(have you read parts 1 and 2 before this post?)
Dealing with stress
You have recognised, then, some of these signs in yourself. Naturally, you are concerned for your physical and psychological well-being. You have, therefore, taken the first step towards dealing with the problem by recognising its existence. What further steps can you take? There are a number of steps and I will go through each of them:
1. Managing your time
One of the first things you need to do is look at how you manage your time. There are many books that deal with time management. It’s basically about prioritising your time, looking at what is important, what is urgent and what you need to do first, second, third and last. Time management helps put the day in perspective for you. It also means that you allocate time not only for the work that you need to do but also for the reflection time that you need, for your breaks and other aspects of your day.
2. Being assertive
The second skill that is important in managing your stress is to be assertive. ‘Assertive’ does not mean aggressive. Assertive means treating yourself with respect, as well as everyone else around you. Being ‘aggressive’ means not treating people with respect, but being bossy or overwhelming and not listening. Being assertive means you listen to your colleagues, to your staff and to your boss, but also to yourself.
3. Regular exercise
A third way of managing your stress is to exercise. Exercise does not mean that you have to run a marathon every day. Exercise means that every second day, spend at least 20-30 minutes just making sure that your heart moves more than usual; this should be enough exercise to keep you reasonably fit and keep your pulse rate at a reasonable level. It doesn’t hurt, however, for you to do more than this minimum!
4. Watch your diet
It is also essential that you keep to a good diet, keep to at least three meals a day (breakfast is said to be the most important meal of all) and to ensure that you have all the required nutrition. Aspects of nutrition will not be discussed here, but can be found in many, easily obtainable books. But certainly regular breakfast, lunch and dinner are most important parts of any balanced diet. I particularly recommend the publications of the Australian or American National Heart Foundation (or the equivalent in your country), which give a good overview of sound dietary principles.
5. Taking ‘time out’
Another essential aspect of managing stress, which is not always followed, is to have ‘time out’. Time out can mean silence time or quiet time, where you just spend an hour to yourself. You might decide that you need at least an hour to yourself every day. This can be done while you are having your lunch, where you spend some time contemplating and thinking about what you have been doing and what you will do. Some people go further and develop more formal relaxation techniques, including yoga and tai chi, while others use a relaxation tape to help them switch off and relax or meditate. The basis of using such techniques is that they slow the metabolism down, which then slows the whole body system.
Stress tends to speed up the system, relaxation teaches the system to slow down. When we are stressed, we learn to speed up and sometimes we forget to slow down. Our body is very much like a motor vehicle; it needs to be in tune. It needs to have an accelerator working and it needs to have the brakes working. If we are always accelerating – in other words, working, working, working – we sometimes don’t know how to put the brakes on. Have you ever driven your car home, switched the motor off, only to find that it has kept running? Well, that is what happens to us, too. A well- tuned mind and body mean we can switch on and off, and feel and be in control.
more to come in the next post…
