Inter-Office Odyssey

Anxious or stressed out? Try deep breathing for instant relief

Anxiety and stress are the body and mind’s natural responses to anything that jeopardizes your sense of balance. Your nervous system releases cortisol, adrenaline and other stress hormones that make your heart beat faster, tense up muscles, rise blood pressure, and sharpen the senses to respond to physical or symbolic threats. Your breath becomes faster and shallower.

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Don't Take It With You

Work, that is. People who take work home - mentally or physically - tend to have less energy throughout the day, report University of Dayton researchers. Workers who don't leave the job at the office also have higher levels of family conflict.

Holiday Stress: 7 Tips to Help You Deal

Do you become tense and overwhelmed when the holidays roll around? If you do, you're not alone. Indeed, the holidays can be a hectic and stressful time. The good news is that there are things you can do to prevent those holiday blues. Here are seven strategies to adopt:

1. Recognize and acknowledge your feelings. If you watch any of the holiday commercials and/or specials on TV, you may feel like you should be constantly jumping for joy-like these actors seem to do. However, you don't have to be happy just because it's the holiday season. It's OK to be sad, mad, or frustrated every now and then. Express your true feelings!
2. Adjust your holiday celebrations. We all know that the holiday season is different for healthcare employees. We can't just shut down the office like the rest of the world. If you're working on a holiday, adjust your family's schedule so you can all celebrate together. Perhaps you can celebrate before the holidays. If you have younger children, you can give them their presents the weekend before. They may get a kick out of getting their presents before everyone else!
3. Don't go it alone. Take advantage of social support. If you're feeling isolated or down, seek out family members, friends, religious or social services that can provide you with support and companionship.
4. Be realistic. As families change and grow, traditions may need to change as well. Hold on to the family rituals that you still can - a special food or holiday activity - but understand that some may no longer be possible.
5. Stick to a budget. Remember, you can't buy happiness with extravagant gifts. Before you go shopping, decide how much money you can afford to spend on gifts and other items, and then stick to your budget. If you don't, you could feel anxious and tense for months as you struggle to pay bills.
6. Just say no. Believe it or not, people will understand if you're unavailable for certain projects or activities. If you say yes only to what you really want to do, you'll avoid feeling resentful and overwhelmed.
7. Take a breather. Make sure to schedule some time for yourself. Take a walk. Listen to soothing music. Find something that clears your mind, slows your breathing, and restores your calm. Spending just 15 minutes alone, without distractions, may refresh you enough to handle everything you need to do.

Remember, a key to minimizing the holiday blues is awareness that the holidays are stressful and can make you sad. Too often, we believe that the holidays are supposed to be a happy time, all the time. The reality is that it can be both happy and stressful. So, acknowledge this and take it in stride.

[ via Clint Maun ]

Come On, This Isn't Brain Sugery!

Dr. Ben Carson, one of the world's most celebrated neurosurgeons, performs as many as 500 operations a year - most with life-or-death consequences. Here he tells Fast Comany his techniques for coping with pressure, planning for problems, and dealing with risk.

How to Avoid Taking a Vacation

According to a survey conducted last fall by the Families and Work Institute, 42% of Americans do some form of work while on vacation, while only 14% of Americans take a vacation of two weeks or more. It takes the average person three days to begin to relax. That means people taking off just a week relax for only about four days -- provided they don't tense up in anticipation days before they actually return.

Vacation Situation

The Spring 2005 edition of Fidelity Investments Stages newsletter highlights an interesting survey conducted by OfficeTeam, a temp staff service. The poll, which explored mistakes people make when taking a vacation from work, brought up some common challenges.

Stress Management

A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a
glass of water and asked, "How heavy is this glass of water?

Answers called out ranged from 20 g to 500 g. The lecturer replied,
"The absolute weight doesn't matter.  It depends on how long you try to
hold it.  "If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.   If I hold it
for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.  If I hold it for a day,
you'll have to call an ambulance.

"In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier
it becomes.  He continued, "And that's the way it is with stress
management."

If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden
becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. "

"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest
before holding it again.  When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the
burden."  So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down.

Don't carry it home.

You can pick it up tomorrow.

Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you
can.  Relax; pick them up later after you've rested.

Life is short. Enjoy it!

And then he shared some ways of dealing with the burdens of life:

* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.

* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.

* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle
of it.

* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.

* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably
worth it.

* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning
to others.

* Never buy a car you can't push.

* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you
won't have a leg to stand on.

* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.

* The second mouse gets the cheese.

* When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to
one person.

* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

* We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and
some are dull.  Some have weird names, and all are different colors, but
they all have to live in the same box.

* A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.