Healthy Lifestyle - Manage Your Stress

By: James Kronefield | Posted: 31st August 2007

Constant high stress levels are not conducive to a healthy lifestyle. If you want to live to a ripe old age then you must do something to relieve the problem.

Now I am not saying the all stress is bad. Moderate levels of stress are an essential good component of the life-mix. We need to be able to cope with the normal pressures of life around us. When we are under stress our heart rate increases our muscles get tense and our senses heighten in order to be able to react quickly to rapidly changing events. Now this is part of out natural survival mechanism.

Now many people work much better under stress assuming that the stressor is related to the work you are doing. So, for example:
If you have a deadline to meet for getting a piece of work done and that deadline is close, your stress levels will increase as you rush to complete the job. Usually your output will increase because you can make decisions quicker and are less prone to deliberating about what to do next. You just think it through and do it. We certainly tend to be more motivated when under this type of stress.

Now this is good assuming that it is in relatively short bursts. But if you try to sustain this high stress working then productivity will drop and your health may be affected. You will start making mistakes and then have to spend even more time correcting things which in turn puts pressure on future deadlines. The problem occurs when we have deadline after deadline and impossible targets to achieve.

So what to do? Well this will depend on your exact situation but pretty much without exception taking time out to plan what you have to do will help. You also have to accept that things can't stay as they are. So either you have to find a way of getting things done quicker. Or you just have to come clean and admit that something is going to be late. If it is going to be late then best to say something now and react accordingly than to wait until it is late and then admit it to yourself.

So take a break and grab a coffee and sit and calmly work through all that has to be done. Break it into manageable chunks, do not go into the detail at this stage. Just draw the main tasks as boxes and show them in order with lines between them.

Now review what has to be done and in what order and assess whether it can be done or not. Can someone else help? Can you delegate some of the work?

Come up with a realistic plan. If it has a bad news ending then let people know ASAP. Discuss it with those involved, ask for suggestions, you will find that this in it's self is a great way to reduce your stress levels because you are sharing the problem.

But the essential thing is to take time out to calm down, gather your thoughts, confirm your direction and then get on with it again. By doing this you will reduce your stress levels and remain productive which will help to promote a healthy lifestyle.


Rich Sale has been actively promoting the benefits of healthy living for the past 5 years. More information about a Healthy Lifestyle

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Tags: decisions, job, productivity, health, targets, senses, heart rate, taking time, muscles, coffee, stress levels, healthy lifestyle, survival mechanism, type of stress, exact situation, stressor, levels of stress, moderate levels