“You're a heart attack waiting to happen,” I exclaimed in a frustrated attempt to get Stefan to do something about the stress at his work. Unfortunately for people like Stefan who dismiss work stress as part of the job, new research is confirming its damaging role in the development of heart disease…
Results from a recent study discussed at the at the XVI World Congress of Cardiology in May 2008 in Buenos Aires Work stress, resulting from great pressure at the work place, may increase the progression of atherosclerosis (clogging of the arteries) by 46% in people who have “highly reactive personalities to stress”.
The study, performed by researchers at the School of Public Health in Berkeley, U.S.A., found that the association of stress and very demanding work in a personality highly reactive to stress, results in the thickening of the internal walls of the carotid arteries and formation of atherosclerotic plaques which progressively obstruct blood flow. Both factors are markers of the progression of atherosclerosis that underlies cardiovascular disease.
In the most recent analysis of the INTERHEART study which covered 52 countries and a population of 25,000 patients it was estimated that from 20% to 30% of heart attacks can be attributed to psychological stress.
Amazingly psychological stress was shown to be a greater risk factor for a heart attack than:
Smoking
Diabetes
High blood pressure
And Obesity.
So often when focusing on ways to improve our health we tend to focus more on things like, diet, exercise and losing weight.
What is remarkable about these results are that they highlight the need to change our priorities in the way we handle work stress. Its is well known that giving up smoking, an improvement in your diet or starting up some form of exercise progrm will go a long way towards boosting your capacity to handle stress. However this new study is highlighting why so many diets, exrcise programs and quit smoking campaigns fail.
These study results suggest that before tackling abolishing your smoking habit you should tackle some of your more damaging thinking habits. Before addressing what you feed your mouth you need to pay greater attention to what you feed your mind. A new exercise program for your mind may reap a lot greater health benefit than exercising your body.
When you have been stressed for so long it can be easy for us to begin believing that this habit has somehow become part of our natural persona. I can assure you that there is nothing natural about being stressed.
If you spend time observing a young baby or something in nature you will acknowledge that everything in it's natural state flows freely and easily.
When you observe nature do you feel peaceful and calm?
When you are in your natural state you feel peaceful and calm.
There is nothing peaceful and calm about feeling stressed.
The feeling of stress is simply your body telling you that you are NOT being your natural self.
“But my pyschologist said that I have a highly reactive and volatile personality. How can I change if it is a part of who I am?” queried Stefan.
“Stefan, saying that it's part of your personality is a polite way of saying that you are not responsible for your actions or behaviour and it is impossible for you to change. It's a cop out.”
Stefan's jaw tightened as he bristled at this suggestion.
“See. You have just conditioned yourself at trying to solve differences of opinion with aggression. I notice that you are getting aggresive right now simply because I don't agree with you. Intimidation may work on your co-workers but not me.”
Silence filled the room as Stefan went through an awkward moment of self-analysis.
Aggression was replaced by a hint of embarassment. Pretending not to notice his embarassment I proceeded to give Stefan a boost. “Congratulations you have just completed an important step. You became aware of your habit of aggression and then stopped it in its tracks. The fact that you were able to change that behaviour proves that it is not some inbuilt part of your personality that you can't change.”
“Yeahh” Stefan nodded reasserting his strength.
Do you find it hard to relax or adapt to the different stresses at work while others seem to take it in their stride? Do you keep blaming others around you as being the cause of your stress? Do other co-workers seem to be able to ‘push your buttons'? You may want to look at your rules for being relaxed at work. By consciously changing your rules for relaxation you will be able to handle work stress a lot easier. Become more relaxed at work by following these stress management tips to make your rules for relaxation easier:
Stress management tip for greater relaxation at work no.1
Ask yourself “What has to happen in order for me to be relaxed?”
List all the criteria.
Stress management tip for greater relaxation at work no. 2
Look at the list and determine if all the criteria are under your control. For example are you basing any of your relaxation and happiness on things like the weather or the actions of other people? If so, remove them from your relaxation list.
Stress management tip for greater relaxation at work no.3
With your remaining relaxation list ask yourself, “Is this list easy to fulfill every day?” (After all you do want to feel consistently relaxed and feeling stress-free every day, don't you?) You could choose to adopt “I am just automatically relaxed” stress-free approach.
Now that you have looked into your relaxation rules it is important now to learn how you actually do emotions. But have any of you been sceptical or apprehensive about the various methods employed to combat stress?
I have to admit I have been and I have seen my fair share of the kooky, the ridiculous and the downright Pollyanna. And yes, I am also not a fan of lying on some therapists couch regurgitating issues from my childhood ad nauseam.
But how do I know that these methods are effective? Personal experience. Well ten years ago I was I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. I was stressed, overanxious and burnt out. I didn't drink or smoke. I was a fitness fanatic but I, like many health physicians had dismissed the mental and emotional aspect of health with a bit of disdain thinking that I was above all. Well I ignored it at my own peril.
These new mind habits transformed the amount of stress I perceived and I did not change the situation or circumstances I was in. The first thing I realised was that although I cannot control what happens around me or what other people do, I am free to choose how I want to interpret things. This caused me to stop blaming other people and the circumstances around me. It was my interpretation of other people and other circumstances that was the cause of my stress. And because I was the cause, I also knew that I was the SOLUTION. It wasn't until I stopped blaming others that I began to get a ahndle of my stress.
Many of you have heard other experts say “Just start being more positive. Start taking responsibility for your thoughts and emotions.” It sounds simple enough but when you have got so used to being stressed it is really hard to know how to be less stressed. And I remember that it can be embarassing too. So follow these three steps to give you greater control of how you do emotions.
All of you familiar with computers will have heard of PDF format. The key for learning to managing your emotional stress can be remembered by the same name: PDF™.
Posture
Description
Focus
Posture
Lets look at your posture first. Imagine you were an actor playing the part of someone stressed how would their posture be? It would most likely be bent over with the shoulders raised and tight facial muscles.
Now repeat the same exercise but this time you are playing the part of someone relaxed? How is their posture? It is more upright.
How can this help you? When you notice that you are tense or stressed out change your posture to a more upright and open stance. Try it. It can make a remarkable difference.
Description
Next, you need to pay attention to how you describe things. We all have a tendency to use figures of speech and metaphors that tend to exaggerate the emotional intensity for the worse. For example, some phrases that spring to mind are:
“This job is driving me crazy”
“No one ever listens to me”
“My back is killing me”
With these examples lets look at the reality:
You may be experiencing some things you don't like at your work but you have not been certified insane.
It is likely that many people listen to you ( eg your children and family) but certain people may not in some instances ( Do any people respond when you say “Hi”. If so they must have heard you.)
With regards to your back pain..you are alive, so it can't be killing you.
So become conscious of how you describe things and aim to be more accurate.
Focus
Have you ever bought a new car and then all of a sudden you see them everywhere? There hasn't been a magical relase of thousands more cars just like yours. You are now more focussed on it. You can use this to your advantage by consciously begin to focus on things that make you feel a bit better. For instance try to focus on people's smiles.Once you do this you'll start to notice so many people smiling that you will think that there is some magic at work. It's not hocus pocus, it's just the power of focus.
So rather than become another work stress statistic, at the first signs of feeling stressed at work think PDF™.