Exercise can pump the level of your endorphins up. Endorphins are the feel good hormones of the body. It is a natural high when you feel good and a few laps around a nature park or an exciting game of basketball can shoot up your endorphins.

It is meditation in motion. When we are involved with some physical activities, we tend to forget all the problems and stressful things of our everyday lives. In the long run, movement may provide focus which allows you to center on your self just like in meditation.

Regular exercise brings good mood. Exercise aside from improving one’s body also bolsters an individual’s self confidence. Studies have shown that a good amount of exercise can help lower the risk for depression and anxiety. A good command of the body helps a lot in getting rid of stress.

Kicking Your Routine Off

The first thing to know before starting your exercise routine is to set your goals. You can discuss these goals with your doctor or physical therapist so they can give their expert advice which will be best for you.

It will also help to have some friends or a buddy to go with you to the gym or engage in the same activities that you do. Working out with someone may help you motivate yourself and gauge what activities you can dwell on. Sometimes, it can make a huge difference just taking a bicycle to work in stead of driving cars all the time.

Do something fun or engage in a less competitive sport that you want so you can learn how use the exercise to routine to relax and free your self of worries. Yoga and other relaxing routines like Pilates will help you meditate while working out.

Dr. Anastasia Georgiades of Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina leads the case study with her colleagues. They had 62 healthy and non-diabetic African women as their case subjects and they were subjected to an emotional stress test. The women recollected stressful events in their life and during the process, the researchers measured each subject’s blood sugar and epinephrine – or the “fight or flight” hormone that is produced during times of stress.

In analyzing the facts, women who have a lot of belly fat and a high level of epinephrine are most likely to develop high blood sugar or hyperglycemia during the stress tests and during the fasting periods. In a documented interview with Dr. Richard Surwit with Reuters Health, he said that an elevation of the fasting blood glucose or sugar is linked to be a risk factor in the development of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.

Surwit explained why stress and obesity are linked to hyperglycemia. Epinephrine triggers the breaking down of fat that leads to the release of free fatty acids. These fatty acids actually struggle with blood glucose as our body’ energy source and it basically elevates blood sugar in that way.

The findings of the study are shown at the American Psychosomatic Society annual meet.

Some boss may want to do things at work in a very unorthodox manner. Some may be too judgmental. Some may just really be scatterbrained.

Working for very difficult employers drives the stress level of people way up the gauge. There are several ways to handle the situation:

Know Yourself More

It is very easy to pass the blame to our source of stress but some soul searching may also provide us with some answers. Examine the past if you were also in the same situation where your boss is just insane. Maybe the problem is coming from another place.

You have to make sure that the problem that brings about stress is really the person at work and not coming from somewhere deeper.

Manage Your Interactions

The key to a good boss-employee relationship is excellent communication. You have to let your boss know what works better for you and see if it fits in his system.

You can also see what you can learn from the boss. The person is running the company and there must be something good about him.

Learn to accept Things

It may also be wise to compartmentalize how things are going with a difficult boss. It may work if you are ready for a difficult day and some hard tasks at work.

It will also help if you talk to other employees and learn how they are coping up with the difficult boss.

Know When To Go

You have to know when to go and talk to the superior of your boss or when to talk to someone from the HR. If things are really the worst of what you expect, then know when to go and move on to another job.

If this is a common picture to you, there are several practices that can help you overcome panic:

Put Problems in a Box

Experts say you can compartmentalize and prioritize. Make a list and bring the problem out one by one from the box. This way you will not be overwhelmed, be able to cope, and solve the problem.

Mind Power

Another way to control panic attacks or anxiety is by doing mind-body techniques. You can engage in breathing exercises, body relaxation, aerobic exercises, and meditation.

Seek Professional Consult

If the panic attacks are very frequent and for no reason at all, then it may be best to seek professional help. Most effective anxiety or panic treatments will be cognitive behavioral therapy or by taking some prescribed medications.

The CBT approach will help you learn and monitor your panic attacks. This way you will gain more knowledge and apply the different techniques of relaxation more effectively. It will also guide you on re-thinking the situation and avoid misinterpretations. As things get better, CBT will expose you to situations that trigger panic attacks and show you that they can be conquered.

Doctors often prescribe anti depressants and benzodiazepines to control panic or anxiety disorders. These drugs are given after careful evaluation since they have their own benefits and negative effects.

Following these techniques and knowing when to seek help will manage the panic or anxiety disorder a lot better.

Experts say that thousands of workers in Japan are overworking well beyond their limits to the point of death literally. In their language, Japanese call it “Karoshi” or death due to overwork. The financial crisis even worsens the everyday picture of a hectic work life where almost everyone works late into the night.

Going home or going out with friends is also not a relief since chats will focus on the everyday stresses at work and problems with their superiors.

Overwork may be annoying to some but to a great number of employees, the busy work situation leads to poor blood circulation, arteriosclerosis, and even stroke.

In 2007, around 2200 Japanese committed hara-kiri or suicide. During the same year, as much as 10000 workers had heart problems, strokes, and other problems due to stress.

Only 105 of these problem cases were reported and addressed properly. Majority did not report to the authorities or employers because of the time involved to certify the case which highly likely will just be a hopeless case.

Around 58% of family compensation claims for karoshi were rejected in 2007. The figure is a big leap from the 95% rejection in the 1990’s.

Suicide remains a taboo and businesses in Japan share a common sentiment that an employee’s mental health is a personal concern that the employee should address.

During the study, 90 % of the evidences point out to working in an office with an open-plan lay out is negative to your health. The situation causes high stress levels, increased blood pressure, worker conflicts, and high employee attrition.

The modern design of offices leads to low productivity due to lack of concentration triggered by high noise levels. A feeling of insecurity is also often developed due to an open environment where everyone can see what everyone is doing on their computer or on their station.

Conflict among employees is also considerably higher because of the smaller spaces. One can easily over hear what one is saying or can get irritated easily by what other persons are doing.

Health experts also cite the possibilities of increased high blood pressure due to stress and higher chances of getting workplace illnesses since virus and other health risks can be passed on easily from one person to another.

The proponents recommend a traditional work set up which uses closed offices that are kept small and private.

A lot of offices are following the open plan lay out because it saves the employers a significant 20% of their budget.

It may make one think, are cost savings worth it if the workforce is sick or has lower productivity? May be not.

Will keep you posted of my progress!

Meditation Can Help You

Many people start meditation because they want to reduce the stress in their lives. Modern life is stressful to an incredible extent. A sociologist on the radio said that with the use of satellites, television and computers, you and I receive more information in 1 day than our ancestors of several generations ago used to receive in 1,000 days. That means our brains have to process as much input in 24 hours as our brains used to process in 24,000 hours. This results in an overload – 75% of all visits to primary care physicians are for stress-related disorders.

A list of some of some of the mental and emotional signs of stress include:

• An agitated mind
• Depression
• Sleeplessness
• Feelings of Inadequacy
• Apathy
• Increased Irritability

Some of the stress related diseases include:

• Heart Disease
• Cancer
• Asthma
• Diabetes
• Migraine Headaches
• Stomach Ulcers
• Arthritis
• High Blood Pressure
• Obesity
• Impotence
• Respiratory Diseases
• Chronic Low Back Pain

The Definition Of Stress

What is stress? Webster’s Dictionary says that stress is “any mental or physical tension or strain.” The real problem is that our physical response to stress was developed over hundreds of thousands of years and remains the same as in the cave people days. If you were a caveman walking down a path and a tiger ran in front of you, your body immediately readied itself to either fight of flee with the following reactions:

• The heartbeat increased to pump blood throughout the body with greater speed
• Blood pressure went up
• Breathing became rapid and shallow
• Adrenaline and other hormones were released into the blood
• The liver released sugar into the system to meet the increased energy needs
• The eyes dilated to let in more light
• Muscles tensed for movement
• The digestive system shut down to allow the blood flow to increase to the major muscle groups
• The hands and feet became cold from lack of blood circulation
• The body perspired to cool itself

Now all of this was a wonderful adaptation for the caveman; he could fight or run away and “use up” all the physical changes that had occurred. But what about us? Every time someone swerves in front of our car; every time our boss or co-worker yells at us, perhaps every time the phone rings, our bodies go into the stress reaction mode and we can’t fight our run. Instead, many of us stay in a perpetual state of stress.

Meditation Can Help You Manage Stress

There have been many scientific studies on meditation and stress that have proven that meditation “works” in reducing stress. In fact, researchers indicate that Meditation produces a reaction that is the exact opposite of stress: there is an intensification of alpha waves, decreased perspiration, decreased heart rate, increased peripheral blood flow, decreased respiration rate and volume, and decreased blood lactate levels.

There are many other benefits of meditation besides stress reduction. Meditation enables you to:

• Focus
• Make conscious choices in your life rather than reacting on automatic pilot; on old habit patterns
• Open to your intuition or inner knowing
• Solve life problems
• Live joyfully in the present moment.

Here’s a joke I heard recently. A co-pilot of a large airline approached the pilot and told him “I just saw the red warning lift under Landing-Gear Malfunction flashing on and off” “So what did you do”, quickly asked the pilot. “I unscrewed the light bulb” answered the co-pilot. Doesn’t sound funny or realistic? Actually, it’s the way many of us are living our lives. How often do we address the symptoms and not the a problem? Meditation goes to the root of the problem.

Meditation will work for everyone. The only question is – are your ready for it? Do you want to change? Are you willing to put in the effort required? You can’t just read books or come to classes, take notes and “get it.” What you learn are methods that you must apply to your daily life.

Jesus said, “If you bring forth what is with you, what is within you will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what is within you will destroy you.” It is up to you.

The discipline of Mindfulness Practice provides employees with powerful tools that they can use to increase efficiency and overall job satisfaction. Considering how much of our day is actually spent in a work environment, a healthy approach is essential to minimize the stress-related challenges that we all face on a daily basis.

There is nothing more frustrating to an employer than diminishing revenues that are solely due to a stressed out workforce. Some examples are tardiness, sub-par performance and time taken off for illness. As astounding as this may seem, 60- 90% of all visits to health care providers are primarily stress related! In some work environments, the nature of the employee’s position is by its very nature stressful, i.e., standing for long periods of time, being continually exposed to loud noises, etc. In these cases, it is essential that the workforce be taught how to manage these stressors in a manner that enhances their efficiency, productivity and overall happiness. This results in increased revenues and a harmonious environment.

In some work environments, high energy is requisite to productivity. However, it is a mistake to associate high energy with high stress. They are not the same. Many times these two conditions are considered as interchangeable, with the disappointing results of high turnover and diminished returns. In our society, we have come to equate the hand driving “A” personality type as being the epitome of success. On the surface, it may appear that high stress equates to increased efficiency and productivity. However, the facts are that over time, the relationship between high stress and success breaks down.

Mindfulness Practice can help your staff maintain a positive, high energy attitude over a prolonged period of time while minimizing the symptoms of destructive stress.

The principles that support the practice of Mindfulness Practice are unique. By teaching employees how to optimally relate to their present activities, stress can be minimized and experiences can be more fully responded to the hear and now. This results in heightened creativity and a renewed zest for their employment; this constitutes a win-win dynamic for both employer and employee. Not only does this foster greater success on the job, the tools learned through the practice of Mindfulness Practice increase overall satisfaction in all dimensions of life.

The program that was used at the Here and Now center in Las Vegas in the early years of this milennium was conducted in a group format either at the employer’s location or at the Center. The programs were efficient and cost-effective as well as flexible enough to meet the needs of the clients. The here and now center found that long lasting results are achieved when the class is conducted once per week over a five week period.

Too bad the center’s no longer with us…