How to provide flexibility in your workplace
Last week as I was waiting outside my son’s classroom a friend asked me what she should write on her resume. Did employers view time away to have a family …
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In today’s society we often value stress and even look up to people who are constantly stressed. But while this stress response used to be something that saved our lives – helping us ‘fight and take flight’ from predators – today, we use this life-saving physical reaction to cope with deadlines, 30 year mortgages, presentations, difficult co-workers and even peak hour traffic – we can’t seem to turn it off. This keeps us wallowing in a corrosive bath of hormones. After a while, the stress response is more damaging than the actual stressor itself.
Studies* have found that stress can affect you in the following ways:
Stress makes you stupid. Stress has been shown to shrink your brain and damage brain cells. Most interestingly, it is happening in the hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory and learning.
Stress affects your ability to feel happy. The stress hormone causes dopamine receptors in the brain to be less active.
Stress adds fat to our bellies. There is a link between stress and how you put on weight. The distribution of that weight, around the middle of the torso, is an indicator of the stress one experiences.
Stress shuts down the immune system. It wipes out the ability of your body to repair itself. All systems except the necessary functions for survival shut down during times of stress.
Stress damages blood vessels. The increased flow of hormones increases plaque in the arteries, which in turn increases blood pressure and restricted blood flow.
Stress accelerates the ageing process. Stress hormones can accelerate the shortening telomeres, the things that keep our genes from fraying. In other words, someone who experiences a great deal of chronic stress in one year, ages six.
Psychologist, Dr Martin V Cohen, found the following helps reduce our stress:
Sleep at least seven hours. Deep sleep and dream states (even the disturbing ones) re-charge our systems and promote a sense of well-being and help us recover from stress.
Set a pattern of exercise so that when stress hits, you do it without thinking. Aerobic movements burn off harmful stress hormones, release muscle tension and allow endorphins (the brain’s natural pleasure chemicals) to flow into the body.
Choose good foods. Complex carbohydrates such as potatoes, pasta and whole grain breads have a calming effect on our bodies. Cut down on caffeine and its jagged mood producing effects. Substitute herbal teas; some of which are natural energizers like ginseng.
Slow your breathing. Stop what you’re doing and breathe slowly, consciously and deeply.
Find a way to express yourself. Keep a journal, paint a picture, or learn to play an instrument. Find projects that you are drawn to or something that you are passionate about doing even when the going gets rough – because that’s when we need expressive outlets the most.
Share your stress. There are few substitutes for talking about what you are experiencing. Talk to a friend, a family member, a support group, anyone who can share in your situation.
Find the ‘not so serious’ side of your situation. Laughing (not necessarily out loud) at our predicament can indeed be the best medicine and aid in creating a life-enhancing mood.