Managing Stress

HOW TO MANAGE STRESS   

  

1. Step Back and Put the Problem in Perspective

Maybe you're disappointed that you didn't get a promotion you were up for or concerned that money is a little tight this month because of an unexpected medical bill. Feeling stressed is a natural reaction. But try to take a step back and ask yourself: Will this issue still matter in a year? In five years? If the answer is no, take a deep breath and try to move forward. Keeping things in perspective is crucial to managing stress.

2. List Some Solutions and Come Up With a Plan 

If there's a specific problem you need to fix, make a list of all possible solutions and pick the best one for your situation. Realizing that you have options and coming up with a concrete plan will have a direct effect on stress reduction. "Break the task into smaller parts so you can try to accomplish what you need to in an hour, a day and then next week so the problem becomes more manageable," suggests Kubiak.

3. Accept Those Things Beyond Your Control 

Some circumstances are simply beyond our control, and we have to learn to cope with and accept them. Fortunately, you do have control over how you react to stressful situations. Staying calm and being willing to accept emotional support from others can help in managing stress.

4. Give Yourself a Break to Relax and Recharge  

Daily stressors can creep up on you before you realize it, so treat yourself to at least one relaxing activity every day. Listening to music, meditating, writing in a journal, or enjoying a soothing bubble bath are all great ways to relax and relieve stress. "Meditation allows us to clear our minds and be able to see things in a more realistic perspective," notes Kubiak. Taking time for yourself is important for both preventing and managing stress.

5. Try to Get Some Regular Exercise Every Day

Exercise is one of the best methods for managing stress because it can relieve both the physical and emotional effects of stress. Consider fitness choices that also deliver specific stress-reducing effects like yoga, tai chi, Pilates, or one of the martial arts, all great ways to get rid of pent-up stress and negativity. "Exercise can help regulate and dissipate in a productive way those 'fight or flight' stress chemicals in the brain," says Kubiak.

6. Open Up to People and Express Your Feelings

If something's bothering you, don't keep it to yourself. Talk to people you trust, like friends, family, or coworkers, about what's on your mind. Even if you're not looking for specific advice, it usually feels good just to get your feelings out into the open.

7. Set Reasonable Expectations in Your Daily Life

Being busy is sometimes inevitable, but regularly taking on more than you can manage can cause unwanted and unwelcome stress. Tell yourself that it's okay to say no to activities at your child's school or to extra projects at work — you are not obligated to accept every request made of you. Additionally, don't take on more financial responsibilities — such as a new car or a bigger house — if you think they'll be a stretch. Being realistic about your finances is an important strategy for managing stress.

8. Resolve Issues Before They Become Crises

It’s human nature to avoid unpleasant topics and circumstances, but if you're concerned about a brewing situation, whether it's at work or at home, address it early to keep it from becoming more serious, harder to solve, and more stressful for you. Problems are always easier to handle before they develop into full-blown calamities.

Everyone feels stress — it's impossible to avoid it all the time. But it is possible to keep stress under control by setting realistic expectations of yourself, learning how to keep problems in perspective, and enjoying relaxing breaks from the daily demands of life.

Physical Fitness

How to be physically fit

Any type of regular, physical activity can improve your fitness and your health. The most important thing is that you keep moving!

Exercise should be a regular part of your day, like brushing your teeth, eating, and sleeping. It can be in gym class, joining a sports team, or working out on your own. Keep the following tips in mind:

• Stay positive and have fun. A good mental attitude is important. Find an activity that you think is fun. You are more likely to keep with it if you choose something you like. A lot of people find it's more fun to exercise with someone else, so see if you can find a friend or family member to be active with you.
• Take it one step at a time. Small changes can add up to better fitness. For example, walk or ride your bike to school or to a friend's house instead of getting a ride. Get on or off the bus several blocks away and walk the rest of the way. Use the stairs instead of taking the elevator or escalator.
• Get your heart pumping. Whatever you choose, make sure it includes aerobic activity that makes you breathe harder and increases your heart rate. This is the best type of exercise because it increases your fitness level and makes your heart and lungs work better. It also burns off body fat. Examples of aerobic activities are basketball, running, or swimming.
• Don't forget to warm up with some easy exercises or mild stretching before you do any physical activity. This warms your muscles up and may help protect against injury. Stretching makes your muscles and joints more flexible too. It is also important to stretch out after you exercise to cool down your muscles.

Your goal should be to do some type of exercise every day. It is best to do some kind of aerobic activity without stopping for at least 20 to 30 minutes each time. Do the activity as often as possible, but don't exercise to the point of pain.

A Healthy Lifestyle

In addition to exercise, making just a few other changes in your life can help keep you healthy, such as

• Watch less TV or spend less time playing computer or video games. (Use this time to exercise instead!) Or exercise while watching TV (for example, sit on the floor and do sit-ups and stretches; use hand weights; or use a stationary bike, treadmill, or stair climber).
• Eat 3 healthy meals a day, including at least 4 servings of fruits, 5 servings of vegetables, and 4 servings of dairy products.
• Make sure you drink plenty of fluids before, during, and after any exercise (water is best but flavored sports drinks can be used if they do not contain a lot of sugar). This will help replace what you lose when you sweat.
• Stop drinking or drink fewer regular soft drinks.
• Eat less junk food and fast food. (They're often full of fat, cholesterol, salt, and sugar.)
• Get 9 to 10 hours of sleep every night.
• Don't smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, or do drugs

Self Confidence

9 Lessons for Practicing Self-Confidence

1. Stand or Sit in a Posture of Confidence

An individual’s posture does not just reflect the level of confidence or insecurity. Posture sends messages to the brain that informs you exactly how you feel. That being said, if you need to feel confident, you want your posture to send your brain that message. So stand tall, sit up straight, and have a smile on your face.

2. Practice Presence

Similar to the concept of mindfulness, proven to have significant benefits for your physical and psychological well-being. You can practice mindfulness anytime, anywhere. You can give try it right now by following these steps:

• Become aware of your awareness; that is, begin to observe yourself and your surroundings.

• Start with your body sensations, feeling your feet and legs, your belly and chest, your arms, neck, and head.

• Notice your breath flowing in and out, the many sensations that you are experiencing.

• Let your eyes notice what is in your visual field, your ears, what they are hearing. Perhaps sensations of smell and taste will come to awareness as well.
• Then, go beyond these simple sensations to feel the energy, the quiet, or the noises that surround you. Feel your presence.

3. Build Your Capacity for Energy

What does this mean? A bit of stress can be useful to keep us alert and give us the extra energy needed to perform. Try reframing your nervous jitters as excitement! Knowing how to engage with these feelings in your body will expand your presence rather than shrinking it down.

4. Exercise Regularly

Exercise has a powerful effect on confidence. Regular exercise releases endorphins which in turn interact with the opiate receptors in the brain. This brings a type of pleasurable state of mind and in turn, you’ll view yourself in a more positive light. 

When you are regularly doing this not only will you get better physically but you will feel more motivated to act in ways that build your self-confidence.

5. Visualize: Imagine Confidence

Close your eyes and relax your body completely. Stay firmly connected with the sensation of relaxation and, in your mind’s eye, see yourself speaking on camera or doing whatever activity for which you require more confidence. Allow the feelings of comfortable presence pervade your body and your mind.

6. Give Yourself Permission To Be In The Process, Take Risks and Make Mistakes

From the outside, we often think, “wow, everybody else is more happy, beautiful, creative, successful, active, etc. than me. I’m just not good enough to be like them”. What we don’t tend to consider is that failure is inherent in accomplishment and that in order to pursue our goals we have to work hard and face our weaknesses. Even those who are exceptional in some areas of life are likely struggling in others.

What we don’t tend to consider is that failure is inherent in accomplishment and that in order to pursue our goals we have to work hard and face our weaknesses. Even those who are exceptional in some areas of life are likely struggling in others.

Allow yourself to be a learner, to be a novice. Trust that it’s okay not to be perfect; in fact, you’ll likely provide inspiration to others in similar situations.

When breaking out of your comfort zone and starting something new, you are expanding your own limitations and when you successfully complete something that is out of your confidence zone, you are building confidence in yourself.

7.  Clarify Your Goals

Making progress towards personally meaningful goals is the scaffolding upon which healthy self-confidence is built. In his book, Flourish Seligman proposes PERMA, a 5-factor framework for well-being in which the “A” stands for accomplishment.

The S.M.A.R.T goals system offers a guideline for goal-setting in which goals are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. This system is based on research that suggests that these types of goals lead to greater and more consistent achievement (Locke, 1968).

When considering what goals you’d like to set for yourself, it may be helpful to start big considering your core values and life goals. Then you can come up with actionable steps to work toward these. Writing a personal mission statement is a great way to give yourself some direction.

8. Speak Well to Yourself

It’s always delightful to get good feedback from others. However, always seeking approval from outside yourself is an easy trap.

Speak to yourself with self-confession, kindness, and encouragement. After all, the most important relationship you have in your life is with yourself- make it a good one!

Many of us struggle to ask for help due to fear of rejection or being seen as incompetent. In Western cultures, the high value placed on self-reliance gets in the way of reaching out to others even though this is a necessary part of working toward our goals. However, conversely,  a core feature of self-confidence also lies in being valued by others.

9. Ask For Help and Offer Your Help to Others

Many of us struggle to ask for help due to fear of rejection or being seen as incompetent. In Western cultures, the high value placed on self-reliance gets in the way of reaching out to others even though this is a necessary part of working toward our goals. However, conversely,  a core feature of self-confidence also lies in being valued by others. 

Body Language

Body Language is a type of nonverbal communication in which physical behavior, as opposed to words, are used to express or convey information. Such behavior includes facial expressions, body posture, gestures eye movement, touch and the use of space. Body language exists in both animals and humans, but this article focuses on interpretations of human body language. It is also known as kinesics.

Body language must not be confused with sign language, as, sign languages are full languages like spoken languages and have their own complex grammar systems, as well as being able to exhibit the fundamental properties that exist in all languages. Body language, on the other hand, does not have a grammar system and must be interpreted broadly, instead of having an absolute meaning corresponding with a certain movement, so it is not a language like sign language and is simply termed as a "language" due to popular culture.

In a community, there are agreed-upon interpretations of particular behavior. Interpretations may vary from country to country, or culture to culture. On this note, there is controversy on whether body language is universal. Body language, a subset of nonverbal communication, complements verbal communication in social interaction. In fact, some researchers conclude that nonverbal communication accounts for the majority of the information. 

It includes various physical expressions like : - 

1. Facial Expressions

2. Body Postures

3. Gestures

4. Handshakes

5. Breathing

6. Different Physical Movements

Facial Expressions

Facial Expression is integral when expressing emotions through the body. Combinations of eyes, eyebrow, lips, nose, and cheek movements help form different moods of an individual (example happy, sad, depressed, angry, etc.).

A few studies show that facial expression and bodily expression (body language) are congruent when interpreting emotions. Behavioral experiments have also shown that recognition of facial expression is influenced by perceived bodily expression. This means that the brain processes the other's facial and bodily expressions simultaneously. Subjects in these studies showed accuracy in judging emotions based on facial expression. This is because the face and the body are normally seen together in their natural proportions and the emotional signals from the face and body are well integrated.

For example, a lack of crinkles around the eyes suggests a potentially fake smile. At one point, researchers believed that making a genuine smile was nearly impossible to do on command. When you're smiling joyfully, they crinkle. When you're faking it, they don't. If someone's trying to look happy but really isn't, you won't see the wrinkles. More recently, a study from Northeastern University researchers found that people could do a pretty good job of faking a Duchenne smile, even when they weren't feeling especially happy.

Body Postures

Emotions can also be detected through body postures. Research has shown that body postures are more accurately recognized when an emotion is compared with a different or neutral emotion. For example, a person feeling angry would portray dominance over the other, and their posture would display approach tendencies. Comparing this to a person feeling fearful: they would feel weak, submissive and their posture would display avoidance tendencies, the opposite of an angry person.

Sitting or standing postures also indicate one’s emotions. A person sitting till the back of their chair leans forward with their head nodding along with the discussion implies that they are open, relaxed and generally ready to listen. On the other hand, a person who has their legs and arms crossed with the foot kicking slightly implies that they are feeling impatient and emotionally detached from the discussion.

In a standing discussion, a person stands with arms akimbo with feet pointed towards the speaker could suggest that they are attentive and is interested in the conversation. However, a small difference in this posture could mean a lot. Standing with arms akimbo is considered rude in Bali.

Gestures

Gestures are movements made with body parts (example hands, arms, fingers, head, legs) and they may be voluntary or involuntary. Arm gestures can be interpreted in several ways. In a discussion, when one stands, sits or even walks with folded arms, it is normally not a welcoming gesture. It could mean that they have a closed mind and are most likely unwilling to listen to the speaker’s viewpoint. Another type of arm gesture also includes an arm crossed over the other, demonstrating insecurity and a lack of confidence.

According to Barbara Pease and Allan Pease, authors of "The Definitive Book of Body Language", everybody does shoulder shrug. The shrug is a good example of a universal gesture that is used to show that a person doesn't understand what you are saying. "It's multiple gestures that have three main parts," they continue. "Exposed palms to show nothing is being concealed in the hands, hunched shoulders to protect the throat from attack, and raised brow, which is a universal, submissive greeting."

Hand gestures often signify the state of well-being of the person making them. Relaxed hands indicate confidence and self-assurance, while clenched hands may be interpreted as signs of stress or anger. If a person is wringing their hands, this demonstrates nervousness and anxiety.

Finger gestures are also commonly used to exemplify one's speech as well as denote the state of well-being of the person making them. In certain cultures, pointing using one's index finger is deemed acceptable. However, pointing at a person may be viewed as aggressive in other cultures—for example, people who share Hindu beliefs consider finger pointing offensive. Instead, they point with their thumbs. Likewise, the thumbs up gesture could show "OK" or "good" in countries like the US, France, and Germany. But this same gesture is insulting in other countries like Iran, Bangladesh, and Thailand, where it is the equivalent of showing the middle finger in the US.

In most cultures, the Head Nod is used to signify 'Yes' or agreement. It's a stunted form of bowing - the person symbolically goes to bow but stops short, resulting in a nod. Bowing is a submissive gesture so the Head Nod shows we are going along with the other person's point of view. Research conducted with people who were born deaf, dumb and blind shows that they also use this gesture to signify 'Yes', so it appears to be an inborn gesture of submission.

Handshakes

Handshakes are regular greeting rituals and commonly done on the meeting, greeting, offering congratulations or after the completion of an agreement. They usually indicate the level of confidence and emotion level in people. Studies have also categorized several handshake styles, e.g. the finger squeeze, the bone crusher (shaking hands too strongly), the limp fish (shaking hands too weakly), etc. Handshakes are popular in the US and are appropriate for use between men and women. However, in Muslim cultures, men may not shake hands or touch women in any way and vice versa. Likewise, in Hindu cultures, Hindu men may never shake hands with women. Instead, they greet women by placing their hands as if praying.

A firm, friendly handshake has long been recommended in the business world as a way to make a good first impression, and the greeting is thought to date to ancient times as a way of showing a stranger you had no weapons.

Breathing

Body language related to breathing and patterns of breathing can be indicative of a person's mood and state of mind; because of this, the relationship between body language and breathing is often considered in contexts such as business meetings and presentations. Generally, deeper breathing which uses the diaphragm and abdomen more is interpreted as conveying a relaxed and confident impression; by contrast, shallow, excessively rapid breathing is often interpreted as conveying a more nervous or anxious impression.

Some business advisers, such as those who promote neuro-linguistic programming recommend mirroring a person's breathing pattern in order to convey an impression of mutual understanding.

Different Physical Movements

Covering one’s mouth suggests suppression of feeling and perhaps uncertainty. This could also mean that they are thinking hard and may be unsure of what to say next. What you communicate through your body language and nonverbal signals affects how others see you, how well they like and respect you, and whether or not they trust you.

Unfortunately, many people send confusing or negative nonverbal signals without even knowing it. When this happens, both connection and trust are damaged.

Self Management

Success starts with self-management

The world's greatest leaders are experts at self-management. Any position of authority or responsibility for others requires you to be able to manage yourself, before managing others.If you can master these 5 self-management skills, you'll be on track to a happy and successful life both personally and professionally.

Positivity

You can’t fake true positivity. Well, not for long anyway. Positivity must come from the inside in order to be seen on the outside. The first step to developing a positive outlook is having long-term and short-term goals. Motivate yourself to achieve them with a constant stream of positivity. Refuse to allow negativity into your mind. As you complete your goals, you’ll start to see a snowball effect. Keep your eyes on the end goal and do something every day to get one step closer. Don’t be too hard on yourself, and always acknowledge your successes. The thing about genuine positivity is that it’s infectious. Project your positivity onto those around you and build a positive environment at work and at home.

Self-awareness

Understanding the causes of your own behavior is an incredibly important skill to have. We all know someone who is completely oblivious to their own actions, why they do them and the effect they have on others. Learn to observe yourself from an objective standpoint. Be your own manager. Ask others to judge you. At first, you may not like what you hear. However, instead of becoming defensive, make a genuine effort to remain neutral. Self-awareness is a valuable skill that few truly master. It takes years of effort to truly achieve, so start working on it today. Interested in becoming a manager? Having amazing people management skills is what differentiates a good manager from a great one. 

Stress management

Stress has ruined lives. If you’re the type to make mountains out of molehills, you’re on a fast track to an early coronary and burnout. But, don’t stress! There’s always a solution. Implementing effective stress techniques will allow you to be proactive in managing the things that pop up in life, rather than reacting in negative ways. The energy that fuels impulsive behavior, such as angry outbursts, is the same energy that can be harnessed to motivate you to reach further and higher than ever before. When something stresses you out or drives you to anger, use that event as motivation. The key to managing stress effectively is delaying your initial reaction and thinking about an effective way to deal with a situation. Take the time to breathe, think and relax. Only then are you in a good state of mind to make the right choices about how to move forward.


Responsibility

Taking responsibility for your actions is step one towards true self-management. From a very young age, school teaches us to take responsibility for ourselves. However, many of us never master this skill. Prioritize your most important responsibilities. Take care of tasks as they come up, and most importantly, accept the mistakes you make. There is nothing wrong with making a mistake. There is, however, something wrong with failing to learn from a mistake. Expanding your responsibilities is exciting. Self-development is all about expanding your horizons, and that comes with responsibility. Take it, own it, and develop yourself. When you slip up (and you will slip up), accept it and move forward.

Productivity

The best path towards higher productivity is to manage your downtime. Got a huge load of work to knock out in a single day? Ensure you schedule breaks and enjoy them. If you’ve got a big year coming up, schedule a weekend where you can relax and unwind.It’s impossible to operate at 100% capacity all of the time. Proper planning and time management are the key to getting the most out of your day.If you’re losing focus or failing to make progress, switch tasks and come back later. Don’t bang your head against a wall, it never works out.

Emotional Intelligence

Definition: Emotional intelligence refers to the capability of a person to manage and control his or her emotions and possess the ability to control the emotions of others as well. In other words, they can influence the emotions of other people also. 

Description: Emotional intelligence is a very important skill in leadership. It is said to have five main elements such as - self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills. 

Let’s understand each one of them in detail. 

What is self-awareness? 

If you are self-aware of what you are going through, you would be in a better position to understand others, and affect people around you. It also means you are aware of your strengths as well as weaknesses. When you experience anger, hold that moment and think what made you so angry. Keeping a journal always helps. 

What is self-regulation? 

Self-regulation is the next step wherein you think before speaking. It is an important aspect where you can regulate yourself. This will impact others in a positive way rather than in negatively. Hold yourself accountable in case you make a mistake, and try to remain calm in every situation. 

What is motivation? 

When you are motivated to do a series of tasks you will be in a better position to influence others. Work towards your goals consistently. Show your employees how the work is done and lead by example. Even if you are faced with a challenge try and find something good about the situation. 

What is empathy? 

When you are able to put yourself in other’s shoe and think about a situation, it is known as empathy. Every successful leads should know how to empathise with others, if you want to earn their respect. 

What are social skills? 

The last aspect is social skills and it is one of the important aspects. Social skills are all about communicating your point of view to. They are able to build a rapport with others which makes the relationship more comfortable.

What is More Important Talent or Hardwork ?

Talent is an inborn quality that gives you a smart way to achieve. Talent is futile unless you go for it. One should never sit on a couch and expect for a good result. Just because you have talent doesn’t mean you can go on the field and be the star of the team. “Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.”

Whereas hard work is more important than talent as talent will only carry one so far. If one is not willing to put in the work to harvest and cultivate their talent, then the talent itself is essentially useless. Hard work and perseverance will beat out pure talent any day. Therefore, if talent and hard work go hand in hand it provides better results. If you are lucky to be born with the brains that are capable of potential genius, you cannot become a true genius without motivation. Here is where the hard work comes into play. Anyone can have an idea, vision, or dream, but it takes that 99% working hard to make it closer to becoming a reality.

Talent gives you a head start, but hard work makes you finish the race. We’ve all heard that hard work is the key to success but sometimes the talent overpowers hard work and people get a better outcome.

Hard work is way more important than talent because hard work can get you to place even a scholarship to a good college many people believe that talent is more official than hard work but it’s really not because talent can only get you so far in life.

Most of the time the application of hard work talent becomes futile. Therefore hard work is more important than natural talent. Over the years researchers, have discovered that hardworking capacity is a major component of intellectual ability, predicts success in a wide variety of complex activities.

Talent is never enough because in most of the cases hard work always leads talent in the long run because just “having” talent doesn’t do anything. One needs to apply the right talent in the right way in whatever you do and applying our talents always require us to work hard.

Most of the people are not very talented but they are hard working. It takes time for a person to understand the materials putting a lot of hard work on it, and completing the task fantastically. Some are born genius and they score good grades but not every person is not a genius but they have managed to get A’s in every field. That’s the result of hard work.

Always strive to make a conscious effort to use your talent and hard work in a systematic manner to get better results. Talent is a word to acknowledge the ‘hard work’, so maybe, in reality, talent and hard work are not two separate things in our minds but, in reality, they are different. Einstein was wise to say ‘’ It means, even more, coming from a man of his intellect!). Who else is better to take it from than a person such as himself? Yes, Einstein undoubtedly had talent. But would this talent have gotten anywhere if he had sat around all day? No, he had put in loads of hard work to a make his name in history for every aspiring generation.