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Stress is the curse of living in modern times. Everyone suffers from stress. And the stress we suffer takes a heavy toll on our bodies, emotions and minds.

Feeling stressed out, worn out by fatigue or just simply having a miserable day, the best thing to do is relax.

Watching television may be a form of relaxation for some, but is not a recommended method by experts. When we watch TV we are bombarded with commercials, ads, sounds and images. So how do we achieve relaxation? If there are thousands of ways we can get stressed, one of them is not meeting deadlines, there are also many ways we can relax.

In recent studies, experts have determined that heart disease is linked to anger and irritability is linked to mental stress. Too much stress brings about ischemia that can lead to or cause a heart attack. Relaxation takes on added importance in light of this matter. Managing your anger and attitude is significant to heart health, and relaxation can help you manage stress.

One way of relaxation is transcendental meditation. Recent studies have also shown that this method might reduce artery blockage, which is a major cause for heart attack and stroke. People practice transcendental meditation by repeating uttering soothing sounds while meditating, this is to achieve total relaxation. The researchers found that practitioners of transcendental meditation significantly reduced the thickness of their arterial wall compared with those who didn’t practice transcendental meditation.

Another study on another method of relaxation, acupuncture, seems to reduce high blood pressure by initiating several body functions for the brain to release chemical compounds known as endorphins. Endorphin helps to relax muscles, ease panic, decrease pain, and reduce anxiety.

Yoga is also another method for relaxation and may also have similar effects like acupuncture. In another study, participants were subjected to several minutes of mental stress. Then they were subjected to various relaxation techniques, such as listening to nature sounds or classical music. Only those who did Yoga significantly reduced the time it took for their blood pressures to go back to normal. Yoga is a form of progressive relaxation.

Breathing is one of the easiest methods to relax. Breathing influences alamost all aspects of us, it affects our mind, our moods and our body. Simply focus on your breathing, after some time you can feel its effects right away.

There are several breathing techniques that can help you reduce stress.

Another easy way to achieve relaxation is exercise. If you feel irritated a simple half-hour of exercise will often settle things down. Although exercise is a great way to lose weight, it does not show you how to manage stress appropriately. Exercise should also be used in conjunction with other exercise method.

One great way of relaxation is getting a massage. To gain full relaxation, you need to totally surrender to the handling and touch of a professional therapist.

There are several types of massages that also give different levels of relaxation.

Another method of relaxation is Biofeedback. The usual biofeedback-training program includes a 10-hour sessions that is often spaced one week apart.

Hypnosis is one controversial relaxation technique. It is a good alternative for people who think that they have no idea what it feels like to be relaxed. It is also a good alternative for people with stress related health problems.

Drugs are extreme alternatives to relaxation. They are sometimes not safe and are not effective like the other relaxation methods. This method is only used by trained medical professionals on their patients.

These relaxation techniques are just some of the ways you can achieve relaxation. Another reason why we need to relax, aside from lowering blood pressure in people and decreasing the chances of a stroke or a heart attack, is because stress produces hormones that suppress the immune system, relaxation gives the immune system time to recover and in doing so function more efficiently.

Relaxation lowers the activities within the brains’ limbic system; this is the emotional center of our brain.

Furthermore, the brain has a periodic need for a more pronounced activity on the right-hemisphere. Relaxation is one way of achieving this.

Relaxation can really be of good use once a relaxation technique is regularly built into your lifestyle. Choose a technique that you believe you can do regularly.

James Yee is the webmaster of
http://www.yeearticles.com.His tips on internet marketing
is available at
http://yeearticles.com/self-improve/Your_Recommended_Daily_Allowance_for_Relaxation.php

Peter Drucker, arguably the most knowledgeable management expert on earth, made the following statement: “The single greatest challenge facing managers in the developed countries of the world is to raise the productivity of knowledge and service workers. This challenge, which will dominate the management agenda for several decades, will ultimately determine the competitive performance of companies.”

In other words, Drucker is saying that knowledge, service and skill may not be enough - the key is how to transform these aptitudes and skills into production. In recent years management students have attributed a strong influence on superior performance to what may loosely be called ‘personal balance’. The premise is those owners, managers and employees with personal balance in their lives are more productive. The implication is that if an individual has their personal life under a certain degree of ‘control’, it allows them to be optimally effective in the workplace. The flip side of the equation is the workplace allows employees to, in the vernacular, ‘have a life’.

Accurately defining personal balance is about as easy as defining attitude or personality. In the Silicon Valley area where I live personal balance means successfully juggling home and work. As with any balancing act there are two sides of the equation. The simplest way to view this is a personal life and work life.

For example, on the personal side, if a manager or employee is a severe alcoholic then the alcohol will eventually effect work performance. Hangovers, the urge for a drink, memory loss, etc., will all contribute to a reduced performance. Given enough drink and enough time, brain function will be impaired. Drinking on the job will be a probable result if treatment is not sought. Most of us have seen the devastating effects of alcohol and intuitively know something is very wrong with the individual. Obviously the personal balance is out of whack and productivity diminished.

Another example… on the work side, some managers and employees can be classified as ‘workaholics’. The implication is they come early, stay late and if given the keys may in fact be found at work anytime. Workaholics feel their self worth is defined by work. (How many of us describe ourselves as the work we do? “I am a lawyer, teacher, business consultant.”) When work is badly skewed in one’s life then the balance goes awry. When we look at workaholics we often find miserable personal lives - hence the individual’s perception they are their work. Their personal life is miserable and they often do not want to go home. If the work allows them to afford a bigger house then it often comes at the expense of a broken home.

Alcoholism and workaholism are extremes but they help us get a sense of what is balance. Unless you are a workaholic or alcoholic it is easy to see and understand these extremes - don’t work too much and don’t drink too much. If only personal balance were that easy.

Unfortunately it is not. We are complex beings with complex sets of attitudes and behaviors. This diversity is the spice of life but it also makes living complex and at times a priorities juggling act. While we can say that too much alcohol and too much work are obvious negatives, we run into gray areas quickly once we get beyond the obvious.

Unfortunately there is no easy way - others may give their input but they cannot ultimately know ‘what makes us tick’. And since we are complex individuals we cannot just copy what others do. It does not work. For instance, some people like to go to work, punch a clock, do a repetitive task, punch a clock and go home. Many employees - perhaps more than we think - feel this way. Others need a sense of satisfaction, challenge and accomplishment. The Yerkes psychological study showed that many people need an ‘edge’, something that stimulates and challenges.

The key is understanding your own dynamics and developing your own personal balance. For instance, some of my personal balance dynamics are: work early, work hard, go for what is challenging, create and innovate, accomplish difficult goals and learn at every possible moment. I like to quit mid to late afternoon, go home, be with my family and forget work as much as possible. Take at least one day a week off and go hiking, watch a movie, eat out, etc. These are my dynamics. When I noticed several months back that my balance was still out of whack I took a vacation.

Is my balance perfect? Of course not. Does it work for me? Usually. I remain highly productive with a satisfying personal life.

Will my formula work for you? Probably not. But like Drucker said if you are responsible for the competitive performance of your company you have to be interested in raising productivity. Once you have figured out your own personal balance you will notice a positive change. If you are managing others, encourage them to do the same.

The productivity and future of your company may well depend on it!

Jack D. Deal is the owner of Deal Business Consulting. He can be contacted at jddeal@jddeal.com Related articles can be found at http://www.jddeal.com and http://www.freeandinquiringmind.typepad.com

With the stress that has become the part and parcel of our life today, it has become imperative for us to know how to be happy. It can be easily achieved by a simple smile. The old adage, Smile and the world smiles with you holds true even today. Or it may touch us through our relationships and love of work. Anything that gives us comfort or pleasure will teach us how to be happy.

We constantly devise methods of how to be happy. Razor-edge competition and fast paced economy leaves us with little time for ourselves. We are caught up in the rat race to win, compete, fight, and run. And in this race we forget how to be happy.

As we gradually begin to grow; wishing how to be happy in our hearts; we keep losing a track of our happiness in day to day living. Mental stress gets an aggressive hold over our lives ruled by bad health, troubled relationships, peer pressure, social responsibilities, work place conflicts, monetary problems and the never ending ambition.

The stress which drives us up the wall has taken its toll our lives both physically as well as mentally. Physically, the widely known symptoms are high blood pressure, insomnia, boredom, lack of hunger and reduced immune strength. It causes an infinite number of mental disorders like schizophrenia, depression, manic depression or severe malaise. Not even the foetus is safe. The cortisol linked to the weight of the baby, may be a potential mechanism for transmitting the mother’s stress to her unborn baby.

There should be ways to decipher how to be happy under stress. The easiest way is to try to absorb only the positive moments of our lives. Search for happiness in the everyday simple events of your life. Know how to be happy with the today’s achievements without self-criticism and lack of appreciation. You can de-stress simply by:-

a)Thinking of the happy memories.
b)Taking time out to build beautiful memories today.
c)Dwell your thoughts in the aroma of your favorite flower.
d)Talk to someone when any thought keeps haunting you.
e)Learn and use meditation or relaxation exercises.
f)Stop. Take a break. Breath in, breath out.
g)Organize your thoughts

If you want to know how to be happy in spite of misery and failure, always look towards finding the solution to the situation at hand instead of dwelling over it. There is a highly effective technique for instant relief from stress. Find the humour in the contents. But, it requires a brave heart to laugh over misfortune or at oneself.

The most important driving factor is your self-determination. It is when we search deep within ourselves we realize that we have the innate strength invested by Mother Nature to fight stress. And if you are still puzzled in the quest of how to be happy, just smile.

John Khu is an experience entrepreneur and internet marketer. He specializes in communication development and personal happiness.
http://www.happyessence.com

Today’s lifestyle is a hectic one. Rushing from place to place and activity to activity is considered normal. But what effect does it have on the mind and body? Spending your day - every day - in a hectic rush can play havoc on you mentally and physically. Stress from overwork and over scheduling has become an epidemic in American society.

When Life Gets To Hectic.
It’s normal to feel overwhelmed from time to time. But, when everyday hassles begin to wear you down - affecting the way you look at yourself and others - it’s time to slow down.

Never taking time out to relax strips your body of the time it needs to rejuvenate and stay healthy. Being constantly on the go isn’t just overwhelming - it’s unhealthy! Everyone reacts to life’s daily stressors differently. What one person can shrug off, another dwells on obsessively. But one thing is clear: too much stress (even stress from doing too many fun things), can play havoc with the nervous and immune systems, and cause a myriad of physical ailments.

Slow Down For More Stress Free Days.
One of the best ways to alleviate the stress in your life is to take time to slow down. Evaluate your schedule and see what’s really keeping you so busy. Are you using activities to deal with feelings of inadequacies? It’s not uncommon to pick up the pace of our lives when we think we’re falling short in one or more areas.

But, little by little all that activity - and stress - will take a toll on you physically, emotionally, and even spiritually. The first sign that overload is stressing you out is chronic tiredness. Short tempers and an overall “I don’t care feeling,” may also be experienced as stress begins to hit a danger point.

Admit that your time and energy is limited, than start cutting activities from your schedule to make room for more relaxation and times of peacefulness. Changing a hectic lifestyle is never easy, but the reward of more stress free days than stress-filled ones is worth the initial struggle.

Allow Yourself Quiet Time Every Day.
Most experts agree, taking just 10 or 15 minutes of quiet alone time ever day can drastically reduce stress levels in most people. Begin each morning with a few “me” moments. You’ll be amazed at the difference it makes in the way you approach the rest of the day.

Stress may seem like it has to be a part of our lives these days - but it doesn’t have to be. Overwork and over scheduling every aspect of our lives hasn’t helped us accomplish more in a day, it’s only managed to make our days more stressful, leading to unhealthy bodies and overwhelmed minds. Take the initiative to slow down and send your stress levels back down.

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Stress can be a major problem that affects every area of your life, including health and relationships. Don’t let stress take over your life. Here are some simple ideas to get you started in reducing your stress levels.

1. Taking time to relax and have fun is essential to reducing stress levels. Get together with family or friends and play games or just goof around. Take your mind off of negative feelings or situations and just have fun. Laughter releases hormones that promote health and helps to reduce hormones caused by stress. Laughing is also a great way to help take your mind off of your problems and focus on thoughts that promote stress reduction.

2. Exercise is a great way to relieve stress while making you look and feel better. A good workout will help get your body and mind functioning together as they should.

3. Your diet plays an important role in the level of stress in your life. Some substances, such as caffeine, nicotine and alcohol, will make it more difficult for your body to adapt to changes in your life. Eating a healthy, well-balanced diet will help keep your body on track and better able to cope with stressful situations. In addition, a healthy diet will make you feel better in every area of your life, which will be evident by a reduction in your stress levels.

4. Massage and sex are both great ways to reduce stress in your life. Sex releases some of the same health promoting hormones that laughter releases. Sex is also a great way to get some exercise, which helps to relieve stress. A massage can be twice as helpful by reducing stress while revving up your sex drive, as well. Physical touch is an important part of mental health as a whole. Massage is a great relaxation technique, in addition to helping enhance your relationship.

5. Find a hobby that interests you. You will reduce stress when you take your mind off of your everyday activities and responsibilities. A hobby can be the perfect getaway. Some hobby choices could be planting a garden, building model cars, journaling, painting or reading.

One of the best stress reduction tips you could get is to just have fun. Take some time away from work and activities that cause you stress. Relax, have fun and spend some time with people that you love, and you will see the stress just start to slip away.

The author would like you to visit Stress - Reduce Stress with Slowlutions by Marian R. Place, LCSW - Durham, NC Psychotherapist and Sitemap.

In today’s world, many people are victims of stress, a condition that tends to control body and mind. There seems to be nothing that can be done about it. Many individuals are stressed out at work; there never seems to be enough time to do all the things that are supposed to be done. As the days go by, these workaholics end up being more depressed than ever, they even fear going to work.

Another place where people are usually stressed out is at home. As a parent it’s sometimes hard to cope with the needs of an entire family. Not only they have to cater for the house but also for the children. The latter, on the other hand, don’t always appreciate what their parents are trying to do for them trying to keep the family together. They also end up depressed since they don’t always get what they want. One of the most classical elements that cause stress is connected to sentimental or emotional issues.

At times it’s hard to identify the real cause of stress in an individual, and the bad thing is that there’s no easy way out. Everyone has a problem or two they would like to solve. There are many factors that cause stress and the first thing to do before anything else is to try and identify where your stress is coming from. Once you have identified the cause of your stress, then you can start working on eliminating it.

When you finally discover what’s stressing you then you can find out how to deal with the problem. There might be a problem at school and you can’t seem to cope with the homework or understanding what the teacher is explaining. The best thing to do is talk to your teacher and your parents and focus on the problem instead of pretending that everything is OK. You may be one of those numerous students that send application forms for college hoping to be accepted but are rejected. There may be a crisis situation at work where you don’t get along with some of your colleagues leading to a stressful situation. What you have to do here is first of all find out the reason for this. So instead of keeping it inside of you, try to focus on the issue and straighten things out.

When you are feeling stressed out and the world seems to be falling down, separating yourself from the problem and focusing on it to find a remedy is not as simple as it seems. You need to take it easy; take time to relax. Focus on the problem and above all be patient. Some don’t have all that patience and end up stressing themselves even more.

Summarizing, when you are in a stressful situation the one thing you must avoid is to close yourself up and run away from the situation that is stressing you. This is not going to make you feel better and the result is that you will be even more stressed and frustrated than before. What you should do instead is focus on the problem and then you will surely feel better.

Kevin Sinclair is the publisher and editor of besuccessfulnews.com, a site that provides information and articles on how to succeed in your own home or small business.

Stress can be an insidious disease that robs you of peace, and even good health. Stress is meant as a response mechanism to help your body recognize danger and muster the courage to try something new. It’s what helps your body focus, face tough situations, and gives you strength, heightened alertness to danger and even stamina when you need it most.

When the human body is provoked by stressors, (anything from a simple argument with a co-worker, to waiting in line at the grocery store, to something as serious as being involved in a car crash, or even mugged), it responds by activating the nervous system. The hypothalamus then tells the adrenal glands to release more adrenaline into the bloodstream.

These hormones are what cause the heart to race, palms to sweat and blood pressure to rise. Pupils in the eyes suddenly dilate to improve vision. Blood vessels throughout the body widen to allow more blood to flow to important organs. The liver even releases glucose to give the body a sudden energy boost. This natural stress response can be very beneficial, helping to prepare a person to act quickly, and more effectively handle the situation at hand.

When Stress Goes Bad.
This stress response is necessary in an emergency, but when normal everyday stressors build over time, with little or no relief, this normal (and healthy) stress response can turn on the human body, causing a multitude of physical ailments. When the nervous system remains “on,” do to continuous stress, the body can begin to wear down, leaving the person feeling overwhelmed, and the immune system overworked. Most people have experienced the physical signs of stress from time to time including: stomach pains; chronic diarrhea; fatigue; headaches; insomnia; shortness of breath; weight loss (or gain); and even shortness of breathe. But, many fail to realize that severe stress overload can also lead to much more serious ailments such as: high blood pressure; angina (chest pains); Type 2 diabetes; increased asthma attacks; and even heart attack and stroke! Too much stress can be very bad for the human body.

Signs of Stress Overload.
Stress is an epidemic these days, with nearly 80 percent of the American population reporting feelings of extreme stress at work every ingle day, not to mention home and family stressors, it’s no wonder doctor’s offices are packed with patients exhibiting anxiety and stress-related symptoms. Stress overload is becoming more and more serious, as modern society continues to cram more into their schedules, achieve more at work, and fail to recognize the symptoms of overload. Physicians recommend heading stress off before it becomes so severe that it takes a physical toll on your body. Watch for these signs of stress overload and learn to deal with them before it’s too late:

-Emotional Upheaval, such as mood swings, anxiety, difficulty falling or staying asleep, sadness, anger, trouble concentrating, excess worry and overwhelming feelings of not being good enough or sadness are all signs that stress is taking its toll on your body!

-Physical Signs such as tiredness, sweaty palms, throbbing headaches, trouble eating (stomach upset), or overeating, as well as muscle tightness can all be a sign of stress overload.

-Behavior Changes, such as overreacting, acting on impulse, using alcohol or drugs, withdrawing from relationships and changing jobs often can also signal trouble.

Once the signs of overload are recognized, it’s important to deal with them right away. Most stress experts agree that once stress overload has manifested itself into physical, emotional and behavioral ways, it may be necessary to seek professional help. In the meantime, here are a few simple things anyone can try to help alleviate some of the stressors in their lives:

Learn to Relax.
Easier said than done, but learning how to relax can help most people alleviate much of the stress in their lives. Learn yoga or deep breathing exercises. Take time to go for a walk, read a book or do something that you really enjoy. Take time alone every day to just sit peacefully.

Stay Healthy.
Eat right. Exercise. Sleep at least 6-8 hours every night. Get help from your doctor when the stress becomes too much to handle alone. A healthy body is better equipped to handle daily stressors.

Avoid Over Scheduling.
Today’s hectic lifestyle, both a home and at work, is a leading cause of stress in modern society. Stop trying to fill every minute of every day with activities and projects. Take time to simply rest. Do nothing for an entire weekend. Help your body and mind rejuvenate itself, by giving it plenty of peaceful moments.

Stress was designed to help our body, not hinder it. Unfortunately, our inability to handle the ongoing stressors of modern life has created an epidemic of overworked and overstressed people who must learn how to better deal with their stress in order to have a happier, and healthier life.

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