In our society of ever increasing use of prescription drugs to reduce stress levels or anxiety, many entrepreneurs are too quick to grab for a bottle – some type of magic pill to solve their stress or anxiety issues.
In fact, you may have noticed that in an age of fast food restaurants, drive thrus, microwave ovens, and blackberries, it seems that our demand for instant satisfaction has surfaced in every area of our lives. And as a result, it impacts our emotional well-being on a monumental scale. And I have often said to others … if only I could get the world to stop spinning for just an hour or so, then I could truly relax and feel better!
In this article today, we’re going to discuss methods that you can use to help you to SLOW DOWN, and take some time to enjoy life in our fast-paced society.
Whether you’re a work-at-home entrepreneur, or an employed individual working for a corporation, the opportunities to escape from our work lives get tougher with each passing year. Email, instant messaging, cell phones and black berries have even made it impossible for some – and feel they are strapped to their desks 24/7. And if this sounds like you, you might even resent the fact that you can never seem to “get away” from work.
Whether you love your job or your hate it, if your thoughts are always on work (whether you’re at the office or not) it will eventually come to a head … a point where your world will come crashing down and you will have reached a breaking point. To prevent this from happening, the first step is to come to realize that you’re headed down that road.
We all have different methods of coping with stress. And often one of the first areas that we sacrifice is adequate sleep. Whether it’s intentional or not, we may find ourselves, awake too late into the evening, or even waking up throughout the night. And when morning eventually arrives, it doesn’t feel like our sleep was restful.
You may have heard some people say that a change is as good as a rest. And there’s definitely some truth to this statement. That’s because when you change to a different set of activities you are not only thinking about different things but also exercising different muscle groups in our bodies.
Take for example an individual who works at a computer throughout the day. Physical stress on the body includes the back, arms, wrists, hands, and eyes. By sitting in an adjustable chair – or switching to another one close by, you are modifying the posture of your body. A simple adjustment up or down (even as little as one or two inches). This reduces the stress on all these muscle groups that are being used and strained throughout the day.
Other minor changes that you can do to your work environment are to ensure that your computer monitor is at the ideal height for your body, and to make sure that no part of your body stretches too far as you reach for your mouse, keyboard, or other input device.
By placing your printer “out of reach” rather than within arm’s length, you force yourself to stand up and perhaps walk a few steps to retrieve your printed documents. Once again, this is because a change is as good as a rest.
People who work in a corporate office or other large company often enjoy scheduled breaks or brief chats at the water cooler. If you’re working alone at home, this is sometimes harder to do, and you might even feel unnecessary. But by including short breaks in your day (even if only for five to ten minutes), productivity will increase and you’ll more than make up for the few minutes that you have taken away from your busy work time.
So in conclusion, remember that a change is as good as a rest. Identify ways that you can incorporate CHANGE into your work day, and your body will feel less impact from the stress of sitting in the same position, hour after hour, day after day.
I couldn’t agree more: we live our lives at a pace that our biology cannot keep up with. This is what I believe is the primary cause of chronic stress for most people. When you look at indigenous cultures, in any part of the world, it just amazes me how much free time they have throughout most of their days. I grew up thinking that the ‘poorer’ you were, the busier you had to be. This may be true in the modern world, but it wasn’t for our ancestors. We must look to the past, where we evolved from, to find out how to cope with the world of today. We all need to slow down and take more breaks. This is the only sure way to ward off chronic stress.