Eighty-five percent of employees report they are losing sleep due to work-related stress, according to a survey by global talent mobility consulting firm Lee Hecht Harrison. The study found that only 15% rarely or never experience troubled sleep.
Stress affects us both physically and psychologically. Physically, we might feel the proverbial butterflies in our stomachs, a pounding in our chest, or knots in our stomach during a stressful situation.
We live in stressful times.
Television and radio shows bombard us with pictures and tales of disasters, natural and man-made. We no longer live small lives, we are members of a fragile global economy. So much of what stresses us is beyond our control.
Coupled with this, we sometimes stagger under the weight of our personal burdens, everything from managing the home to maintaining relationships, handling workplace issues, addressing health concerns, finances, and day-to-day decisions.
We can handle those for short periods of time, but if the situation continues, the negative physical and psychological affects will increase. When we are continually under chronic stress, our bodies react negatively sooner or later.
Stress Reduction Takes Practice
The first step in stress reduction is to be able to identify stress-reduction activities that work well to help us manage our stress.
Meditation, prayer, and exercise are proven winners for just about everyone, but there are other measures that can have great beneficial effects: reading, watching television, a walk in the woods, crafts, music, yoga, fishing, a coffee break out of the office, lunch with a friend, a visit with someone special, gardening, crafts.
Just as you cannot read a fitness magazine and automatically become fit, you cannot read about stress reduction and have stress automatically dissipate. It takes practice to train our minds to focus on positive things.
When we take responsibility for ourselves alone and we allow others to be who they are, then we will find our stress levels drop significantly.
Too often we can’t capture the feeling of contentment because of material worries, immaterial worries, or because of a sense of frustration about the good things we haven’t made time for in our lives. Think about those for a moment, then consider what—if anything—you can do to make your dreams a reality.
You deserve that! If you can, get started on these—they will be sure ways to reduce or eliminate stress and to increase a sense not only of contentment, but excitement.
Source: 
When Doing It All Won't Do: A Self-Coaching Guide for Career Women--Workbook Edition--Paperback
Every now and then a person runs across a great book that really helps improve the quality of life. This is such a book! Written by top coaches of executive women, Barb McEwen and John Agno, the goal of When Doing It All Won’t Do is to develop solutions and strategies to help women’s lives be easier, richer, happier, and saner.
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Well-organized with real solutions and a helpful workbook section, this book focuses on developing your signature talents to do what you do best, developing a formula for success, and prioritizing your values and goals. A great read!
