You and Your Stress

It does not matter if you’re in business for yourself, high powered exec or a stay at home mom ... stress can get to you. Your understanding and personal experience help you define what stress means to you. As an entrepreneurs you may be challenged with what it means for you personally the impact of stress from work and how difficult it can be to make strong decisions regarding starting your a new company. You know stress can be linked to making decisions about going into business for ourselves, heading back to school, and the impact (either positive or negative) on your financial wellness. All of these are great examples of "External Stressor" that you can experience and they differ from "Internal Stressors."

Let me give a working example so you can better understand the difference of these two types of stress: "You make a change in priorities and as a result you begin to have less than healthy levels of nutrients in your diet, you forget to exercise and/or your sleeping patterns change all of which impact your metabolism. The impact is your body's inability to metabolize food properly and burn any excess fat and begin affecting your internal organs' ability to work properly. Wow! Just imaging what happens over the course of months - what is happening to your internal body will affect your ability to make decision. Staying motivated and empowered during times of stress allows you to be able to identify potential stressors and stay healthier.

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Life Coach and Business Coach Karen Kleinwort is the founder Therapy in Transition and is a Certified Professional Coach specializing in the integration of her clients' mind, body and spirit into her Personal Empowerment Coaching practice. For more information, visit www.coachkarenk.com. www.therapyintransition.org, www.empowermentforme.com or contact her at success@coachkarenk.com.

Holiday Spirit and Your Stress

There is not a more stressful time than the holidays. And, well, I can't name one person who actually enjoys the stress associated with holidays. The stress of dealing with family, the politics that comes with buying the right gift—or worse, making the decision not to buy the gift at all! Let's not even mention the stress of dealing with other stressed out holiday shoppers all vying for the "last" of whatever is the hot ticket item.

Fortunately, in this age of technology the shopping is not so bad as it once was; with a few clicks of a mouse, you can purchase your much-needed item, have it shipped to you, and all that's left is the wrapping. I'll admit, I did a lot more online shopping this Christmas than for Christmases past, and I liked it.

The truth about stress is that a particular amount of stress or anxiety is healthy. As a Crisis Coach I deal with clients who are moving through not just this heightened holiday stress level that comes but once a year—which, by the way, we are more emotionally, physically and psychologically ready for than we might realize since we "know" about the upcoming stress and the triggers that get our blood boiling: triggers like line cutters, not getting the "good" parking spot, or missing the extra 20% discount by an hour.

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Holiday Mindset Melt-Down

We're just a week away from the busiest shopping day of the year – Black Friday – and it's also the beginning of the most stressful time of year: the days between Thanksgiving and the kick off of the next year.

For most it means a time of family, friends and great fun, but for others it could mean something quite entirely different. Stress does funny things, but this time of year we're emotionally triggered by numerous types of events and easily fall into the pit of allowing ourselves to become victims.

Victim mentality is a common and hot topic these days, and it bodes well to play the victim role when we need an excuse for certain types of behavior, or we feel we need to be right and validated. Take a minute and think back over the last several months to see if any of these statements have been true for you:

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Where Your Truth Goes, Your Confidence Follows

So you now know how confident you are, right? I mean, when ranking yourself regarding your confidence level, you were truthful, right? Oh, you mean you stretched the truth a little? Oh well, that’s okay because we all do it: stretch the truth, I mean. But if you can’t be honest with yourself, then with whom can you be honest? Knowing your truth is the second critical piece to being confident. The first was realizing that all your actions and reactions to life's events and decisions impacted your confidence level. Truth is what empowers you to step out of your comfort zone confidently and take the actions or steps necessary in life.

In the first part of this three-part series you were introduced to your two main life accounts into which all your actions, decisions and experiences are either made deposits into or taken from as withdrawals from your integrity and confidence accounts. Remember that both these accounts affect your level of success in your career, your relationships, and your overall personal wellness.

Your confidence level will dictate how you handle and manage your stress. Some stress is important in life, but extreme stress can be hazardous. Your goal is to be able to handle yourself regarding decision-making during times of crisis as well as you do during normal circumstances. With a lower confidence level it becomes more difficult for you to make effective decisions.

Examples of normal stress or daily triggers of your stress might be balancing your checkbook, creating employee schedules at work, or arranging a food drive for the local food bank. While moving through these situations, your physical, emotional and mental bodies are working according to plan. There may be emotions you experience such as frustration due to trying to coordinate others' schedules and availability, but these frustrations are easily worked through and released. There are no residual emotions floating around; in other words, you've let them go and moved on.

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Finding Guidance

Regardless of their personal belief systems (spiritual focus, formalized religion, or a combination thereof), people tend to like the comfort of feeling connected to those beings that support us from the other side, whether we believe "the other side" to be an alternate universe, a heavenly realm, etc. One reason people find this so comforting is that they like knowing that something greater than themselves is available for them from which they can seek or receive guidance and clarity. I maintain that our angels (or guides, if you prefer) constantly surround us, always at the ready to gently guide us toward happier and better lives if we are willing to ask for their help. We can communicate with these guides in any of several ways, including those listed below.

Oracle Cards

Most divination and many bookstores carry angel and divine guidance cards with the rest of their merchandise. Oracle cards typically have about 50 cards in a deck that are full of words of compassion and wisdom. To properly read and benefit from oracle cards, first calm yourself with an effective mind training exercise, then silently offer a prayer of gratitude to your angels before requesting their help. Shuffle the deck a few times because spreading the cards on a clean table and selecting one card.

Although on the surface drawing oracle cards can seem like an entirely random way to seek guidance from your angels, the reality of the situation is that the "magic" of this process lies in its randomness. Selecting a particular card over all the others in the deck enables your angels to direct you to choose the right one rather than leaving it up to a matter of coincidence or chance.

Seek Help and Wait

For people who find it difficult to keep faith, simply choosing to seek help and wait can be the best way to getting guidance. When you find you could use a little nudge of guidance...

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Embracing Change

My husband and I took our son for his first official haircut when he was 15 months old. The trauma of the event was not significant, but the energy exchange during the event was decidedly intense. My son went from sitting on my lap and enjoying the process while my husband entertained him to the opposite end of the spectrum, screaming and struggling to be let down. As you can imagine, it was an emotional roller coaster for all three of us.

For several months I’d been hearing from various "experts" on the issue things like, "He needs a big boy haircut!" or "I love his hair; the curls are adorable," or "She’s precious! Oh, sorry! He’s so beautiful I just assumed he was a girl." Geez! So despite the fact that I loved my son’s hair longer with curls peeking out from under the cap, I knew it really was time for a haircut. Still, something inside me desperately desired to keep my son as a baby for as long as I possibly could. The haircut was representative of the first apron string to be cut.

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Depression and Pregnancy

A lot of women experience symptoms of depression in varying degrees during their pregnancy. In fact, according to the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine, around 10% of pregnant women tend to suffer from major depression and around 20% experience some symptoms of depression during their pregnancy. While under normal circumstances anti-depressants may be prescribed to people suffering from depression, there is a chance that prescribing the same to pregnant women may affect the health of the child adversely.

The following non-invasive therapies are therefore considered more suitable for treating depression in pregnant women.

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EFT and the Law of Attraction

We have discussed previously how our limiting beliefs and emotional blocks prevent the law of attraction from working. Getting these beliefs and blocks out of our system, however, is something with which most of us get stuck. If you are in a similar situation as well, you may find EFT useful.

EFT, or Emotional Freedom Technique, is a simple yet effective healing process that can help you release negative beliefs and blocks from your system. The philosophy behind EFT is that our bodies contain pathways through which the life force energy flows; negative emotions create blocks in these pathways, thus interfering with free flow of the life force energy. EFT involves tapping on these pathways while focusing on the negative beliefs we want to release. I know this exercise sounds too simplistic to be effective, but it has managed to produce amazing results for many people who have tried it.

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Stress and Spirituality

No one likes stress, but the fact is that it exists and a certain amount of stress is important to our bodies being able to respond properly. That doesn’t mean we need to allow stress to build to a level that is unhealthy, so it is therefore important we learn how to manage it. All of us seek different ways to keep stress as far away from our lives as possible; some techniques work well and some don’t.

More often than not, stress-busting techniques that fail are the ones that focus on eliminating stress or suppressing it. The truth is that stress is an unavoidable side effect of living, and to an extent it is even necessary. Your focus needs to therefore be on reducing your stress to a manageable level.

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Deepak Chopra

One of my favorite quotes by Deepak Chopra is, “If you want to reach a state of bliss, then go beyond your ego and the internal dialogue. Make a decision to relinquish the need to control, the need to be approved, and the need to judge. Those are the three things the ego is doing all the time. It's very important to be aware of them every time they come up.”

In this quote he refers to our every present “need” of all things and notes that when we let go of our neediness we allow room for love to appear—both love of self and love of others. Chopra reminds us the secret of attraction is to love yourself. This is a very difficult task to do when our minds are focused on external expectations and keeping ourselves on track to achieve great success. When Chopra says that “Attractive people judge neither themselves nor others. They are open to gestures of love. They think about love, and express their love in every action. They know that love is not a mere sentiment, but the ultimate truth at the heart of the universe,” he reminds us that “attractive” is a state of being; it is the state in which others perceive our self-worth. When we value ourselves, we not only bring more value into our lives but are also perceived differently by the world.

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Concentration and Meditation

I am a firm believer that meditation can happen just about anywhere we find ourselves. The important element is being able to concentrate long enough to receive not only the inspirational benefits of meditation but also the overall health and wellness benefits. If you are like most people, concentrating is the piece that keeps you from feeling as if you are experiencing successful meditation. I would like to share with you a few useful tips I personally use to help me concentrate when meditating—no matter if I am sitting in a quiet, warm and familiar place such as my practicum room or on a noisy airplane.

Perfection!
One of most important things to remember when meditating: all is in perfection! If you are interrupted or lose focus after just a few minutes, take a breath! Do not let the “shortness” of the meditation get in the way of what even a few minutes can bring to you.

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Healthy Meals in a Jiffy

Quick fixes, instantly ready, right-now attitudes are everywhere. And it is because our society has moved to this type of perspective that our eating habits have fallen to unhealthy, riddled with saturated fat and high sodium intake. Trying to eat healthy can be overwhelming for people who work full time, have children and are trying to cram 30 hours of to-dos into a 24 hour day. Beginning to sound familiar?

Eating healthy doesn’t necessarily mean you have to slave for hours in the kitchen. If that were the case, then most people wouldn’t be able to eat a healthy meal. The key to healthy eating is smart cooking and shopping. One of the fastest growing sub-industries is Health Coaching—and for good reason! If you want to provide your body nutritious and healthy fuel to bring your health back into balance or improve the health of your loved ones, here are a few tips you may find useful.

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Meditation

Once we become conscious of the world around us, we begin a struggle to come to peace with ourselves and the world, to come to terms with the mysterious and in large measure unknown universe. Sages and seers have uncovered the answers within themselves through meditation. Today the world is going back to this age-old technique for wholesome living.

So, what is meditation? In simple terms, meditation can be defined as a process to concentrate on the inner self. It is also a kind of a practice to come into some sort of communion with the almighty. The practice of meditation not only provides spiritual fulfillment, but it is also now widely believed to provide holistic healing to those who practice it at a psychological as well as a physiological level.

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Human Resources: Stress Management Policies

If you are an HR professional, it’s a part of your job to make sure the employees of the organization for which you work remain productive and efficient. Devising policies and taking initiative to keep their stress levels to a minimum is an essential component of ensuring the efficiency level of the employees stays up to the mark. However, it is also a well-acknowledged fact in business circles that a little stress is essential in order to get peak performance out of employees. The vital question for HR professionals, therefore, is how to ensure stress levels in the organization do not rise too far above the required minimum. As we know, more does not equal better when referring to stress.

Office politics, harassment, intense work pressure and negative relationships with colleagues or managers are some of the most common causes of excessive stress in the workplace. While discord, politics and work pressure are inevitable by-components of working on a team, as an HR professional your job is to ensure these problems do not become unmanageable.

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