Saturday

Critical Incident Stress Management

What is Critical Incident Stress Management Therapy
The critical incident stress management, or CISM, is a short term therapy which helps people to return to their normal routine at the earliest possible, after they experience any traumatic event. Its main objective is to avoid any post-traumatic stress disorder one might face after a disturbing incident.

So, how do we define critical incidents? Critical incidents are any painful events which might induce strong emotional reactions in people who experienced them. Line of duty deaths, suicide of an associate, multi-casualty and terrorism related incidents top the list of critical incidents. Beside these, other stressful circumstances include serious injuries at work, threat to the person, a stressful incident, a long-standing event with depressing results, events involving children and events in which the victim is known to the person. Generally, CISM is designed to help people from all walks of life. However, it has proved to be more productive for members of the law enforcements and emergency response teams such as fire-fighters, bomb disposal squads and the medical staff. Individuals from such teams feel more comfortable with their peers and are usually of the view that their friends and family from other professions do not understand their difficulties the way they do.
The Critical incident stress management program facilitates people in dealing with their strain one event at a time. The therapist asks the participants to talk about the particular incident without passing any judgement or criticism. All the interpretations are kept confidential and are only used to evaluate whether the person pose a threat to himself or to others. The program aims at returning the affected people to their normal lives and reducing the stress levels elevated by critical incidents. Though even after the treatment, the stress level of the patient tends to remain higher than the previous one; it is set at the lowest possible level.

The type of approach varies according to the scenario, number of people involved and their appropinquity to the incident. But usually a three step procedure is adopted which includes defusing, debriefing and individual follow-up.

Defusing is done to those who are directly involved in the event, just before they get a chance to sleep. This may also be done at the site of incident, and is commonly done in an informal way. The purpose of defusing is to satisfy the people involved that their feelings are perfectly normal and rational. They are asked to watch over some symptoms for a short period of time and are provided with a telephone number, in case they need to talk to someone.
Debriefings are the second stage of this therapy for those who have undergone defusing, and the first one for those who are indirectly involved in the incident. Generally, debriefings are done within 72 hours of the incident and they give the chance to the individuals or groups involved to speak out their minds and narrate their experience and the way it has affected them. Furthermore, a variety of methods are discussed through brainstorming, which will help the individuals/groups to cope up with their normal lives. In addition, they are also informed about the services offered to them by their communities. As per the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation (ICISF), the debriefing procedure consists of seven steps. They include: introduction of the intervener and the participant, individual’s perspective of the event and its details, their emotional responses, their personal reactions and actions, discussion of the symptoms they experience after the event, analysis of those symptoms and the persuasion that their feelings are a normal response to a strange event and sooner or later the effects will attenuate with time. Although attendance at the debriefing is a compulsion, however participation is not. At the end, the participants are offered a drink or a treat and are then sent to their normal tasks. The interveners identify those participants who are not coping up well with the therapy, and therefore offer them with further support at the end of the debriefing session.

The most crucial stage of this mental healing is the follow-up. In this procedure, all the participants are called within a week after the debriefing to confirm that they are safe and are following the treatment. If necessary, the therapist may also refer them to a professional counselor.

The critical incident stress management may seem to be a breakthrough in avoiding a post-traumatic stress disorder; several studies have declared it as counter-productive. According to these studies, the CISM has little or no effect and may bump up the trauma symptoms. Conversely, another study states that the CISM therapy has valuable outcomes when aimed at emergency services and law enforcement personnel, but is ineffective when directed upon accident victims.

All in all, the Critical Incident Stress Management therapy has emerged as an effective technique to help people get over their sufferings. In the light of increasing terrorist attacks, the therapy is crucial for those who have lost their loved ones in these attacks. Thus, the CISM therapy ensures that the person does not develop other mental disorders and does not pose a threat o himself or others around him.


Wednesday

Better Stress Management Training

What is an Effective Stress Management Training?

The principal rule which will ultimately make you a stress-free individual is the acceptance of the fact that you possess the power to overcome your problems and existence of this will power is the basis of stress management training. Majority of us are still unaware of the strong will power within each of us. Why is it that being sick, you still possess the energy to switch on the television, grab the remote and watch your favourite program but feel completely weak to study for your upcoming exam?

Stress hinders your daily routine and affects your mental and physical health. Many of us have acknowledged it as a part of our daily lives and are constantly being threatened by its dangerous effects. Natalie Goldberg, an American author, seems to ignore its very sole existence. Her perception of stress is as follows:

“Stress is an ignorant state. It believes that everything is an emergency. Nothing is that important.”

That is the exact view of organizations offering stress management training programs. They suggest various activities which in due course enable you to drain away strain from your lives. Covering a wide array of problems with their expertise, they assist people with work-related and personal stress. Through interactive learning and practical applications, participants boost up their self-confidence and appear to handle situations well when they’re tense. The participants are taught to explore their problems with a positive mind and ignore the very existence of any thoughts which might produce negative outcomes.

The program trains the participants how to effectively divide their time for work, friends and community, family and for themselves. It educates them in dealing with work overload and the pressures and demands between work and personal life. Usually the program train people in groups, hence the participants tend to share their personal experiences with other group members and discuss their very own approach to the problems they face. In addition to this, brainstorming sessions are conducted throughout the entire program in order to enhance their problem-solving skills.

As a part of the program, the participants learn how to fit new additions to their daily tight schedules by organizing their time wisely. The addition may be an overload at work or an outing with the family. The training also focuses on helping the individuals in creating a perfect balance between their office and personal life.

To counter work related stress, participants are reminded about their commitment to their job and their role as an employee. They are also told that that their success directly depends upon their contribution to the company. To reduce such pressure, they are exposed to simple physical and mental exercises which they may easily perform at their work. First of all, they are asked to include short frequent breaks between their tasks to divert their minds from the workload. Secondly, they are advised to perceive that they are capable of completing their work at time and they will accomplish the job without compromising on the time they intend to spend with their families or friends. When feeling stresses-out, they are also directed to listen to some soothing and relaxing music to clear away their minds and cope up with the workload.

In addition to on-job activities, the institutions also recommend some off-job ways of reducing stress. Now this may vary from program to program. Some may suggest yoga while others may propose a short early morning walk around the neighbourhood. However, both are equally effective and beneficial to the participant, as both are aimed at keeping the person calm and relaxed.

Several programs adopt a very different practice in helping out the distressed participants. They are asked to act as counsellors to people living in their areas and help them in getting rid of their stress. In this manner, the participants look upon their strain level as insignificant as compared to those they are dealing with. Also, they prescribe them the same methods they have been taught to overcome stress and their belief in the effectiveness of such methods further strengthens. Sharing their own experiences with others and their strategy to counter intense pressures bumps up their self-confidence and gives them the mental satisfaction that they are now in complete control of their lives.

While the techniques and methods of each stress management training program may vary, however their objective is same; to bring back the people to their normal stress-free routine and improve their decision making skills in severe pressurizing situations. These programs intend to trim down personal stress and increase the productivity of the individual at work and at home. Moreover, the participants are trained to hook up with their friends and families in better ways. The participants are taught to enjoy their work and live their life the way they want to. Besides, stress management training also helps in reducing the number of suicide attempts per year. Hence, such programs generate highly responsible members of the society, which give their valuable input for its prosperity.


Tuesday

Effective Stress Management Tools

The Effective and Helpful Stress management tools :

There are wide and many numbers of stress management tools available in the market or on the internet, which can be of great help. Following are the number of management tools used for catering for stress, which are authentic and suitable for stress management.

Get rid of the Stress with the Stress Relief Balls

There are many easily available tools in the market, which are best fit for relieving the hectic daily life pressure. It is the daily situation of business life, where the mental and physical abilities of people are continuously put on the stage of experiment. These highly demanding environments put a strong level of stress on the people, and this is the occasion where we need the stress relief balls. Most of the time, the common color of stress balls is yellow and it is entirely made up of rubber or some other relevant material, when this balls is pressed, its air comes out and suddenly after retakes it former shape. For making these balls more attractive and labeling a happy symbol, it is generally has a smiley face. Many people are aware of their impact of stress balls on their stress level, when people use it, they feel their gentle and tenderly soft material and its effect on their mind and muscle. In this, many people agree that it works to lower down the stress.

A Self Help Quiz on Anxiety

During this atomic and modern life, it is a reality that we come across with Anxiety, Depression and Stress. It is obvious that in our normal daily life, if we do something and we are not sure about the outcome, we feel or tend to incline towards the stress without any explanation. If this is the case, than we are the victim of one of the different types of stress disorders.

The main asking question would be how you going to check that you are suffering from any stress disorder? Answer would be that you can ask yourself questions or quiz about your stress. We can ask ourselves that when we wake up in the morning, we feel or have a smile on our face or we feel stressful or anxious. This practice will show us the level and state of our mind and on that occasion we don not let the tension prevail. This particular question will reveal that, we are living a normal life or life with certain stressful disorder.

This practice of quiz will give you an analysis about the level and impact of stress in your daily life. These kinds of questions are directly related with your mind and physical activities.

Tests for Stress

Without the doubt, stress is a non negligible part of our life. All of us, some how we faced stress with minor or major effects on our daily life, for some it happens many times and for others it might happens once. Small quantity of stress is sometimes better for us, for it may teach us as how to deal with more vigorous situation or anxious stages of our life. A parallel and firm feeling of stress will restrict you from happiness and distort your attitude towards the beauties and joy of life.

There are well documented, seven types of stress. These are common stress disorder, gregarious phobia, phobia of going into public places, post-traumatic stress disorder, sudden panic or wild disorder, obsessive state disorder and specific or particular phobia. There are certain familiar signs and symptoms, but the factors for these types of stress disorders are different from the above mentioned.

In a rough analysis, about 30 to 40 million people in America and this size could be more in Pakistan, which suffers from stress related disorders. Stress tests will help you to identify about how much interference, stress have onto your daily normal life or living. By carefully analyzing the tests, it will help you to highlight that which type of stress disorder you are suffering from.

There are numbers of stress tests that we can grow through. These stress tests will help us to check our level of stress. Among the several tests, one such stress test is given below in detail. Answer the following questions as accurately as possible and with honestly. These kinds of stress tests are always easy and simple. People can practice that kind of tests online.

Here are some of the questions for analyzing our stress. We have to answer them in YES or NO.

1. Do you any negative feelings and you always feels worry about any things all the time in your daily routine?
2. Have you affected anytime with breathing problems, heart throbbing or severe sweating?
3. Do you have a fear of getting die or a fear of loosing your temper?
4. When you attend the social gathering, will you remain agitated or tense throughout?
5. Do you want to runaway to avoid attending such occasions?
6. Do you have fear in communicating with strangers or while leaving your house?
7. Do you in habit of carrying out any work repeatedly or unwillingly?
8. Does any unfortunate incident from the past haunt you permanently?

If some of you answer these questions in YES, then those of you are suffering from stress disorder but the good news is that you can use stress management tools to help yourself counter stress.


Stress Management for Teens

How to Manage Stress in Teenage:

Eighteen years old, David is quite struggling with his many roles in real life. He has to look after his father’s shop after the school, has to complete his home work assignments, prepare for the upcoming semester exam. He also want to give some of his friend a good time, has to play his beloved game, “Cricket”. At the same, David is so much desperate to complete his all daily works, he has a feeling of being over exited, sometimes pessimistic and totally out of control and genuinely called, “Stressed out teen for help”. David’s daily routine is the common amongst the many teens, whose facing stress situation similarly to his.

“Stress” is defined as the reaction of our mind and bodies to the different circumstances of daily life. It is because that the teenage is usually the stage of rapid change, it’s that the social, physical and academic, majority of the teens are more inclined towards the pressure or stress in this stage of life than at any other.
Factors increasing the Stress:

• Education problems and career planning
• what to wear or make certain types of clothing or hairstyles
• How to refuse or accept the drugs, alcohol or even sex
• How to fit into social and community groups and checking with others
• How to check and accommodate with different physical changes
• Managing time between family and groups
• How to look onto different routinely activities simultaneously

The teens have to look over those factors and they have to learn, how to handle these stress related problems. The professional help is not out of question in this regard, if not properly handled; this may lead to several illnesses, including severe depression, anxiety and some mental and physical signs of illness.
Signs of “Stressed out” teenagers:

• Signs of physical illness, like dizziness, headaches, muscles stiffness with pain, fever and severe fatigue.)
• Social isolation and distance from family members
• Bad temperament and irritating behavior among themselves and others
• Increase in or towards Pessimism ideology
• Nervous breakdown and increase in sense of worry and agitation
• Sleep and eating disorder
• Loss of focus

Natural reaction or our body biological response against the overload daily routine would sometimes be an uneven blood pressure, irregular heart cycle, hoarse breathing, and a suicidal sense of escape from all the worries. However, opposite to it, the teenagers can easily over these biological reactions, by clearly and calmly thinking to relax the mind; so the blood pressure would be normal, regular hear cycle, calm and routine breathing, and a clear optimistic thinking . To easily overcome such targets, there are numerous stress management skills that teenagers can adopt.

Lessons of Stress Management for Teenagers
• Before doing of anything, take a deep breath and feeling of being in the full control. (“Whispering the words that I can handle this situation alone.”)
• Before attempting, gradually relax muscles, especially the large muscles of the body.
• Always sets the small objectives to achieve and sets the smaller daily tasks
• Perform daily physical exercise and use well balanced diet, and avoid the unnecessary drugs
• Concentrate on the work in hand and forget worrying about the work on later time
• Practice and rehearse the difficult situations that might get you in trouble (e.g., speech practice or taking someone on a date.)
• Always share your obstacle of your daily life with reliable friends, including your parents and teachers
• Always makes the unrealistic approach at a minimum scale
• Take the schedule breaks and indulge into happy and enjoyable events, such as games, art classes, music and socializing.

• Be in yourself and satisfied with your abilities, identify within yourself the weaknesses and strengths, but always remember that no one is perfect.

All the activities which should be prohibited among the teens are well adapted, and there are no other reasons, which are not defined above. Improvement in teens life, are only when there is decrease in stress among them. Only authentic remedy would be to spread common stress management techniques, especially in the age bracket of 10 – 16 years, and let them decide, what is better for them. By forcing, or to persuade them to adopt the ways and means to overcome the daily problems, will ultimately leads towards another dilemma of stress; so it is better to and sometime very helpful to develop such a strategy which they easily accommodate themselves. Stress management is a time taking phenomenon and it is worthwhile for teens as well.


Stress Management Therapy Techniques

Different Stress Management Therapy Techniques: An Insight

In this post I would shed some light on the stress management therapy techniques used to combat stress in one’s life. The techniques involved in curbing stress are commonly known as Stress Management Therapy. Stress management is not done by ordinary people but it is done by professionals like Doctors, Psychiatrists and qualified therapists. Further on I would explain the basics and slowly moving to complex topics which will clearly help you in the time to come.

Let us start from the basics What is Stress? Now, the most commonly known definition of stress (mainly credited to Richard S Lazarus) is that “stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize”. Different people behave differently when presented with the same problem. This means that stress has a different affect on each individual. The symptoms which are visible and show that a person is under stress are also important and help to diagnose a problem before it enhances itself into a bigger challenge. Some of the symptoms are given below:

• High blood pressure.
• Palpitation.
• Sweaty hands.
• Becoming prone to illnesses.
• Headaches.
• Anger.
• Eating disorder
• Insomnia.

These symptoms are the tell tale signs of stress and should never be ignored and should be tackled effectively before things get out of hand. Stress when left untreated is one of the major causes of serious diseases and disorders. Some of them are:

• Depression and anxiety.
• Drug abuse.
• Heart diseases.

This would give you a brief insight into what stress means and what harmful effects it can have on a person’s life. Moving on to the treatment and cure of this problem, one can firstly help themselves and if they can’t handle it then move on to therapy which would be done by professionals. The simple things or techniques one should adopt to reduce stress are given below:

• Break down every big job into small parts so you are not overwhelmed.
• Do neck rolls frequently throughout the day to relieve the stiffness in neck
• Avoid being a perfectionist. Just do your best
• Take time out from your work. Schedule regular vacations.
• Exercise regularly and moderately
• Maintain a reasonable diet.
• Develop outside interests and activities.
• Talk it out. Confide to someone close
• Listen to soothing sounds or music.
• Participate in hobbies, sports, games, reading.
• Build friendships, join a social group or society
• Most importantly become an optimist.

If things are still getting out of hand then one must without any hesitation seek professional advice. This is called Stress Management Therapy. Let us explore the therapy part of stress treatment. Stress Therapy exists to help individuals out and is used to free people of stress so they can lead a happy life. As mentioned earlier the first step to stress therapy is identification of the conditions in which a person feels stress. In stress management the counselors or psychiatrists gain the person’s confidence and start to probe their lives to identify the root causes of stress. The counselor then moves on to treating this issue by either eliminating the cause of it or secondly decreasing the fear of those situations where stress is generally felt by their patients. This second technique will teach the patient to adapt to those situations. An example is in order so let me explain a situation we all have felt one time or the other. The problem I am referring to is ‘stage fright’ or the inability to speak in front of an audience. We all have experienced sweaty palms and dizziness when we go on stage, in this situation the first treatment of eliminating similar situations is virtually impossible so the second treatment is more suitable and effective i.e. overcoming this fear and learning to adapt to this problem. Some treatments have been given above in the above section.
Stress Therapy programs employ different techniques and therapies for relaxing an individual. Some of these therapies are mentioned below:

• Hypnotherapy
• Pharmaceutical Therapy
• Rational emotive behavior therapy.

Now I will give some information regarding these therapies.

Hypnotherapy: Hypnotherapy is used to combat stress related issues, it involves treating the issue by putting the patient in a semi conscious state. Hypnotherapy is a natural state of deep relaxation and concentration. Hypnosis releases stress, tension, pressure and removes negative thoughts. Behavior therapy aids in overcoming undesired behavior and reduces stress. Problem solving therapy enables the patients to identify current problems in their life and learn to counter them. This therapy has two parts:

• Emotional aspect of the problem.
• Practical aspect of the problem.

The most important part of hypnotherapy is the willingness of the patient, without a person’s consent complete hypnosis is impossible

Pharmaceutical Therapy
This type therapy is brought into work for treating very high stress conditions. Benzodiazepines and Buspirone are the most common medications given to the patients for treatment. All the antidepressant medications are given to lower stress created by muscle tension. Aromatherapy is also a part of pharmaceutical therapy for stress in which concentrated aromatic oils or candles are used. The aromas are inhaled and carried to the nervous system of the brain for creating good effects. Crystal therapy, color therapy and reiki treatments and are also used for better management of stress. These therapies keep you stress free by refreshing the mind, body and spirit.
Rational Emotive behavior therapy: Rational emotive behavior therapy is a result oriented therapy. Rational emotive behavior therapy helps individuals to handle the problems and situations of life. It enables individuals to identify their own self defeating thoughts, beliefs and actions, and teaches them to entertain more effective and constructive thoughts. Stress management massage therapies help to release stress and strain. These involve holistic and neuromuscular treatment. The massage therapies help to overcome emotional exhaustion and overtiredness due to stress and reduce the muscle tension due to work stress. Light relaxation therapies reduce headaches, anxiety and worry. Deep relaxation therapies are used to overcome severe stress conditions like insomnia and shock.

All the above stress management therapy techniques are effective and are used for different levels of stress affecting a person. You must be ready to ask for help any time, do not feel shy or let your ego dictate you because these stresses left untreated will eventually lead you to a miserable life. Try to act on the different therapy techniques prescribed in this post and God willing you will lead a happy and stress free life


Stress Management for Teachers-Tips

How do Teachers Manage Stress- A Guide

Teachers are the foundation on which all of our education system is built upon, they not only teach children but also mould their personalities. A teacher’s job is not an easy job by far, because a teacher has to be psychologically, physically and spiritually balanced. All throughout history we have had examples of great teachers and pupils of the likes Aristotle who was a great teacher and his most notable pupil was Alexander the Great. This post would shed some light on the stresses teachers face during a typical day at school/college and how to deal with these stresses in the most effective manner. This is a highly important matter and around the world workshops are conducted for Stress Management for Teachers. This article would show all the techniques taught during these workshops in an easy and frank manner. This article would not only be informative for teachers but parents will also learn what a teacher goes through at school
We have all seen our children behave brilliantly in front of our eyes but when they go to school they have a different environment to deal in. our well mannered children may not behave so well in such conditions and the person at the receiving end is a teacher. We think that it is a teacher’s responsibility and our responsibility ends the moment we drop our child at school. We not only remove ourselves from the firing line but blame the teacher wholly if our child misbehaves or does not perform well at school. This was just a backdrop to what we as parents do, these are the kind of pressure our teachers feel. However, teachers experience a number of different pressures and stressors such as: taking work home, difficult students, difficult classes, lack of administrative support, pressure from parents, teachers’ evaluation, ongoing learning, , job uncertainty, evolution of technology. So with all these stressors, how can teachers help to manage their stress? First and foremost they must make sure to take good care of themselves. They need to understand that they are human, and as so they are just as fallible as the parents of the children that they teach. No one is perfect and we all may make mistakes from time to time. Teachers are also humans and they also have a life so they too have similar problems that we as parents have every day.

With nearly 90% of all teachers experiencing moderate to high levels of stress it is very important that teachers use stress relieving techniques to improve both their career and their health. Without the stress busting techniques a teacher will face a mountain of problems and in overcoming these issues the teacher will not be able to effectively discharge their duty.

These problems can in the long run lead to diseases and emotional distress. Some of the problems are:

• High blood pressure.
• Palpitation.
• Sweaty hands.
• Becoming prone to illnesses.
• Headaches.
• Anger.
• Eating disorder
• Insomnia

The signs and symptoms of stress which are indicated above can lead to more complicated conditions if they happen frequently. The serious conditions are:

• Depression and anxiety.
• Drug abuse.
• Heart diseases.

Enough of the ugly side of stress let us move on to how to combat these issues.

• Eat Right: The first and foremost thing is not to skip meals, by skipping meals you are depriving your body of the extra nutrients that it needs when faced with mounting levels of stress. Most importantly don’t skip breakfast which is the most important meal of the day and gives you a fresh start.

• Sleep well: - Sleep deprivation and insomnia leads you to be irritable. You may also react poorly to situations that normally would not stress you out.

• Exercise: Exercise has been validated as an important stress relief tool. It has also been found to decrease depression as well. Adopt yoga and other techniques to relieve stress. Yoga has been known to cut anxiety and stress.

• Develop a Good Sense of Humor: Remember the old saying that laughter is the best medicine? Developing a good sense of humor will keep children happy and out of mischief. They will also like you for it.

• Join teacher discussion forums: There are many teacher forums on the internet where teachers can not only vent their frustrations, but get real advice from real teachers who have experienced the same problems. Go to a counselor if you feel you need help.

• Think positive: In fact, thinking positive thoughts will end ill feeling and leave you with a light heart.

• Remember you are a role model: Feeling confident will show and students will learn from you. Set an example for them.

Summing the discussion up is that all the above techniques and habits will not only reduce stress but also make you a better person which is the most important thing. Never feel uneasy in asking for help from others, just feel at ease and ask them for assistance in matters. This will reduce your burden but will make others also feel wanted which will increase mutual cooperation and lead to a better society. These steps for bettering yourself will compel others to follow you and learn. That is what a teacher is for teaching not only subjects but bettering humanity as well and for this noble cause stress management for teachers is very important.


Monday

Personal Stress Management Tips

Stress & Personal Stress Management

This article deals with a very important issue of Stress and how to carry out personal stress management. As the topic is self explanatory Personal Stress is one of the major issues in the world right now and people don’t know how to manage it. All people around the world are affected by it and no one is free from the vicious claws of pressures of life and hectic schedule that life has taken nowadays. People sometimes succumb to these pressures and each year spend a fortune trying to overcome it by going to psychiatrists and doctors. The technique or steps to avoid these pressure situations maybe simply defined as Personal Stress Management. Here I would discuss some of the contributing factors which build up stress and most importantly some techniques to vent this stress and frustration. As the saying goes “A stitch in time saves nine”, so we must be ready to curb this problem before it becomes a major issue. So let us start.

First of all What is Stress? According to the Oxford English Dictionary stress is ”a state of mental, emotional, or other strain” stress can be attributed to coming from work, home or other such places. Stress is not the same for every individual and maybe perceived by each person in a different manner. For example riding a roller coaster maybe a form of stress for some of us but for others it is a source of entertainment. The first and foremost thing is to change your attitude and bring about a more positive outlook towards life, the reason being that stress not only affects an individual but also his environment. People around a stressed individual will also feel uneasy and uncomfortable. The first and foremost part of Personal Stress Management is the identification of stress in one’s life and also to read the signs which show if a person is in stress. These symptoms can be sub-divided into three categories Physical, Emotional and Behavioral. Let us see some of the signs or symptoms of stress in each category:

Physical Stress Signs:
• Palpitation
• Breathlesness
• Sweaty palms
• Cold hands and feet
• Headaches
• Stomach disturbances

Emotional Stress Signs:
• Irritability
• Nervousness
• Crying
• Losing temper
• Worrying

Behavioral Stress Signs:
• Insomnia
• Irregular diet
• Angry outbursts
• Withdrawing from others

The above symptoms may have given you a thorough insight into the beginning of stress in one’s life. If these symptoms exist then a person is suffering from stress and needs to slow down a bit. Now to show the ugly side of this stress is also part of this article. Excessive stress and no prevention can be disastrous and will become the building blocks of major illnesses and emotional issues such as

• Depression
• Ulcers
• Headaches
• Weight Gain/Loss.

To avoid all these serious problems one has to end the stress before it becomes a major issue. Some techniques prescribed by the experts are:

Stress reducing habits
• Break down every big job into small parts so you are not overwhelmed.
• Do neck rolls frequently throughout the day to relieve the stiffness in neck
• Avoid being a perfectionist. Just do your best
• Take time out from your work. Schedule regular vacations.
• Exercise regularly and moderately
• Maintain a reasonable diet.
• Develop outside interests and activities.
• Talk it out. Confide to someone close
• Listen to soothing sounds or music.
• Participate in hobbies, sports, games, reading.
• Build friendships, join a social group or society
• Most importantly become an optimist

Now to wrap it all up, to be frank no one can be 100% stress free so instead of being dominated by stress we should learn to adapt our life to have as little stress as possible by adopting natural ways to get rid of stress. Become an optimist so that fewer things will irritate or trouble you. When you stop regarding stress as a harmful thing then matters would improve themselves. Stress is not that bad, it brings spice to life otherwise without stress there would be hardly any motivating factor to accomplish tasks. Just consider this example, students hardly study during the term and when the term is about to end and it is time for examinations then each one is motivated by stress or forced by stress to work hard to clear the exams. Most importantly all the perception lies in the eye of the beholder, how you approach your everyday problems matter, becoming an optimist will solve more problems than you can imagine. We all love thriller movies but what we all fail to see is that these movies are also about human beings like us. Try to act like them and try to learn from movies. Books are also a source of inspiration; reading will not only improve one’s vocabulary but also increases one’s knowledge thus increasing your confidence and increasing your ability to handle difficult situations. Throughout the article I have told about stress, its symptoms and the solutions to decreasing stress. I hope that this article was informative and will help in all your personal stress management in life.


Stress Management Relaxation Techniques

It is a well documented fact that, we are so busy in our daily life that we do not even notice the harmful effects of stress and anxiety. Its related problems begin slowly and gradually and its symptoms become evident in weeks and months. It is rather easy for others, who are part of our daily life, to recognize the behavioral changes rather than by us (the victims of stress). However, there are stress management relaxation techniques to counter stress.
There are well defined two types of stress effects, one is physical and the other is perceiving effect. Physical stress related symptoms are commonly recognized through the muscles tightening, change of heart rate, increase in the blood pressure, irregular breathing, sweating and adrenaline secretion may also be the sign. On the other hand, the perceiving effects easily recognizable by the loss of focus, interests, and memory disorder.
Uneasiness or Anxiety can be named as a disorder in its own way of psychological related disorders, certain phobias and sudden panic attacks. It can be motivation behind taking such drugs or self medication that may become harmful, if taken in abundance. It can also be called as a disorder in relation to certain delusional self imposed rituals, lethal domestic violence, and excessive over eating disorders.

Sometimes the stress is so strong that it becomes impossible to avoid but becomes even desirable to complete (i.e. sensual and fictitious situations,) situations by this approach of human mind; but it is obvious to curtail level where it could damage the human emotions and could reach the harmful level. It is better for us to think at certain level of stress, as to how and why it is happening. At a certain, low level of stress, it becomes clear that we are feeling some signs of stress and it is the level where we spend a lot of time, on this level we can easily evaluate and skip the stress factors and produce the results, which are beneficial for us.

Similarly, at the highest level of stress, it is very difficult for the people to mention the factors and to curb down the symptoms, as the effect is as rapid as briefed above. Apart from these levels, there is a middle level; where the chances are equally split to either go in favor or go against. In this middle level of stress, our engagement in certain thoughts, in single and mutual feelings, we feel to take on longer and this is the decisive level to really work on.
Many stress relaxation techniques can be adopted to provide moderation into the vigorous stress level. As through out the day, we are at certain different moods, but we can induce the relaxation methods to jump down from the upper level of stress into the middle or lower level of stress. There should be a continuity of this practice on average daily basis, as if we leave this practice then stress level will gradually and sometimes rapidly goes back to previous condition. This practice, if adopted in real sense, can be very handy in terms of maintaining the stress level in the limit of human patience.

By bringing these methods of relaxation into our daily routine, we can easily get our mind and body use to it, where we can define our limits and zones to avoid any dysfunction. So, in a way we can achieve goals for our own safety and by this we have wide range of choices for dealing with the stress.
The best way to effective implement the relaxation methods is to first identify the level of stress, when we feel the stress of any during our daily routine. It is very important on that very moment, we should have to become very calm and attentive towards our mental and bodily changes and sometimes through others judgment for ourselves. Identification of any level of stress is the key to overcome the stress and get relaxation through stress management relaxation techniques.

Stress Relaxation Activities:
Techniques or training of stress relaxation are methods where one could briefly become controlled tensed and then become relaxed; this is to judge the difference between the two levels of different condition. It can easily be understood by the following practice.
First, lie down on the floor facing your back. Hold your breath while inhaling and simultaneously lift your feet about one foot above the ground. Same way, raise your both arms the same height. Keep tense all of your bodily muscles and hold it five minutes and then drop your legs and arms on the ground. While inhaling, feel the relaxation comes to your body and mind. Make no moves and think of yourself melting onto the floor. Think of your muscles getting relaxed. Think, what are your feelings at that time? Differentiate the muscle which feels the most relaxation after this exercise. During all these working, breathe slowly. Think and concentrate on how your muscles are feeling before and after the relaxation exercise. Repeat it as many times as you want it. It can be best done by isolating different muscles and exercise on them separately. There are many stress management relaxation techniques like meditation, breathing techniques, hypnosis, yoga etc but the above given are proven to work for all.


Sunday

Stress management for Parents

Generally, when any force applied to a system causes significant modification of its form, usually with the connotation that the modification is a deformation or a distortion. The term is used with respect to physical, psychological and social forces and pressure. Parenting can be very stressful especially when children are having least difference between their ages and stress management for parents of little age children is very important. In our modern existence, our mind is often bothered by many things. We call this stress. Constant mental stress keeps our body in constant tension which itself becomes a form of stress. We can handle stress by learning to cope with thoughts and events so they no longer are stressful. We can also learn to relax. When we practice relaxation, we are giving the "all clear signal." As we become better at giving the signal we are able to trigger the relaxation response so our body will return to its normal state.

Though parents bear depression and stress together but the management can be different for both male and female. Whether you are a stay at home parent or a working parent, a single parent or a married parent, mother or father, parent of one child or several children; remaining cool, calm and full of energy can help get you through the day. If we generalize the empirical evidences regarding parental stress we will come to know that males can cope with the stress better than females. Usually fathers believe that the most important thing about child is his or her manners and moral values rather than his superb academic qualification but mothers try to tackle with the child on the basis if his or her academic performance. So that parent stress management can be different for both father and mother.
There are nine points to manage the stress for mothers as this stress develop in nine months. Mothers bear depression due to different reasons like if their children are married and living separate they will be concerned that why they never called us for last two days, if they are having children studying in graduation they will have stress for their marriage proposal, if their children are studying in primary schools they will feel stress for their positions in class and etc.

There are different techniques to cope with stress and parents can manage their stress very easily by following stress reducer tips. .

“Simplify, simplify, simplify...” the best tip to reduce stress.
The ever green tip to manage stress is “Smile and try to love everyone.” Singing a pathetic song will lead you to reduce your stress…try it.

Parents … wake up if you want to manage stress ….Get up fifteen minutes earlier in the morning. The inevitable morning mishaps will be less stressful. Prepare for the morning the evening before. Set the breakfast table, make lunches, put out the clothes you plan to wear, etc. Don’t rely on your memory. Write down appointment times, when to pick up the laundry, when library books are due, etc. ("The palest ink is better than the most retentive memory."-Old Chinese Proverb)

Dads… wear red t-shirts either you like to wear or not …trust me it will help u to find a new dimension of happy life and take your wife to park but do not ask her that “Do YOU WANT TO EAT ANYTHING” as your pocket will get lighter, depression will increase.

Moms…. Wear Yellow and green ….without any hesitation. Visit any parlor once a month at least and after every second month take a new hair cut; if possible get some massage too.

Dads….. Make duplicates of all keys. Bury a house key in a secret spot in the garden and carry a duplicate car key in your wallet, apart from your key ring. Practice preventive maintenance. Your car, appliances, home and relationships will be less likely to break down/fall apart "at the worst possible moment."

Moms…Plan ahead. Don’t let the gas tank get below one-quarter full. Keep a well-stocked emergency shelf of home staples. Don’t wait until you’re down to your last bus token or postage stamp to buy more, etc.

Dear moms and dads …Don’t put up with something that doesn't work right. If your alarm clock, wallet, shoe laces, windshield wipers, whatever are a constant aggravation, get them fixed or get new ones.

Dads…. Don’t take more than two cups of tea a day. Avoid cigarettes and cigars. Eliminate the amount of caffeine in your diet.

Moms…. Make a practice to say “NO”… Say simply… No when you don’t want to work and want to sit idol. Say "No!." Saying "no" to extra projects, social activities, and invitations you know you don’t have the time or energy for participate, self-respect, and a belief that everyone, everyday, needs quiet time to relax and be alone.

Dads and moms……..Unplug your phone. Want to take a long bath, meditate, sleep, or read without interruption? Drum up the courage to temporarily disconnect. (The possibility of there being a terrible emergency in the next hour or so is almost nil). Or use an answering machine.

There are many other techniques in “stress management for parents” subject but the main thing is to stay focused and find the solution.