Stress Reduction in the Work Place
by Victoria Anderson
Stress has gotten a bad reputation.
Essential stress is necessary. It could be likened to an equal yet changing pull of two polar opposites, the energy that keeps ‘things’ together and maintains the balance. Everything we do creates stress of varying degrees, there is good stress and bad stress, and we judge which is which for us. We also choose the areas we can store or take on more stress. For some of us it will be mentally, others will be held in emotions, most will store excess in the body too. The pertinent question in a world of constantly changing stress is ‘can I recognize when normal stress is becoming too much for me to handle well?’ Even if you can manage to keep your feet moving at the racing speed of society, it does not equate to being healthy or happy. When you carry a burden around too long it begins to break down all of the systems and long term stress is debilitating.
We could look at stress as a red flag, the part of ourself that yells “hey, something is going wrong over here!” Of all the discomfort or dis-eases the body can experience, stress is the one ailment that something can usually be done for quickly to change the experience. The key is awareness of your real condition. When the red flags go up, pay attention to what may have triggered it. Let the body tell you the truth. How does the stress behave? Where is it headed to for storage? What is your response to it? Notice if you ignore or deny the symptoms of your systems. Become more aware of the habits of your mind, and emotions as well as your body. This sets up an honest relationship between the stressor, your body/mind and your ability to respond to the inner messages that guide you through. One example; as stress accumulates and sends a signal of pain into your neck, if you are aware of its movement you can relax your tightening jaws and drop the shoulders, let those next few breaths in a little easier and then allow your neck to stretch itself a bit. We often observe our hands rubbing our eyes, temples, neck, or head as the stress is building, and those are the moments to notice where else is this affecting me and how will I respond in the next few moments. Mostly how we respond is habitual, and often unaware that we are making choices by the action to care for or ignore our bodies signals.
First commitment is to myself – the better I feel ~ the better I function ~ the more I know myself ~ the better choices I make on my own behalf. Feeling strong, healthy, and happy, we are better equipped to deal with everyday compounding stress. Caring well for ourselves is not a compromise for others like family members or coworkers. Quite the contrary, when we are healthy and strong personally, everyone around us benefits.
No matter how many books one reads on the subject of self help, they all tell us the same thing – the answers are inside you. Leading us to our inner qualities, like trust, love, and faith. They tell us we create our futures by the ways we think presently, so choose well on your own behalf, and it couldn’t hurt to find your happy thought, Peter Pan.
Becoming your own best friend – listening to and trusting your inner wisdom. Who better than you to befriend you? You are always available, right? Everywhere you go, there you are… Nobody else has access to all of you in every way, every second of every day/ year… No one knows precisely how you feel about virtually everything… or the reasons for every decision you’ve ever made… except you. Besides, if you will not listen to yourself, who do you think will? Get honest with yourself – don’t waste another breath of your life pretending you do not know what is in your best interests.
Giving & Receiving need to be in balance, and the balance is always changing, but if you are a great giver who cannot remember the last time someone gave to you – then it’s time to practice receiving.
Most people are good at giving, and not as practiced or comfortable with receiving. Sometimes we give out of goodness or responsibility but often our reasons are not so noble but based on control. Many of us take on an incredible load because we convince ourselves that others will not do the tasks as fast or as efficient as we do or at the very least they won’t do it the way we want it done, but giving without receiving sets up a pattern of behavior within us that has only one direction to offer - burnout. This creates an imbalance that we often do not recognize until the burden is so great our minds and hearts are desperate for an answer. Let your self fully have that next breath that is on its way in to you – receive it fully, drink it deep, now let it go. Receiving starts with the breath, but the practice then shows up everywhere. Example; are you able to receive a compliment, instead of pushing it away or denying it? Can you accept an offer of help, simply saying thank you? Or do you hear yourself respond by saying ‘no thank you, I can do it’. How often you hear yourself say ‘thank you’ to another may be related to how often you are on the receiving end of this balance. The potent part of this exercise is acknowledging you have needs.
Trust your senses, learn which of your senses is the quickest to gather data and send it back to you – some people assess everything mentally, for others the emotions speak first or loudest, some people have an innate knowing that tells them when things are true or not , much more than a gut feeling, but those should not be overlooked either. Gut feelings often tell us how we will feel following the choices being made. Nearly everyone is gifted with some degree of intuition, and the more you trust yourself the stronger your intuitive relationship to everything is. Observe mothers with their children, and you will see intuition developing into an art form. Train yourself to listen to your own intuitive ways of knowing.
Even if we cannot find the way to express it, or do not know how to get what we need, we still know when something is not right with us - that is step 1. Knowing that you know. Whether you know through experience, or feeling, the point is you will know, likely, before anyone else when your body is going out of balance and you will also know first when you are reaching your limit and it would be fruitful to ask for help. Whether the help you need is carrying in the groceries, finishing a project, or therapy does not matter. What will make a difference is whether or not you can: a. honor when your senses tell you that you need help and b. actually allow another person to help you and lessen your burden.
Shame, blame, guilt, embarassment, humiliation, silent taboos and unspoken dynamics have kept many people from getting much deserved and needed emotional or mental or medical help. We have nearly trained our instinctual connections out of us and replaced them with habitual patterning. But it is never too late to begin listening, learn about your self, loosen up a bit, laugh, and let go.
As adults we become our own primary caregiver. Find the courage (coeur - french ‘of the heart’) to care for yourself as you would care for another in your charge. I encourage anyone who knows they need the help of a professional to do so without delay. We know if talking to a friend or family member is enough, or if our situation requires someone who can offer professional guidance
4 clues to your physical health
1. Pressure - (basically healthy tissue)
2. Pain - (out of balance)
3. Irritable Sensations – (desperately seeking attention)
4. Numbness - (it may not work well, but it no longer demands your attention)
by Victoria Anderson
Stress has gotten a bad reputation.
Essential stress is necessary. It could be likened to an equal yet changing pull of two polar opposites, the energy that keeps ‘things’ together and maintains the balance. Everything we do creates stress of varying degrees, there is good stress and bad stress, and we judge which is which for us. We also choose the areas we can store or take on more stress. For some of us it will be mentally, others will be held in emotions, most will store excess in the body too. The pertinent question in a world of constantly changing stress is ‘can I recognize when normal stress is becoming too much for me to handle well?’ Even if you can manage to keep your feet moving at the racing speed of society, it does not equate to being healthy or happy. When you carry a burden around too long it begins to break down all of the systems and long term stress is debilitating.
We could look at stress as a red flag, the part of ourself that yells “hey, something is going wrong over here!” Of all the discomfort or dis-eases the body can experience, stress is the one ailment that something can usually be done for quickly to change the experience. The key is awareness of your real condition. When the red flags go up, pay attention to what may have triggered it. Let the body tell you the truth. How does the stress behave? Where is it headed to for storage? What is your response to it? Notice if you ignore or deny the symptoms of your systems. Become more aware of the habits of your mind, and emotions as well as your body. This sets up an honest relationship between the stressor, your body/mind and your ability to respond to the inner messages that guide you through. One example; as stress accumulates and sends a signal of pain into your neck, if you are aware of its movement you can relax your tightening jaws and drop the shoulders, let those next few breaths in a little easier and then allow your neck to stretch itself a bit. We often observe our hands rubbing our eyes, temples, neck, or head as the stress is building, and those are the moments to notice where else is this affecting me and how will I respond in the next few moments. Mostly how we respond is habitual, and often unaware that we are making choices by the action to care for or ignore our bodies signals.
First commitment is to myself – the better I feel ~ the better I function ~ the more I know myself ~ the better choices I make on my own behalf. Feeling strong, healthy, and happy, we are better equipped to deal with everyday compounding stress. Caring well for ourselves is not a compromise for others like family members or coworkers. Quite the contrary, when we are healthy and strong personally, everyone around us benefits.
No matter how many books one reads on the subject of self help, they all tell us the same thing – the answers are inside you. Leading us to our inner qualities, like trust, love, and faith. They tell us we create our futures by the ways we think presently, so choose well on your own behalf, and it couldn’t hurt to find your happy thought, Peter Pan.
Becoming your own best friend – listening to and trusting your inner wisdom. Who better than you to befriend you? You are always available, right? Everywhere you go, there you are… Nobody else has access to all of you in every way, every second of every day/ year… No one knows precisely how you feel about virtually everything… or the reasons for every decision you’ve ever made… except you. Besides, if you will not listen to yourself, who do you think will? Get honest with yourself – don’t waste another breath of your life pretending you do not know what is in your best interests.
Giving & Receiving need to be in balance, and the balance is always changing, but if you are a great giver who cannot remember the last time someone gave to you – then it’s time to practice receiving.
Most people are good at giving, and not as practiced or comfortable with receiving. Sometimes we give out of goodness or responsibility but often our reasons are not so noble but based on control. Many of us take on an incredible load because we convince ourselves that others will not do the tasks as fast or as efficient as we do or at the very least they won’t do it the way we want it done, but giving without receiving sets up a pattern of behavior within us that has only one direction to offer - burnout. This creates an imbalance that we often do not recognize until the burden is so great our minds and hearts are desperate for an answer. Let your self fully have that next breath that is on its way in to you – receive it fully, drink it deep, now let it go. Receiving starts with the breath, but the practice then shows up everywhere. Example; are you able to receive a compliment, instead of pushing it away or denying it? Can you accept an offer of help, simply saying thank you? Or do you hear yourself respond by saying ‘no thank you, I can do it’. How often you hear yourself say ‘thank you’ to another may be related to how often you are on the receiving end of this balance. The potent part of this exercise is acknowledging you have needs.
Trust your senses, learn which of your senses is the quickest to gather data and send it back to you – some people assess everything mentally, for others the emotions speak first or loudest, some people have an innate knowing that tells them when things are true or not , much more than a gut feeling, but those should not be overlooked either. Gut feelings often tell us how we will feel following the choices being made. Nearly everyone is gifted with some degree of intuition, and the more you trust yourself the stronger your intuitive relationship to everything is. Observe mothers with their children, and you will see intuition developing into an art form. Train yourself to listen to your own intuitive ways of knowing.
Even if we cannot find the way to express it, or do not know how to get what we need, we still know when something is not right with us - that is step 1. Knowing that you know. Whether you know through experience, or feeling, the point is you will know, likely, before anyone else when your body is going out of balance and you will also know first when you are reaching your limit and it would be fruitful to ask for help. Whether the help you need is carrying in the groceries, finishing a project, or therapy does not matter. What will make a difference is whether or not you can: a. honor when your senses tell you that you need help and b. actually allow another person to help you and lessen your burden.
Shame, blame, guilt, embarassment, humiliation, silent taboos and unspoken dynamics have kept many people from getting much deserved and needed emotional or mental or medical help. We have nearly trained our instinctual connections out of us and replaced them with habitual patterning. But it is never too late to begin listening, learn about your self, loosen up a bit, laugh, and let go.
As adults we become our own primary caregiver. Find the courage (coeur - french ‘of the heart’) to care for yourself as you would care for another in your charge. I encourage anyone who knows they need the help of a professional to do so without delay. We know if talking to a friend or family member is enough, or if our situation requires someone who can offer professional guidance
4 clues to your physical health
1. Pressure - (basically healthy tissue)
2. Pain - (out of balance)
3. Irritable Sensations – (desperately seeking attention)
4. Numbness - (it may not work well, but it no longer demands your attention)
Pressure, pain, irritable sensations and numbness is the order
in which the body will respond from a healthy state to illness and
store sensation. When any of your bodys systems is overloaded it
will give clear signals ... pain followed by irritable sensations
like tickle, tingle, itch and burn, and if we are unable to
respond to these promptings even after its greatest attempts then
numb-ness becomes the experience. It is not all that quick, of
course. When we do not respond to a signal of pain or sensations they
will first naturally grow in intensity. The body will always do its best to
get attention through increasing signals of pain or worse before it
chooses to shut down. Similarly, when a body part wakes up out of its
numbness to move toward a healthier state it moves through the order in
reverse Numbness to irritable sensations, pain, and finally pressure.
Everyone has had the experience of sitting on your foot and it goes to sleep – point is you did not feel the foot when it was actually sleeping because it was numb, then you feel it as it wakes up coming through the irritable sensations of tingle or tickle, then to feelings of pain and before you know it back to the pressure you normally feel in a healthy foot.
Everyone has had the experience of sitting on your foot and it goes to sleep – point is you did not feel the foot when it was actually sleeping because it was numb, then you feel it as it wakes up coming through the irritable sensations of tingle or tickle, then to feelings of pain and before you know it back to the pressure you normally feel in a healthy foot.
