While I fully support creating a career that is enjoyable and provides deep fulfillment, even the most rewarding jobs are accompanied by some level of stress. For me, the greater question is: How can you incorporate successful stress management techniques, thereby maximizing business and personal performance and fulfillment?

How To Recognize Your Stressors

In any discussion, clarifying the premise or foundation on which it is built is necessary for clear communication. The foundation for this discussion is that stress is not negative—rather, it’s necessary to optimize success. In a 2015 interview, Daniela Kaufer, an associate professor at UC Berkeley who studies the biology of stress, said, “The prevailing idea in our culture is that stress is bad. People complain about being stressed out. But we are learning that moderate amounts of stress have powerful benefits.”

Building on the foundation that stress, when used appropriately, is beneficial, let’s take a deeper dive into what stressors are for you. Things that are joyful for you can never cause stress; only things that you don’t want to do, but have to do, can.

So start by creating a two-part list. First, write down everything in your business that you like to do. What things are truly fun? What aspects do you enjoy?

For part two, look at the activities that are required in order to generate money, run the business, complete a project, etc. What are the things that have to be done? More importantly, what are the things that have to be done that are not fun? What activities do you dread?

Evaluate both parts of your list. The things that are joyful for you show you what to add more of. The things you do not wish to do but are necessary are your potential stressors.

Four Tips To Control Your Stressors

Recognizing your potential stressors allows you to be in control of them rather than at their mercy. Here are my top four tips to assist you:

1. Delegation

For every required action that is not fun for you, see if you can delegate it. Is it something you must do personally, or can you ask someone for help?

Business leaders often refuse to delegate or ask for help because they do not wish to give up control; alternately, their budget may not allow them to pay someone else. Be willing to pay. The more you delegate, the more you free up your time to do the things that are fun for you. And remember, the things that are fun for you can never stress you.

2. The ‘Get Stuff Done’ Mode

Self-manipulation can be a useful tool. For the things that you have to do personally, learn to manipulate yourself. My favorite tool of self-manipulation regarding the things I do not wish to do is to put myself in what I call “Get Stuff Done” mode. In this mode, I stop looking for ways to avoid the task, I stop being annoyed, I stop asking why and simply go into autopilot, thinking “I am going to get this done as efficiently as possible.”

One way to achieve this is to dedicate two hours a day, two days per week to action your “have-tos.” Turn off your phone. Don’t plan anything else. Don’t allow distractions. Be very deliberate and dedicated that this time is set aside to get things handled. Motivate yourself by saying, “This is only two hours. These necessary actions don’t bother or stress me. I am choosing to do these things quickly, intentionally and without distraction so that I can get back to doing the things I love.”

You can also implement a reward system. Perhaps you decide that when you complete the undesirable tasks, you will take your wife out to a beautiful dinner or buy that pair of skis you’ve been wanting or sip your favorite whiskey. This is self-manipulation at its finest. Use it to your advantage.

3. Don’t Allow Tasks To Accumulate

A steadily growing to-do list is one of the greatest causes of negative stress. Most tasks can be done in just a few minutes. The things that require more time—research, education, issues that require a delicate touch—those are the things you wait for the right moment to deal with. Everything else, do right away.

The Golden Rule of business management is this: The more annoying something appears to be, the quicker you should get it done. The phone call, the text, the email, the conversation, the things you would rather avoid, handle now. Annoyance with people and situations creates stress. It keeps your mind busy and distracts you, so rather than putting off tedious tasks, annoying people or difficult conversations, deal with them now.

4. Communication Is Key

If you have a lot going on and you know you will be unavailable, let people know. If you are away on holiday or dealing with a difficult situation, simply communicating that information to the people you work with is essential. Communication calms people down. It lets them know that you are on the ball.

When you don’t communicate promptly about unavailability or limited capacity, people freak out and they keep pushing. When you acknowledge that you have received their message, that you are unable to respond for a few hours or days but that things are being taken care of, they are happy. They can relax because they know they are being given attention and that you are aware of what is required. They stop pushing, which allows you to relax, too.

Final Thoughts

Implementing these four tools will allow you to organize your life in such a way that you can dedicate 80-90% of your time to the things that are truly joyful for you, and the remaining 10-20% can never overpower the rest. This is how you lead your business and your life beyond stress.

By David Kubes for Forbes

Photo by Tim Gouw

April is recognized as National Stress Awareness Month to bring attention to the negative impact of stress. Managing stress is an essential component of a healthy lifestyle. Knowing how to manage stress can improve mental and physical well-being as well as minimize exacerbation of health-related issues.

As we come to the end of the month the issue if stress does not just vanish. Here are some things to think about and pursue for a diminished stress level.

What does stress mean to you?

We all experience stress – yet we may experience it in very different ways. Because of this, there is no single definition for stress, but the most common explanation is a physical, mental, or emotional strain or tension.

Stress is a reaction to a situation where a person feels anxious or threatened. Learning healthy ways to cope and getting the proper care and support can help reduce stressful feelings and symptoms.

Common reactions to a stressful event can include:

• Disbelief, shock and numbness
• Feeling sad, frustrated and helpless
• Difficulty concentrating and making decisions
• Headaches, back pains and stomach problems
• Smoking or the use of alcohol or drugs

Affecting more than just your mind

Long-term stress can prove to be more than just a mental issue. From headaches to stomach disorders to depression – even very serious issues like stroke and heart disease can come as a result of stress.

When you are placed in a stressful situation, specific stress hormones rush into your bloodstream leading to an increase in heart rate, blood pressure and glucose levels. This is helpful in emergency situations, but having this “rush” for extended periods of time can be dangerous and make you susceptible to the issues mentioned previously.

Learn to overcome issues you cannot change

Sometimes the stress in our lives is not something we have the power to change. Try to:

Recognize when you don’t have control, and let it go.

Avoid getting anxious about situations that you cannot change.

Take control of your reactions and focus your mind on something that makes you feel calm and in control.

Develop a vision for healthy living, wellness, and personal growth, and set realistic goals to help you realize your vision.

Healthy ways for coping with your stress

Here are some basic ideas to help you cope with stress:

Take care of yourself – eat healthy, exercise regularly, get plenty of sleep, give yourself a break if you feel stressed.

Share your problems and how you are feeling and coping with a family member, friend, doctor, pastor or counselor.

Avoid drugs and alcohol. These can create additional problems and increase the stress you are already feeling.

Recognize when you need more help – know when to talk to a psychologist, social worker or counselor if things continue.

Potentially the most valuable takeaway here is knowing how to talk to others about your stress. This goes both ways, as you need to know how to discuss your problems with others as well as talk to anyone that comes to you with their issues.

Thanks to the American Institute of Stress for much of the content provided as well as the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Additional Information/Resources

Mental Health America (MHA) provides some tips on how to reduce your stress by utilizing a Stress Screener. Access the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website and familiarize yourself with strategies for stress management.

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By Mark A. Mahoney, Ph.D. has been a Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist for over 35 years and completed graduate studies in Nutrition & Public Health at Columbia University. He can be reached at marqos69@hotmail.com.

Photo 

The UC Berkeley PhD candidate in clinical science had been on other retreats where participants spent most of their time meditating. So he was surprised when he saw that the daily Plum Village retreat schedule included only 30 minutes of formal seated meditation a day.

Midway through the retreat he decided to extend one of his sessions, sitting beneath a tree for three hours. Later, he ran into a monk named Brother Treasure and told him about his practice. The monk’s response was not what he expected.

The words stuck with Susman. It led him to wonder whether an abbreviated practice that takes no more than a few breaths can make a difference in someone’s life.

Seven years later, he and his colleagues at Berkeley’s Golden Bear Sleep and Mood Research Clinic have evidence that it might. Earlier this year they published a paper online in the journal Behaviour Research and Therapy that describes how a simple 20-second self-compassion “micropractice” lowered stress levels and improved the mental health of undergraduate volunteers who did it every day for a month.

“Two of the biggest barriers people have for developing a meditation habit is having the time to do it and developing the habit of doing it regularly,” Susman said. “Micropactices are like tiny training sessions that are based on the most potent parts of therapeutic practices.”

Below, Susman describes the practice he developed for the study and explains how anyone can use it to try to feel better in less than one minute a day.

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.

How do you describe the 20-second self-compassion micropractice that you studied?

The instructions we gave were to close your eyes and call to mind something about yourself that has been bothering you and making you feel unworthy, unloved or not enough and notice what arises in the body.

Then we asked people to send kindness and warmth to themselves by placing one hand over the heart and another over the belly with the energy of giving themselves a hug and notice what arises in the body now.

Next, we invited them to ask themselves, “How can I be a friend to myself in this moment?”

Finally, we told them to open their eyes when they were ready.

And doing this for 20 seconds a day really made a difference in the lives of study participants?

Yes, but it only worked for people who practiced it regularly. In our study we looked at the subset of people who practiced daily and at the whole sample of people who were given the instruction.

More frequent practice was associated with greater increase in self-compassion and a greater reduction in stress and mental health problems like symptoms of depression or anxiety compared to a control group.

What are some ways that people can send kindness and warmth to themselves?

The key phrase we used in the study was “How can I be a friend to myself in this moment?” What we meant by that is imagine you were seeing a friend or your younger self in a similar situation and you were being really caring to that friend. What would you tell them to do? How would you ask them to be?

You can also imagine yourself receiving unconditional love from someone like a mentor, a parent or a close friend. How would they relate to you in this moment of suffering? Is there a way you can give that same compassion to yourself?

Does it matter where people do this practice?

We didn’t look at that, but that’s a great question.

Why is it helpful for people to touch their stomach and chest while doing the exercise?

There has been so much work on touch and how beneficial it can be for people to receive touch, but it had not been looked at as a standalone intervention for emotional well-being in terms of people offering self-compassionate touch to themselves. I was interested in the synergy between thinking self-compassionate thoughts and doing this embodied form of self-compassionate touch. It offers two potential ways of regulating yourself.

I should also say that we told participants they could choose other forms of touch like stroking yourself on the cheeks or giving yourself a hug. What’s most important is that the method of touch supports you in feeling compassionately toward yourself.

I was surprised that the majority of students who participated in the study said they were too busy to do this 20-second practice everyday. What’s that about?

I was just joking with a friend about this, and she said that when people are stressed they can get wrapped up in feeling like they can’t take 20 seconds to pause. It might be more a mind-set than a reality, but there is more work to be done on how to help people feel like those 20 seconds are going to make a difference in their lives. We wash our hands for 20 seconds. We brush our teeth for two minutes. Why not take 20 seconds to do this?

Do you have any advice on how people can make this practice a habit?

It can be helpful to choose a cue. You can practice after morning coffee in the living room or whenever you’re feeling stressed if you can get yourself to do it then. The more specific you are in describing your cue and developing your plan the more likely you are to develop the practice into a habit.

Does this research suggest there is no reason to do a longer practice?

Most of the participants in our study were novice meditators or people who had never meditated before, so we don’t know how this would look with people who have a really dedicated meditation practice or are very experienced with meditation. Rigorous research is needed for whether shorter practices have advantages over longer practices, and for whom those advantages may be most pronounced.

By Deborah Netburn  For The LA Times

Photo by Nadezhda Moryak

Losing sleep can wreak havoc on your mind and body, experts say. In fact, missing out on just one night’s sleep can trigger physical symptoms, such as upper respiratory issues, aches and gastrointestinal problems, studies have shown.

A lack of sleep also slows reaction times — so be careful while driving — and worsens logical reasoning and the ability to perform tasks such as reading complex sentences and doing simple math.

However, there are actions you can take after lost sleep to make it through the day in the safest way possible, according to experts.

Get some sunshine after the midnight rain

Follow Swift’s lead by flooding your eyes with light as soon as that pesky alarm goes off. Use natural sunlight to see “daylight,” or turn on artificial lights, especially those in the blue spectrum, which tell the body to wake up.

“The strongest reset for the circadian system is bright light,” said Dr. Phyllis Zee, director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.

“Light in the morning changes the oscillation of your circadian clock genes at both a cellular and molecular level,” she told CNN in a prior interview. “You are also training all your rhythms, whether it’s sleep, blood pressure, heart rate or your cortisol rhythm to be earlier.”

Shake it off (literally)

Shake off the grogginess the next morning with a mini dance party to Swift’s catchy tunes, suggests Mina Dasgupta, the 11-year-old daughter of sleep specialist Dr. Raj Dasgupta, a pulmonary and sleep medicine specialist at Huntington Heath in Pasadena, California.

“Research shows that movement can boost circulation and increase alertness, helping you shake off that sleepiness faster,” Daddy Dasgupta said.

“So, blast your new favorite (Taylor) song and move your body to get the blood flowing and dance away those drowsy vibes,” Mina added.

You can also follow the pop star’s lead and “strike a pose,” Dasgupta said. “Yoga, that is.”

“Try to carve out some time to engage in light yoga or stretching exercises to get your blood flowing and invigorate your body,” he said. “Yoga and other low-impact exercises have been shown to reduce stress, perfect for shaking off the sleepiness.”

You may need to calm down

Symptoms of daytime fatigue include a lack of motivation to accomplish everyday tasks, a lack of productivity at work, memory problems and a low interest in being social, experts say.

There is another side effect as well: You may find yourself going ballistic over the slightest slight, perhaps even feeling like a “nightmare dressed like a daydream.”

“Sleep loss is strongly associated with reduced empathy and emotional regulation, often resulting in miscommunication and retaliation during conflict,” Dasgupta said.

Without enough sleep, your brain functions less efficiently, affecting your coping skills, according to stress management expert Dr. Cynthia Ackrill, former editor for Contentment Magazine, produced by The American Institute of Stress.

“We don’t have the bandwidth to recognize our choices, get creative or just see that we can choose not to be irritated or irritating,” she told CNN previously. “Irritability is one of the key signs of stress and poor sleep.”

Don’t do ‘coffee at midnight’

Swift may sing about having coffee at midnight while in love, but it’s not a good idea to overcaffeinate throughout the day as you struggle to shrug off sleepiness.

“It could limit your ability to sleep well that night,” said sleep specialist Kristen Knutson, an associate professor of neurology and preventive medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

brain, Dasgupta suggested.

“Research shows that short naps can improve alertness, mood, and cognitive performance, helping you recover from sleep deprivation quickly and get that much-needed boost of energy to get you through the day,” he said. “Just make sure to keep it short and sweet — don’t oversleep and end up in a deeper stage of your sleep cycle, he added.

Then try to go prioritize sleep that night, Knutson suggested in an email.

“Plan to go to bed on time, if not a little earlier,” she said. “In the hour or so before bed, engage in relaxing activities to prepare yourself for sleep. And of course, listening to Taylor Swift counts as long as you turn it off before bed!”

CNN’s Madeline Holcombe, Kristen Rogers and Ashley Strickland contributed Taylor Swift lyrics to this article.

Original Post CNN Health

By Sandee LaMotte, CNN

Photo by SHVETS production