Christmas Stress Relief

Christmas can be the perfect time to get together with family, feast, share and celebrate. A lot of people celebrate it as a secular holiday and celebrate their family and those that are close. Others celebrate the Winter Solstice, while many have religious reasons for choosing Christmastime to celebrate, for most major religions have a religious ritual of some sort in late December, after the longest nights of winter have been and gone.

Unfortunately, all of this can bring a sense of dread to many people. Here are some suggestions on how to give you a little Christmas stress relief.

Stop all of the Comparisons

Many people try their hardest to recreate the holidays using movies, books or childhood memories as blueprints. This is the biggest cause of Christmas stress. Relief is simple – stop trying to compete! You do not have to be perfect, in fact nobody is; just do the best you can with what you have, everyone around you will appreciate that more. Having a happy, comfortable time is more important than decorations, gifts or the perfect gift wrap pattern with perfect bows and bangles!

Never Give Pets as Presents

This will give a lot of Christmas stress relief to you and your animal companions. Christmas can be a loud, unpredictable and messy time. Part of the fun is that you do things you don’t do everyday and this lack of routine can frighten an animal. Also, picking a pet is like picking the person you wish to marry – do you really want someone else making that decision for you? If the puppy or kitten at Christmas doesn’t get along with the intended new owner, that animal will most likely have to be given to a shelter by Easter, then how are you going to feel? You nor the animals need the stress of sad memories and believe me there will be sad memories.

Change the Date

There is no law that says you and your family HAVE to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Day. If you have family members who work in retail stores, food service or in the airline industry, they will be too tired to celebrate at the end of a long busy shift. If you feel you and your family are too pressed for time, you can choose to have Christmas on another day. Seriously think about having it in January if the majority of family members have to work overtime during the Christmas break. Stress relief is worth breaking the rules of tradition.

Do you have to Shop at Stores?

If shopping is your biggest cause of Christmas stress, relief comes in the form of mail-order catalogs and online shopping, this is becoming more and more popular and reliable. Sometimes, for a small fee, you can even get the presents gift wrapped, you can even get a choice of wrapping paper. There is the slight chance that the package won’t arrive in time, but that chance is a lot smaller than fighting traffic, squeezing between irritated strangers to find the shop is out of stock. Some people love being given a wrapped catalog under the tree with a note attached saying “One item on me!”

When you realize that the holidays aren’t about how to celebrate them, but that you celebrate them at all, Christmas stress relief just comes natural. Merry Christmas stress relief, everyone! and a Happy New Year!

Workplace stress

With the downturn in the economy, it is only natural that workplace stress is rising. It is becomming harder to cope with the challenges of your job and the added challenges of your home life.

When you get to work, does it seem like you are overwhelmed? Not feeling confident about your abilities at work? Finding your work less rewarding? Is it taking longer to complete tasks or are tasks not being completed at all? Are you irritable with your fellow co-workers or your boss? If you answered yes to any of these then you may be suffering from workplace stress.

There are two kinds of stress in the workplace, good and bad. The good kind of stress comes from pressure of deadlines. If you enjoy your job, then often you will have the good kind of stress that energizes and motivates you – some people even feed off of this. The bad kind of stress is a destructive type that causes disability, staff turnover, low productivity and absenteeism. In our current economic times, more and more employers are seeing the bad kind of workplace stress within their employees.

Work, whether paid or voluntary contributes to our sense of community connection and it is a source of needed routine and structure. Even though work offers these needed benefits, it can also be a big source of anxietry for many people. Studies in the United Kingdom have shown that many people attribute their cause of their health problems to their job. During the last recession, almost 25% of workers stated that their bigges fear and cause of workplace stress was the loss of their job. Employees roles in the organization were a major factor in the amount of workplace stress they felt. Manager and professionals reported the highest amount of workplace stress compared to workers in other industries. The amount of workplace stress also differs between men and women.

Women are stressed about working long hours or having too many demands on them, while men were stressed about workplace injury.

Top Ten sources of workplace stress are as follows:

1. Too much to do in too little time, getting nothing accomplished
2. Too many interruptions
3. Uncertainty – not sure of their employment security
4. Mistrust. Vicious office politics disrupt positive behaviour
5. Random company directions and policies
6. Ambiguity. Things are happening without the employee knowing why
7. Inconsistent perferomance reviews. Employees get raises but no reviews or get positive evaluation, but laid off
8. Employee feeling unappreciated
9. Lack of communication in the management chain
10. Too much or too little to do. The feeling of not contributing and having a lack of control

Workplace stress is a harmful physical and emotional response that occurs when there is a poor match between job demands and the capabilities of the employee. Now more than ever, employers need to be on the look out for workplace stress and try to help employees cope with it. Those that make the effort to deal with it rather than ignore it will be rewarded with a better functioning company, which should in turn translate in a more profitable company. With the downturn in the economy, workplace stress can have a very negative effect on a companies bottom line.

Natural Stress Relief

Here are Some Natural Stress and Anxiety Relief Tips

A lot of the time people are far too busy to bother with natural stress and anxiety stress relief and try to find a quick fix in a bottle.  But stress and anxiety can greatly impair your health and your way of thinking, which in turn affects not only you but your family and anyone else who depends on you.  Being healthy can cost less in the long run and give you more energy to get done the things you want to do as well as the things you need to do.  Some investment in time and energy now to learn natural stress and anxiety relief methods can pay dividends in the long run.

Know When to Call the Doctor

Why pay a doctor’s bill and then be told something he or she didn’t already know.  So here is how you can tell if you need to go to see a doctor about your stress and anxiety levels:

Always call your physician if you are you having trouble eating and/or sleeping, if you feel overwhelmed or constantlt tired, if your worries are running  constantly through your mind that you can’t relax and if you think that if you stop worrying, it’s somehow wrong, that is the guilty feeling often associated with stress. Evaluate these symptoms honestly.  If you suffer from any or all of these symptoms, make an appointment with your health care professional today.  Follow his or her advice closely and try to squeeze in these natural stress and anxiety relief exercises as well, you will feel the benefit for sure.

More Oxygen, Please

Pay attention to yourself or ask someone you trust to tell you how you breathe under stress, are you normal in that respect.  If you pant or hyperventilate, or breathe a lot faster than usual, this cuts the oxygen supply in your body, and your body puts out distress signals for you to get more oxygen that might contribute to your anxiety, it certainly won’t help it anyways.  When you feel overwhelmed, take a deep breath, slow down, calm down.  Take many deep breaths for natural stress and anxiety relief.  This minute or so of taking time out to breathe deeply will give your body a time-out and help calm panic.  It will also lower your heart rate and blood pressure during one of these stressful times.

Some people find it difficult to breathe deeply for natural stress and anxiety relief.  This is normal and nothing to worry about.  If you have this problem, keep a small dark glass bottle of essential oils nearby.  Sniffing the essential oil will make your body instinctively take deeper breaths.  Some recommended oils that encourage deep breathing are lavender, frankincense and tea tree.

Bergamot works for some, but not for others.  Scent is a very personal thing; take some time to sniff essential oils sold in a health, fitness, occult supply store or your local pharmacies.  Some large chain supermarkets carry essential oils in their organic departments these are also a good source of advice too.  They are made from natural plant and fruit extracts and oils, making them truly organic and natural solutions for stress and anxiety relief.

Massage therapy

Learning about Massage for Stress Relief

There is a very popular comedy program in the UK called Smack The Pony, recently they had a skit set in a masseur’s office. The masseur tried a new essential oil said to be the world’s most relaxing. She poured it on her client’s back and began to massage and the back turned into squishy putty!  This is obviously an exaggeration, but shows that massage for stress relief can effectively relax your body, mind and soul.

The Healing Touch

Skin on skin contact is one of the most ancient of cure-alls.  A kiss on a boo-boo, sleeping in your parent’s bed after a nightmare, or petting your dog can lower your blood pressure, make you breathe steadily and help your body’s natural healing powers.  Massage for stress relief is not just for feeling good, but for overall body health.  Rock star Peter Gabriel insists on having a full body massage by a female masseuse before he can face going out on stage.  Even if you have never attended his pre-show massages, you may have seen him command a stage for over two hours of intense physical and emotional performances.

Yeah, But Peter Gabriel Can Afford It I hear you say

You don’t have to get a professional full body massage every time you’re stressed out.  What do you instinctively do if you bump your elbow?  You hold it and rub it. Just with personal explorations of what strokes soothe your body and what strokes don’t; you can give a quick massage for stress relief to yourself or to that of a loved one it’s much easier to massage yourself with warm hands lubricated with warm oil or lotion to prevent chafing.

However, be careful not to massage cuts, wounds, broken limbs or burns as you may do more harm than good, trust me I know.  Massaging for stress relief is to relax muscles, stimulate circulation, and generally calm you down.  If you have constant back problems, trying a professional masseuse can help alleviate the pain, if your doctor approves that is.

There are many “Massage 101” books, periodicals and websites to help you learn some of the massage techniques and these have helped many others.  Your community college or YMCA might even offer free to low cost massage classes and seminars.  Massage for stress relief is something you have to practice in order to remember it and in order to become good or effective at it, but even the mistakes can feel good sometimes.

Massage for stress relief can be found in many forms. There are massage machines available, from a one-battery operated finger-shaped vibrator to huge chairs that massage your whole body with a series of vibrations and movement.  These machines are recommended for people in too much physical pain to exercise regularly or for the infirm and for people who are house bound.

Symptoms of stress

Symptoms of stress

Stress can affect your body, your thoughts & feelings and also your behaviour. Often the effects of stress mimic other health problems. Below are just a few examples of the symptoms of stress.
- Changes in sleep patterns
- Negative thinking
- Restlessness
- Loss of interest in something you used to enjoy
- irritability
- weight change or appetite change
- Loss if concentration
- Memory problems
- Moodiness
- Aches and pains
- Procrastination

Stress can affect us in many ways and the symptoms of stress are often overlooked. Stress not only affects our mind, it affects us physically as well. It can cause a whole raft of physical symptoms that can be difficult to diagnose as they mimic other problems. People have come to live with the fact that stress is a part of modern life and as such many ignore the symptoms of stress, or choose not to deal with the underlying problems that cause the stress symptoms.

The reason that so many symptoms of stress are difficult to detect is because stress affects the body in many different ways. Of course each one of us different so we all react to stress with very different symptoms as well. Some symptoms of stress are easier to detect as they are obvious, others are not detectable until the problem becomes more severe. Add to this that many symptoms of stress resemble other health problems and it can be very difficult to determine if your are suffering from symptoms of stress or just have a headache.

There are many symptoms of stress that are shared by us all, these include many common ailments such as headaches, more susceptablility to flu & colds, sleep problems, anxiety, frustration, lowered libido, poor decisions, twitching, fatigue, dizziness and a generally agitated state.

The symptoms of stress can actually lead to other health problems! One example is sleep problems, if one suffers from this long enough, it can lead to depression, or even high blood pressure. Stress can also increase pre-existing problems such as migraines, ulcers, asthma and colitis.

The symptoms of stress can be broken down into four categories:
- Physical Symptoms
- Mental Symptoms
- Emotional Symptoms
- Behavioural Symptoms

Physical Symptoms
These symptoms can include lowered immune system, muscle tension, headaches, insomia, loss of appetite, dizziness, nausea, and fatigue

Mental Symptoms
These symptoms can include loss of concentration, loss of decisiveness, confusion or forgetfulness

Emotional Symptoms
These symptoms can include, depression, anxiety, irritability, apathy, indifference, loss of motivation, pessimism, worry, nervousness and general unhappiness.

Behavioural Symptoms
These symptoms can include, compulsiveness, nail biting, foot tapping, blaming, searing, crying, yelling, weepiness, teariness, pacing and general restlessness.

If you can learn to spot these symptoms of stress early on, you stand a chance of dealing with the symptoms long before they become serious. If you feel that you are suffering from any of these symptoms of stress, then you should consult your doctor immediately.

This article has been provided for informational purposes only on the symptoms of stress. It is expected that if you think you are suffering from any of these symptoms, that you seek proper medical advice and not try to diagnose them yourself.

You Can Find Anxiety and Stress Relief

Do you ever feel that life is out to get you? You have a stack of bills to pay, your loved ones are demanding a little too much of your time and there is nothing but bad news on tv- the worry and strain can seem overwhelming, it can at these times also feel like you are the only one having these fears; however, you’re not. You have a problem that is not that uncommon, it is a problem that many people suffer from and they rarely share it with others. But there are many people and organizations that can help you find anxiety and stress relief.

You should never feel too ashamed to ask your doctor for help. If you find it difficult to relax and you are consumed by worries that you struggle to lead a normal life, you need to see your doctor right away. There is a stigma about seeking anxiety and stress relief. You may think you’re crazy or lazy; but you’re not.

If you broke your arm or you leg then you would go see the doctor in a flash, wouldn’t you? Anxiety and stress relief should be sought after in the same way. If anybody teases you about being a ‘mental case’, ignore them. They are just voicing their own fears about their own sanity. Your doctor will understand; he or she sees patients with you similar problems almost every day.

The doctor might prescribe medicines for your anxiety and stress relief. That doesn’t mean you’re €˜lacking’ in some way for needing to take pills for a mental or emotional problem. Extreme anxiety and never ending stress can often be the signs of a treatable physical problem.

Take Time Out for You

You deserve at least fifteen minutes of fun and luxury every day; after all look at all you have to put up with! If you can find fifteen minutes a day to treat yourself and be comfortable with it, you can find twenty minutes, and so on. By no means does this make you selfish; you are just learning how to feel good about yourself. By experiencing some happy times, you can remember what it feels like. With time and practice, you can tap into that calm and secure feeling whenever you need it, believe me, everybody needs this at some time or other.

Many people take a walk during this ‘me-time’. Some people read a non-fiction book to gain anxiety and stress relief. Some people take a bath; others write a poem or engage in light exercise or take yoga classes. See what works best for you; you want something that takes you out of your normal drudgery and transports you into that little island of calm. Listening to music or meditating can bring this island about for a lot of people. Anxiety and stress relief is within your reach €“ you only have to make a little effort to get it.

Brands of Depression Stress Relief Pills

Each and everyone one of us can feel depressed at some time or another in our lives and that’s just the way it is. For many people, the stress builds into depression that consumes their lives and effects that of the people closest to them and makes the person seek help.  Some won’t go to a doctor for depression because many people still believe that depression isn’t something medical or that it is something to be ashamed of.  The fact of the matter is clear however, clinical depression is physical and if left untreated can tear a person apart and lead to suicidal tendancies just to stop the pain that they feel, a pain that is very real indeed.  Others can’t know what they are feeling and eventually, the depression makes one believe that they don’t deserve to live.

There are many drugs available that can be very helpful in controlling the symptoms of depression and if taken regularly and in a controlled way, the person won’t stay depressed for very long.  There are still people who believe that taking depression stress relief pills makes them weaker or less than the people around them taking these drugs is seen as something very strange or extreem.  It just isn’t true and the word needs to get out that depression stress relief pills are no different than a cast on a broken arm or leg or crutches to help people walk.  With that attitude, more people might come forward and get the help that they so desperately need.  There are many medicines available nowadays that can affect the brain by better regulating the chemical release of serotonin.  A person’s mood will change and get better and that allows the person to better control the many things that were originally becoming stress and depression.

Prozac

Many people have heard about the drug called Prozac but not everyone understands what it does.  Prozac is a pill that effectively controls depression; a continuing depression that interferes with normal daily functioning.  It also has a generic equal called Fluoxetine.  They are the same depression stress relief pills; just one cost less because it is a generic which means that it isn’t a branded name.

Wellbutrin

Another type of depression stress relief pills are called Wellbutrin.  Wellbutrin works by affecting the two chemicals in the brain that are believed to help moods; dopamine and norepinephrine. It usually comes in 150 mgs to 200mgs size.  This as with all prescription drugs should be monitored properly by your doctor.  If something doesn’t feel right make sure to call your physician and discuss the symptoms, they are after all a very powerful drug.

Zoloft

One more depression stress relief pill is Zoloft.  Zoloft is even more powerful than the others.  It is prescribed for people that suffer from extreme depression disorders.  People with major depression will be in a very low mood that stays that way everyday and all day.  People with major depression are more susceptible to having thoughts of suicide, these thoughts can be there all the time too.  Taking a depression stress relief pill can help a person to feel better and handle stress better, it gives them that help they need.