, hurt your feelings or took advantage of you in some way.

You’re always posting that kind of stuff on social media and the topic centers around your stress – how hectic everything has been for you or what’s going on in your day and how that turned into stress.

You might talk about why you feel so stressed out – because you didn’t sleep, haven’t eaten, aren’t making enough money at your job, had a fight with your friend and how you’ve always been the one compromising and not her or him.

Posting on social media - Photo by Edmond Dantès from Pexels

Or you might mention how angry or anxious you are because of what you went through in the past or because of emotional issues now. On your social media, you get online and bemoan often in detail what’s going on in your intimate relationship or with your family or coworkers.

You talk about what awful thing was said to you or what bad thing you had to deal with, like you had to do more than your fair share of work. You talk about the pressure that put on you and how you worked late and rushed home and didn’t even get to eat.

Stuff like that happens to everyone because life itself can be hectic. But the thing about a stress addiction is that you post things like this all the time and it’s a huge deal to you. You talk about putting gas in your car and it becomes an effort comparable to running a marathon.

Or you mention going to the grocery store and what the store was out of and how someone cut you off in line or failed to return their shopping cart. You might talk about the effort it takes to pay the bills or get the dog to the groomer.

Nothing that you talk about is ever a simple task or enjoyable. There’s always drama and stress associated with it. Whatever you do can’t just be a normal thing. It always has to be bigger and more stressful than the situation calls for and much worse than what anyone else is dealing with.

What you don’t realize is that others on social media who also deal with stress will start to view you as a drama magnet. They’ll think that nothing in your life can ever be simple – that it always has to be bigger than it really is.

People who are addicted to drama are usually posting negative things or complaining non-stop about their life. When you talk to people at work or your friends or family, your life is all about the stress and you don’t really feel bad about all that because to you, your stress isn’t a bad thing.

It’s something that’s part of your life and you’ve become used to enjoying the high that it gives you to be a fighter. Be aware that when you begin garnering that kind of reputation, people will avoid you. This adds to your stress, but you’ll just use it to fuel your fire even more.

Consequences for Failing to Break Your Stress Addiction

You know how life goes. There’s always something that interrupts your plans and it happens on the day when you can least afford to encounter a stressor. You might be on your way to work because you have to go over a project with your boss before the client gets there for a scheduled appointment.

But the next thing you know, you’re trapped in a traffic jam. There’s no way around it and you can’t turn back. You’re just stuck. When this happens, your body reacts and floods your system with stress hormones.

The reaction from your body is based on the fight or flight response and it’s meant to be a help to you. However, when the situation isn’t life or death, this response isn’t needed.

When this is an occasional circumstance where you get a flood or stress hormones, it’s not a big deal.

But you start to have it even when you’re dealing with a mundane stressor because you don’t know the right coping techniques to turn to. When your body is constantly getting this flood of hormones, it affects you by giving you that brain chemical high.

It’s easy to get addicted to wanting to get that boost of chemicals. You feel good to some degree when you first get it, but over time, this constant cycle of having a stress response within the body wreaks havoc on your physical health.

Over time, the overuse of your stress hormone starts to take a toll on your immune system. This happens because your body has something known as natural killer cells. These are designed to battle against serious conditions such as cancer, but these cells are also designed to fight things like bacterial or viral illnesses.

They work to protect your immunity. Stress weakens the ability of these cells to work the way that they’re supposed to, leaving you with little protection so you’re constantly catching whatever is going around.

It’s not just illnesses that you’ll face more often when you fail to break your stress addiction. You’ll be at a higher risk for developing conditions that are related to stress such as diabetes.

When you get stressed, it raises your glucose level – even if you don’t have the disease.

Stress can make you more likely to have a heart attack because when you’re stressed, your blood pressure goes up.

The flood of stress hormones that you get are supposed to temporarily narrow your blood vessels. But when you’re addicted to stress, these blood vessels can be constantly narrowed, which restricts blood flow and oxygen to the heart.

When you’re stressed, it can also affect your digestive health. You can develop nausea, stomach cramps and suffer from diarrhea or constipation. You can also suffer from heartburn.

People who are addicted to stress can develop reproductive problems. Women might skip a monthly cycle or they might notice that their periods last longer, while men can experience lower levels of testosterone, which is linked with impotence.

But it’s not just your physical health that will show the signs of stress. You can also struggle with mental health. For many people, prolonged exposure to stress, such as with a stress addiction, can cause depression.

This happens because the stress hormones linger, and you don’t get that break from them that you’re normally supposed to get. It’s common for stress to have an impact on your emotions and when you constantly get that flood of stress hormones, it brings out negative feelings such as grief, which can lead to depression.

Anxiety is another consequence of not dealing with a stress addiction. You don’t have to have an anxiety disorder to develop anxiety. This is something that happens as a result of whatever stress you have in your life.

When you have anxiety, it can show up as both physical and emotional symptoms. When it has to do with your mental health, the anxiety that you experience usually reveals itself through a feeling of dread.

You might feel nervous at random times or consistently. Sometimes anxiety can show up as feeling like something is just off. You feel wary. This mental reaction can happen whenever you’re about to face a situation or when you think about that situation.

It can also happen because you fear the results of a situation. When stress is what’s behind your anxiety, then what you’re experiencing lingers and doesn’t just go away. Not dealing with stress can also lead to panic attacks.

A panic attack is what happens when you get a feeling of overwhelming fear or you experience a deep anxiety. Panic attacks can happen with or without physical side effects.

Many people who have stress and develop panic attacks have these because of something in the past that they haven’t dealt with, stress addiction, or something that they’re afraid of that might occur that hasn’t happened yet.

A panic attack is a sense of impending doom, even if nothing bad is going on at the moment or they’re not in any danger. These attacks are a clear sign for the person who has them that something needs to be treated so that it can end.

When a panic attack disrupts your daily routine and you have difficulty being able to carry on, this a severe episode and may need professional treatment. As a result of your mental health suffering because of stress, you can start feeling dissatisfied with life.

You just feel like something is missing. This can happen when you’re not happy with the person you are. You might experience self-doubt along with this dissatisfaction. You might also have low self-esteem and you don’t like what you see when you look in the mirror.

You don’t like your job, your relationships, or where you stand in life. It’s at this point that many people start turning to coping addictions to try to fill the void and feel better about themselves and their lives.

Just an addiction is not going to help you to get anywhere in life. It is not going to resolve your problems, but just adding to them. You may feel good being addicted to stress, but it does not get you anywhere. If you find that you are having a stress addiction, you need to learn techniques to deal with your stress in a more constructive way. Download the free 10 Minute Guide to Stress Management to start your journey in learning how to dominate your stress.

Do you need a guide to help you understand how to cope with Stress in an all inclusive approach? Learn how to combat stress, mentally, physically, emotionally and strategically in your life.

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Foods to Reduce Anxiety

November 28, 2021 by Ricardo Vargas

When talking about anxiety, we are not talking about a rare disorder, but something that affects 85% of the world population, according to recent studies by Psychiatrist Augusto Cury.

Anxiety is a biological characteristic of human beings, which precedes moments of real or imagined danger. In this context, many unpleasant symptoms appear, such as:

Fatigue
Insomnia
Fainting sensation
Chest pain and palpitations
Dry mouth
Muscle tension and pain
Sensation of having a “knot” in the throat
Mental confusion
Feeling of helplessness

These symptoms are not rare, a large part of the population has suffered from anxiety. And most people have difficulties following simple advice on this matter. However, a large part of this difficulty is linked to the lifestyle we lead, especially when it comes to food.

Cortisol is your stress hormone; the same that triggers anxiety. This hormone needs to be in balance with serotonin, which is responsible for happiness. The ingested food plays a fundamental role in the amount of these hormones circulating in the bloodstream.

Our nutritional patterns has undergone many changes over the last few decades. Many are claiming lack of time as the main reason. Commuting time has increased, which forces many to leave their homes without having the first and most important meal of the day: breakfast. Many meals have been taken outside the home, forcing people to eat what they find and not what they often want.

Commitments beyond work have also increased, and often due to the difficulty of planning and managing time, the last meal is eaten late at night. The body is forced to work to complete digestion when it should be involved in regeneration processes. It is during the first sleep period that your body works to reduce cortisol. A late night meal rich in protein and fatty foods interferes with cortisol control. And, the only certainty we have is that the next day our anxiety level will be higher.

Our evening meal should be as close to sunset as possible, remembering that during summer the sunset is later and the last meal should be taken at least two hours before bedtime. At the last meal, we should prioritize the consumption of foods rich in carbohydrates, for example, fruits, oats or granola, toast and soups made from tubers or roots. Also be careful with the quantity.

Serotonin, the hormone that controls cortisol and consequently controls anxiety, is produced in the morning until 9 am. It is essential to eat foods that are rich in tryptophan at breakfast, as this is the raw material used by the body to produce this happiness hormone.

Include some of the following foods in your breakfast:

Oats or granola
Chickpeas, can be in the form of hummus
Soybeans in the form of milk or tofu (can be grilled or as a spread)
Peanuts (in natura, as milk or peanut butter)
Hazelnut
Cashew nut
Brazil nuts
Almonds (to be eaten fresh, as milk or as ricotta)
Brown rice (can be in the form of sweet rice)
Banana
Honey

Of those foods above, include two to three sources. Never eat more than one source of nuts at a meal so that there is no excess fat.

The inclusion of these foods will give the body the opportunity to produce serotonin, but it is essential to exclude foods that increase cortisol from the menu, or all the effort will be in vain.

Stop consuming the following foods, that include stimulants:

Coffee (even the decaf)
Green, black, red, yellow and white teas as well as mate tea (these are obtained from two plants called: Ilex paraguariensis and Camellia sinensis.)
Alcoholic beverages
Guarana
Cola soft drinks
Chocolate

These stimulants impair serotonin production and increase anxiety. Some may say that when they make use of these they feel better. Beware, this is a warning sign, as you may already be suffering from an addiction.

Some important considerations about serotonin production:

The intestine is the production site of serotonin, so it is important that it is working properly. Consume whole foods, fruits and vegetables. Increase your water intake. Remove refined foods from your table.

Sunbathing in the morning increases the stimulus for serotonin production, 20 minutes would be enough to bring this benefit.

The practice of physical exercise improves bowel function and even promotes greater production of serotonin when performed in the morning. Put on some sneakers and go out for a walk early in the morning. You will find that your day will be different.

A good night’s sleep helps control cortisol levels and prevents it from damaging the production of serotonin. Your efficiency will be better if you can sleep before 9:30 pm.

These recommendations are not intended to replace the use of medications or a consultation with a specialist, but they will help you to better deal with anxiety and the doctor will be responsible for reducing your medication or even taking you off, if he sees fit.

Food can have a powerful influence on our minds. Getting at least 15 minutes of exercise in the sun during the morning hours, going to bed early and adapting to the correct diet can help a lot in controlling anxiety. Help your brain and make the needed lifestyle changes today!

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Mastering the Art of Letting Go

November 7, 2021 by Martin Neumann

Sometimes letting go is hard – like breaking an old, addictive habit. There are so many obstacles to overcome and negativity to rethink. Being stuck in your past may be blocking your health, happiness, love, success and more.

Mastering the art of letting go takes courage and determination. Then, and only then, can healing occur and you get a new outlook on life. When you choose to hang on to negativity, it’s like you’re choosing to take poison every day. It’s time to take action and take the steps necessary to bring positivity back into your life.

Refusing to Let Go Is Like Poisoning Yourself Slowly

When you’re burdened by negativity in your life, it’s like a chain around your neck weighing you down and keeping you from success and happiness. Refusing to let go of the negativity can bring stress of such magnitude that it is like slowly poisoning yourself.

There are many things you can get hung up in your life. You could be disappointed in yourself or someone who has hurt you. You likely think about it every day – possibly every minute – and you’re constantly giving momentum to that negativity.

It may seem impossible to let go of those feelings, but like everything else, there are ways to let go and focus on building your energy rather than letting it slowly seep away. Fear of letting go zaps your energy and keeps you from having the inner peace you need to move forward.

Letting go is like every other bad habit that you want to rectify. In the beginning, it seems impossible, but the more you practice, the easier it will get to let go of things like toxic relationships, negative thoughts and grudges.

It may be easier if you identify one thing to let go of in the beginning. Working on one issue at a time and focusing on letting go makes it easier to go on to the next issue when you’re ready.

For example, you may be trying hard to forgive someone and still hold a grudge that’s stressing you out. Forgiveness of a wrong done to you can be one of the most difficult emotions to work through.

First, realize that forgiveness doesn’t mean you’re dismissing what was done to you. What it does mean is that you’re proposing resolution for the negative thoughts and emotions you’re having about the person.

Five Things You Should Let Go of for Stress Relief

Keeping things that bother you in the forefront of your mind can cause stress that never seems to go away. There are certain stressors that are more damaging than others and can make you feel so bad about yourself and other people in your life that you become paralyzed and unable to feel happiness.

An angry woman - Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

There are five top stressors that people have the most trouble letting go of:

Anger – Feelings of resentment, revenge and bitterness may accompany anger in your life. Unless you can work your way through the anger – whether you’re angry at a person or a situation, it can affect all areas of your life.
You can either hold on to that anger and face the many health and emotional consequences, or learn how to forgive and move on with your life.
Grief – Loss of a loved one, either in death, divorce, estrangement or other way, can cause grief that is difficult to let go of. Grief is a normal response to a loss and there are five stages that you need to deal with.
First is denial. Then, anger, bargaining, depression and, last – acceptance. You may go through only one or two of these stages, but the important thing is ending your grief by acceptance and letting it go.
Resentment – Resentment is similar to anger in that it can permeate every area of your life and keep you from enjoying people and experiences. Holding on to resentment zaps your happiness.
One popular quote about resentment likens it to taking poison and expecting the other person to die from it. With both anger and resentment, the cure involves acceptance, forgiveness and letting go.
Control – Those who have a need to control others are especially vulnerable to bringing unnecessary problems into their lives. When you let go of the need to control, you’re actually gaining.
You’re gaining the ability to accept people as they really are rather than being disappointed over and over again, because they’re not conforming to your wishes or expectations.
Past – Issues that happened in the past can haunt you until you die unless you learn how to let go of all the negativity.
It might be that you’re clinging to the past because it was a happy time for you. Because of situations you can’t control, those happy times are gone. But feeling sentimental about those old days is not going to bring them back.
At the other hand it could be that you cling to unhappiness from the past. Developing a more positive attitude and/or forgiveness may help you move on.

The urge to hang on to anger, grief, resentment, control and the past can be overpowering, but learning how to let go of these debilitating feelings can open doors to happiness you never thought possible.

Allow Yourself to Go Through Emotions

It’s difficult to let go of situations and people unless you go through an emotional process first – such as crying as much as you need to or expressing your thoughts or feelings in a way that gets it across to the other person.

A crying lady - Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

Studies have shown that bottling up such emotions as anger can increase your cancer risk, and in many other ways chip away years from your life. When you release those emotions, blood flow increases to the frontal area of the brain and helps you let more positive emotions in.

Negative and suppressed emotions play an enormous part in the future of your mental and physical health and well-being. Such emotions often lead to unhealthful coping mechanisms to try and relieve some of the pressure caused by bottling up the emotions inside of you.

Turning to drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and junk food may all play a part in trying to deal with the bottled-up emotions, but it’s clear that coping with these feelings is much better for you than holding on to them.

You may be able to put up a facade for some time – both for others and yourself – and convince yourself that you don’t have a thing in the world that’s depressing you and stressing you out. Eventually, those bottled-up feelings will explode, just like a bottle of soda that’s been shaken and all of a sudden you take off the cap.

Rather than blowing up all at once and causing all types of consequences, it’s best to vent your emotions a bit at a time – much like slowly turning the cap of the soda bottle and letting some of the fizz happen a little at a time.

You may hide your true feelings in a relationship for being afraid to get hurt, or save up the anger inside of you and then explode all of a sudden. Or, you might vent your anger on someone else.

Rather than putting yourself at risk by bottling up your emotions, try healthy ways to vent such as exercise, talking to a therapist, controlling your thoughts, journaling or another of the many ways to deal with your emotions in a constructive way.

Learn That Forgiveness Doesn’t Mean They Got Away with Anything

Learning how to forgive can release you from some negativity in your life that are weighing you down and keeping you from the happiness you desire. Forgiving has different connotations for different people.

Resentment, anger and thoughts of revenge are generally involved in situations where you want to forgive someone. That makes it more difficult to navigate through your emotional turmoil.

If a person has hurt you seemingly beyond repair, that person has control over your feelings and emotions until you can forgive and let go. The hurt may take time to heal, but when you forgive, you’ll lessen the grip of control and set yourself free.

There are many ways to forgive. Looking for the positive in a person who once hurt you is one way, and journaling helps to find those good points. You may also try empathizing with the person.

Perhaps he or she has been going through trials in his or her life that caused the negativity toward you. Or, remember similar mistakes that you have made that hurt someone that you really didn’t mean to harm.

Forgiveness does not mean that you need to return into an unsustainable relationship. It does not mean everything is the same like before. It means that you can relief yourself from the anger and bad feelings against this person that has hurt you. But protecting yourself can mean you cut some ties with that person. Protecting yourself is part of the process of letting go.

The benefits of forgiving others are many. Your mental health and acuity will improve because you’re not always thinking about negatives. That can cause a positive change in relationships and any hostility and anxiety you may feel toward people.

A woman forgiving a man - Photo by RODNAE Productions from Pexels

As for your health – letting go of anger and using the power of forgiveness can affect your blood pressure, immune system and heart. Depression is less likely to get you down and your self-esteem can be heightened.

When you forgive, a wonderful thing happens when your brain pathways aren’t trapped into letting in negative thoughts and emotions. You can choose what you want to think about and you’re not always obsessed with getting even or hating the person who hurt you.

Think about it. You owe it to yourself that the person who hurt you isn’t controlling you any longer – and that’s what the power of forgiveness can bring into your life.

Not forgiving can take away your joy in life and prevent you from moving on from paralyzed and hurt feelings to a happier and much more inspired life. Today, scientists and medical experts concur that holding on to a serious resentment can be toxic to your health – both mental and physical.

Rather than looking at forgiveness as a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength – that you’re in control of your own life. Maybe you say that you are not able to forgive the other person. If you are a Christian, ask God to give you strength to do that difficult step. You surely are not going to regret.

Channel Your Distress into Something Positive

Turning your hurt feelings and distress into a positive outcome is a challenge. But when you take action, everything changes. Remember the times when you had a work task that you kept procrastinating about.

If and when you took action to complete the task you gathered momentum and were successful. If you didn’t take action, you may have suffered consequences – maybe severe, such as losing your job or needing to pick up a broken relationship.

When you’re focusing on the past and all the ways you have been hurt from others, you’re not able to see all the positive things that are going on in your life. It’s a spiraling downturn of negativity that you may never get back if you don’t take steps to break this vicious cycle. Grudges, resentment and other types of pain limit what you can do and who you can be.

You may also be tolerating problems in your life that you think you can’t control. You have accepted it as a norm, but it drains your energy because you are unsatisfied with your status quo. More often though, you are able to make some kind of positive change. It may take some courage, but looking back after the fact, you will be thanking yourself for having done the right decision.

A woman happy for having done the right decision

Pursue greatness in your life rather than bend to controlling or distressful situations or people. When you’re caught in a web of feelings of revenge, toleration, grief and resentment, you may not realize the toll it’s taking. You better get over this and try to become the very best that you can be.

At the end of the day, you have a choice to make. You can decide to continue in something that is toxic to your health, your mind and your future. Or you can decide to let things go. Simply open your hands and drop this anger, hurt feelings, emotions of discontent and feelings of worthlessness of the past. Once your hands are empty, grab for something better, something that will bring you peace and happiness in your life.

Jesus says:

I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
John 10,10 NKJV

God has some plans for your life. He wants to give you a new purpose, a new destination. He wants you to live your life to the fullest potential that you can possibly be. Are you ready to let things go?

Do you need a guide to help you understand how to cope with Stress in an all inclusive approach? Learn how to combat stress, mentally, physically, emotionally and strategically in your life.

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