STRESS LESS MONDAYS

For many of us Monday is the most stressful day of the week, especially at work. We start to anticipate it and stress about it on Sunday night. It's automatic, a habit we've developed over years and years of Monday stressing. I think we can't make it a stressless day, but I know we can learn to stress less.

What's important is to change the way we think about Mondays. This may be hard because EVERYBODY seems to expect Mondays to be bad. What we focus on and anticipate often become real (especially negative anticipation). For example, if you expect to have a bad day you usually do. Let's start by anticipating 1 good thing to happen on Monday. Then plan it and make it happen. It will be something positive to look forward to.

Plan a special lunch, dinner, or other activity after work. Find 1 small thing to do differently at work, maybe make a bothersome office relationship more enjoyable (or just less annoying). Once you set your mind to changing how you experience the day, maybe Monday can be Fun Day. Ok, that may be asking a bit too much. But at least you can stress less.

Find other Stress Less Monday tips on our Facebook page

(click: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Freels-Mental-Health-group/155186571209581 ) on Mondays.

Change Your Mind... (Managing Job Stress, part 2)

I wrote last time about changing some of your behaviors to reduce stress in your life, and manage your job stress better. There are some things that you can think about differently at work, which will make your job (and your life) more enjoyable. Could you believe that you could enjoy your job, instead of just suffering through it everyday? You definitely can. These are some of the things that I try to do, and that I suggest to people trying to manage their job stress better. (from Don't Stress The Small Stuff at Work, by Richard Carlson).

1. Dare To Be Happy. Most of us wish we didn't have to work. Fortunately you have a job, enjoy it. People often assume that someone who is relaxed or happy at work must not be a hard worker, or lacks motivation. Happy people are usually highly motivated, creative, enthusiastic, and fun to be around. Give it a try. Don't worry, be happy!


2. Create a Bridge Between Your Spirituality and Your Work. Take the essence of who you are and what you believe into your daily work. If kindness, patience, honesty, forgiveness, and generosity are spiritual qualities that you believe in, make an effort to practice these qualities at work. Even if you must reprimand or confront someone, do it with love and respect.


3. Examine Your Rituals and Habits (And Be Willing To Change Some Of Them). Sometimes our habits (which we may not even be aware of) cause us additional stress. For example, always being in a hurry, drinking too much caffeine and feeling nervous a lot, being grumpy in the morning instead of friendly to the people you work with, going to bed too late or too early, etc. See if it helps to change them.


4. Pat Yourself On The Back. Your mistakes get pointed out enough. Give yourself credit for the good stuff that you do.


5. Recover Quickly. We all mess up sometimes. It's important that you recover quickly, and learn from your mistakes.


6. Let go of battles that can't be won. Continuously beating your head against the wall will only give you a headache.


7. Don't Let Your Own Thoughts Stress You Out. We sometimes forget that thoughts are only thoughts, not reality. Our worries can stress us out just like the real thing. Also our worries interfere with our focus and concentration.

Think about changing your mindset regarding your job. Try making a small change, you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Managing Job Related Stress (part 1)

This is a subject that we've all got to deal with. Including those of us who are looking for a job. This topic includes dealing with the stress of managing relationships at work, including doing the job itself (of course some jobs are more stressful than others), and, what many of us are not as aware of, the stress related to your job that occurs outside of the work place. These are things like scheduling (for example juggling meals, appointments, the kids' activities, etc.), commuting, managing finances, level of personal job satisfaction. To a large extent our lives can revolve around our jobs. And for the most part, we're happy to have one, but the stress adds up.


A BIG concern for me when working with a client suffering from job stress (I do a lot of Employee Assistance Program counseling), is determining if their job IS their life (and their life IS their job). This can be a big part of their problem because it means that if the job situation goes bad, then their life goes bad. As opposed to having a life outside of their job, which can allow them some outlets, and provide them some support when they need it. My first recommendation is to find some enjoyable activities outside of work. This provides stress relief. An important part of this is the relationships that you have outside of work. A loving enjoyable relationship with a partner, or a happy family life, adds so much to your life. You can come home and get rejuvenated. You end up not taking your work so seriously. Of course, if you have a stressful family life, it makes things ten times worse. You can end up going to work to escape your home-life stress. You have to fix that.


The phrase "get a life" has a lot of significance especially if you have a lot of job related stress. Exercise, get a hobby, go to the beach, get some friends to spend time with, and by all means USE YOUR VACATION TIME.


In future postings I'll discuss how to manage stress at work (for now take a look at what I wrote on 3/16/07, Managing Stress At The Job), as well as describe some of the effects on your health and life, of not managing your job-related stress well. And as you can imagine, it can get pretty bad. TO BE CONTINUED...

Managing Stress At The Job (first in a series on Stress Management)

Everyone that works has some job stress. We typically get used to it, but it still takes its toll on you. Depending on how well you manage it it can have negative effects on your health, relationships, and happiness. Some amount of stress helps you perform better. But since the effects of stress are cumulative, if you don't take care of yourself it will hurt you. Much of what we experience at work may not be under our control. Let's assume that if you could you would be working in the job that you enjoy, making the money you need, with people you like, as near (or far away from) your home as you prefer, and sufficiently challenging (or not). And I would encourage you to seek out a work setting with as many of these features as possible. Happiness on the job helps with stress management. My preference is to focus on the individual effected by the stress, and strongly recommend that you take the following measures to protect yourself from the harmful effects of stress. Exercise; use your vacation time; Don't Sweat the Small Stuff at Work (and read the book, of the same title, by Richard Carlson, Ph.D); take your lunch time, away from the job if possible, and eat something healthy (drinking water throughout the day helps too); change how you relate to your annoying coworker or boss, that will cause them to change how they relate to you; be aware that if you are getting VERY emotional about a stressful situation at work, likely it's related to some unresolved personal issue you should address; and don't forget to BREATHE!! More on that later.