Are You Stressed Out?

Dear Friend,   "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. ~Albert Einstein"   Have you ever been stressed out? I know for sure that I have been! Many of us suffer from some level of elevated stress in the course of our lives. Stress comes in many forms. It can be both positive and negative and can be one large issue or many smaller issues.    Stress is essentially a reaction to any change in our environment.   Let's break down the stress cycle: ·         An event occurs ·         We interpret the event ·         We generate feelings based upon our interpretation ·         We have behaviors based upon our feelings   When we are stressed what happens? When we are stressed we have physical, emotional and mental responses to this event or stressor.     Physically stress causes adrenalin to rushes through our body - which in the short term improves our vision and short term memory. Next, sugars and fat release into our bloodstream. Our heart jumps into action and pumps faster to provide more blood to our body. To allow more oxygen to enter our blood system our breathing increases. In preparation for action, our muscles tense and our sense of smell and hearing improve. In the short term stress can be good for us physically - providing us energy and increased awareness. Yet over the long term if we don't manage our stress our health (physical, mental and emotional) suffers.    Mentally and Emotionally The greatest source of stress is what we create for ourselves through patterns of negative thinking. Consider these six ways this manifests: 1.   Overgeneralization - seeing a specific event as a never ending pattern of defeat 2.   Hyper-focus - picking a specific detail and focusing on it exclusively 3.   Emotional Reasoning - assuming that your negative feelings reflect the way things really are 4.   Self-Blame - holding yourself responsible for something that isn't entirely in your control 5.   Helplessness - failing to see your choices 6.   Perfectionism - expecting too much from ourselves and others   While we may not be able to eliminate stress we must manage it for improvement of our physical, mental and emotional health. 10 Tips for Stress Management  1.  Exercise 2.  Deep Breathing 3.  Meditation 4.  Positive Thinking 5.  Yoga 6.  Sleep 7.  Laughter 8.  Talking with people who really listen to and understand you 9.  Recognizing your limits and accepting them 10. Mindfulness Make It Happen So now let's look at your life - can you identify some stressors in your life? What shows up on your list?   To give you a start: Some positive stressors might include: job promotion, marriage, birth of a child, move Some negative stressors might include: job loss, illness, move, This week take some time to identify stressors in your life and for each stressor see if you can create one way to manage it. Remember, that you may not be able to eliminate the stress, but you can manage it. Use the 10 Tips for Stress Management as a point of departure to create your own stress management plan. Next week we are going to talk more in-depth about the 10 Tips for Stress Management. If you have additional tips on reducing stress share them by sending an email to margaret@margaretpundmann.com and I'll include them (with your name if you desire) in next weeks article.

Blessings to you, Margaret.        P.S. Encourage your friends, family, and colleagues by sharing this newsletter with them and invite them to subscribe! Direct them to www.MargaretPundmann.com where they can sign up.  Margaret Pundmann is a life and business coach, speaker, and author The Emerging Woman.