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.

STRESS, ...HAVE YOU HAD ENOUGH YET?

I bet you think I write a lot about stress and stress management. [Stress, It Adds Up, 9/28/08; Change Your Mind, 5/10/08; Managing Job Related Stress, 4/10/08; Happy Holidays?, 10/18/07; Take A Moment,... Breathe, 10/10/07; A Happy Marriage Helps Relieve Stress, 6/25/07; Childhood Stress, 4/15/07 & 4/24/07; Managing Stress At The Job, 3/16/07] Well, I guess I do. It's for a good reason. There's so much of it in our lives. And it effects us a lot. But how can you tell when you've had too much? Well, that one's easy. You get sick. You get headaches, stomach ulcers, high blood pressure, skin rashes, anxiety, depression, various addictions, etc. Of course, I could go on. But you get the point. Too much stress will killya! You can postpone that with medicines. And then more medicines to treat the side effects of the other medicines. But why wait until it's too late? We have to be aware of the less obvious signs that your stress level is getting dangerous for your health, BEFORE YOU GET SICK. You've got to know when you've had enough!



You know stress is starting to effect you when,... you start to argue more; get angry quicker and about little things; you are more and more distracted at work; get more forgetful ("Honey, where did I put my keys?"); become more accident prone; start drinking, smoking, or eating more; you feel more tired; sleep is more restless, or you start having more bad dreams; you worry more about everything; you may develop fears, or old ones may resurface. I could go on and on. But that's probably ENOUGH! What do you do about it? You mostly know (and there's a list above to refer to). The important thing is to USE WHAT YOU KNOW. One thing I will mention is that you have to take your vacations (and not just the long weekends). In Europe they get 1 to 2 months paid vacations. We average about a week. Guess who lives longer. Stress effects us every day.You've had enough.

Our prayers go out to the family of Senator Edward Kennedy who died this past week.

Stress, ... It Adds Up

I've written here about stress and stress management a lot over the past year. I've studied a lot, we all experience it a lot, and most of the clients I work with come in because stress has made their lives more difficult in a variety of ways. As you may or may not know the different stresses that we have in our life add up over time in the toll that it takes on our health, emotions, thinking, relationships, and overall happiness. Sometimes, we're not even aware of how much of it we deal with. For example, we could be working in a job that we enjoy and do well, yet it is still stressful. If you have a job, you deal with stress (and if you don't, well that's pretty stressful too!). And unless you do something to manage it, and get it out of your system, then over time it builds up. If you have problems in an important relationship, have concerns about finances (and who doesn't nowadays?!), are a parent, may be going to school, have an illness or a family member who has one, and are dealing with any other stressful situation, then stress is piling up on you. Now, if this stuff has been going on for years, and you add any significant losses, or even positive (but stressful) experiences then it could lead to problems for you. Many years ago I learned about The Social Readjustment Rating Scale which assigns a number value to the various stresses in life. You add up the amount of stress you've experienced over the year, and you can compute what you're up against. Now if you haven't been handling it well for several years then the situation gets worse. Also, that Scale doesn't include the effects of war, terrorist attacks, or any of the more recent societal problems in the daily news that influence us.




The point is that you will be effected. The first signs to look for can include insomnia, fatigue, digestive upset, restlessness, increased alcohol/drug/tobacco use, anxiety, nightmares, bad temper, depression, worrying, intolerance, isolation, resentment, loneliness, distrust, nagging, lowered sex drive, spacing out, negative self-talk, boredom, poor concentration, low productivity, forgetfulness, muscle aches, and on and on. If you are noticing these things in yourself, do something about it (I have some suggestions below). If you allow this to continue, then you'll start to see more severe symptoms. For example: headaches, colds and other immune system problems, irritable bowel syndrome, rashes, ulcers, high blood pressure, accident proneness, problems on the job, etc. It could get bad.




Here are some things that you can, and should do to prevent this from happening to you (and medicines tend to be a temporary fix). Exercise. Vacation (and for more than a long weekend). Play. Socialize. Improve personal relationships. Start a hobby. Relax. This is important, for you and your family. So if you can't make it happen, get some help.