Stress & the Office

Multitasking and Stress
Is multitasking in life stressing you out-and ruining your health? That’s a question that Dr. Dan Beskind has been asking himself about his patients. He says that most of his patients rate their stress levels as high and that they say they feel overloaded. He says that multitasking has come to be thought of as normal for people, but he says it’s anything but.

Short-lived, high-energy bursts can help humans survive a terrible situation, such as when a human being experiences the fight-or-flight response. But if the level of stress stays too high for too long the surges of adrenaline and cortisol can be damaging to memory, or can create anxiety and aggressive behavior. It is believed that parts of the brain actually start to shrink when there is chronic stress in our lives. Other results can be poor sleep patterns and insulin resistance. And unfortunately, these things often produce bad eating habits, which then add to the problems of fatigue-which also diminish the desire for exercise.

So what’s a stressed out multitasker to do? Here’s at least part of the answer: Limit your commitments, remember to rest, exercise, eat right, limit your caffeine, don’t smoke and stop at one drink. Beskind also recommends you curb your impulse to multitask.

-adapted from Utne

How to Make Choices Without Getting Overwhelmed
People have to make choices every day. And in America having choices, lots and lots of them, is touted as “the American way.” But many people are feeling overwhelmed by the sheer number of choices they have to make today. And they misinterpret information and formulate ideas about themselves that are not based in reality.

Say for instance, someone decides she wants a particular job, or she doesn’t even know that she wants it all that much, but she applies anyway. She goes through the motions, doesn’t get the job, and decides from the outcome that she is a failure. But the truth is that she has only failed at one attempt at doing something. And if anything, she should at least applaud herself for trying and failing. Trying is great. Not taking action is not.

Personal coach Henry Kimsey-House, co-founder of the Coaches Training Institute in San Rafael, Calif. (www.thecoaches.com.) has developed a type of coaching based on what is used sometimes in the business world and is bringing it to people in many different areas of life.

Kimsey-House says that often when people think they are making choices, they are trying to make them from their circumstances, and that usually makes them feel like victims. For instance, if someone is unemployed, and he gets a job offer, he might think: “I better take this job. I might not be able to find anything else, and I might as well not waste time exploring something else that might be more suitable for me.”

Kimsey-House says people who think in this way need to become aware of their values. To do this he often poses questions to his clients, such as “If you were to find yourself on an alien planet, what would be the first thing you would want to do?” Or he might ask the client to tell him about his peak experiences in life. Kimsey-House listens. He has found that this is a better way to help people be able to make good decisions. He says if he asks people direct questions that they often try to give the answers they think they should give and little is revealed that is helpful.

He says that people who use circumstances to make decisions run the risk of turning “I failed at this task” into “I’m a failure.” Or “I didn’t get this job” into “I’m unemployable.” He says these people suffer from their limited perspectives and he tries to help them develop other perspectives that will be more helpful.

Kimsey-House helps people explore what energizes and motivates them. Then he helps them make a plan for action. “A choice without action is a fantasy,” he says.

-adapted from Utne

How to Stay Happy and Positive at the Office
Would you like to feel happier and more positive in your life? Well, who wouldn’t? Here are a few tips to help you keep a better balance in your daily life:

-adapted from its Your Move: Dealing Yourself the Best Cards in Life and Work, by Cyndi Maxey and Jill Bremer

Stress - What It Is and How to Handle It
Researchers are still learning about stress and the different ways the body and mind deal with the overload that occurs when a person experiences it.

We should remember that not all stress is bad. Some of the stress people experience when they are working on something challenging can actually be exhilarating. But stress due to failure or humiliation is often detrimental.

However, stress, when it is discussed is primarily distinguished as a negative experience, with negative consequences.

Currently, the most accepted definition of stress is "a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize."

Some research has focused on the well-known fight-or-flight response that helps people survive when they are faced with a perceived or real threat. Research shows that when an organism experiences shock, it immediately releases hormones that help it to survive.

What this means is that the hormones that are released in our bodies actually help us fight harder and run faster. The heart rate is increased and more oxygen and blood sugar is delivered to help power muscles. Sweating increases to help cool the muscles, which increases their efficiency. Blood is swept away from the surface of the body into the core so that blood loss will be reduced if we are injured. Also, these hormones help us focus on the threat to the exclusion of everything else. All of these things increase a person's chances for survival.

These same reactions can be triggered when we come across something unexpected or something that frustrates us from our goals.

This can mean that we become irritable, jumpy, anxious and excitable. And in the modern world, this almost never helps us in our dealings with other people. If your heart is pounding and you're shaking, it's hard to think straight and use good judgment.

In most instances, we need to keep our fight-or-flight responses under control. We have to learn how to manage our stress and remain calm. Managing stress can be accomplished by taking action and confronting the problem that is causing our stress, or by changing our interpretation of a situation and the way we feel about it, or admitting that we have no control over certain stressors, accepting them and moving on.

-adapted from Mind Tools Web site