It is well known that a given situation produces more stress in some persons than others. These people are more susceptible to stress and certain features characterizes them.

• They are highly susceptible to annoyance.
• They lack a bit less confidence in untried events or performance. Trying new things makes them uncomfortable.
• They can recall fewer friends.
• They show inconsistency in their responses to similar situations they encounter.
• They are generally more suspicious of the motives of others.
• They are more prone to guilt feelings. Their ethical and moral perceptions are very acute.

The physical symptoms that is accompanied are

• High respiration and pulse rate
• Increase in systolic blood pressure
• Increased BMR ( basic metabolic rate )
• Decrease in alkalinity in saliva
• Increase in hippuric acid in urine

Studies conducted indicate certain professions are prone to high or moderate degree of mental tension. They include editor, general writer, science fiction writer, executive (business, managerial), sales manager, salesman, Olympic athletes, medical students etc.

Professions that generate low degree of mental tension include research works in physics, biology, psychology etc.

Irrespective of situation and profession, which is for more statistical purposes, it all boils down to how the person is habituated to react to situations. The habit remaining calm in whatever you do is more a matter of persistent efforts because you can hardly do anything about your profession or professional hazards.

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Dealing with stress has many dimensions. The causes of stress are so spread out that discussing and dealing with all the factors is just impossible.

Do every little thing that helps you reducing stress. Nature is one of them and it stands tall in the factors reducing stress. It heals your mind and makes it calm.

Increasingly, doctors are seeing a few moments spent in a park as the perfect prescription for a good many stress induced modern ailments. Experts say – gardening has a therapeutic effect – more so while getting down on your knees and getting dirty composting, sowing, hoeing, raking, heaping.

Studies show that whether you are planting a showy clump of dahlias or a little coconut sapling, this very experience can lower your blood pressure, reduce pain, ease stress, lift your mood, and give your immune system a massive boost.

The reason if you think basically is plants connect us to ourselves, the earth and to a bigger extent the whole universe. They take us to standstill where no worries matter, and that little thing occupies our mind to give pleasure.

This ability to heal by plants and the therapeutic effect of garden in a whole has given rise to an entirely new profession- horticultural therapy.

We all have experienced that being in a stressful situation; the mind gets totally occupied with the problem. Jay Stone Rice, a Californian psychotherapist, affiliated with Horticultural therapy institute, sums it up with a very powerful reasoning of reducing stress through plants. He says “In intense stress or depression we lose the feeling that we can change. We feel stuck. But plants put us in touch with the natural cycles of life and teach us that there is always a new cycle, a rebirth, a life being renewed.”

Indeed a very powerful sum up. Such little things in life and few changes in habit can go a long way in dealing with stress in our life.

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You start misfiring in all you work, and life will soon start firing innumerable stress at you that is difficult to handle. Organized living is one of stress management techniques that very few but successful and happy people use in their life either consciously or unconsciously.

There is no shame if you are not organized in any some of your work. In fact a perfectly organized person seems so boring! Life is definitely not so cool for him or her.

Ok, jokes apart, the clutter created out of badly managed life events and whole life itself is too much to handle after sometime. You are late for an appointment, but before leaving you need to write the handyman a note and tape it to the backdoor. You riffle through the contents of the kitchen catch all drawer, but there is none to be found. Is it buried under mounds of recipes, house keys, playing cards…And then you ultimately found the notepad, and now where is the pencil?

Do you see the picture now? You don’t need to be perfectly perfect. You just want to be organized enough to feel less stressed, stop beating yourself and to feel to be in complete control.

The most unique problem to getting organized

Now here is a typical problem most of us face when we try to get organized.

People are disorganized because they are always in search of a foolproof solution. Ironically these people often end up with the worst disarray because they think if they can’t attain their deal; it is not worth doing at all.

Always identify 2 or 3 areas of clutter that bug you the most on a daily basis, the mail pile or the mounting newspapers or getting late for a particular task like to office etc. Make a point to stay in control of those activities. Let the other things in your life be a mess. After correcting one problem, you may jump on to the other ones.

Chaos is not the same as creativity. Once you get organized, you will have more time for ideas, planning and execution for nay job. So don’t allow any thoughts for getting on getting organized.

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Perhaps this part of body feels the heat of stress first. Then all your physical symptoms follow. Ever feel so stressed out that you seem to skip the obvious things, be less attentive and forget things like wedding anniversary, certain time commitment etc.

Research shows that stressful situations over which a person feels he or she has no control activate an enzyme in the brain called protein kinase C (PKC). This enzyme affects the prefrontal cortex, a higher brain region that regulates thought, behavior and emotion using operations often referred to as “working memory”. High PKC impair your ability to concentrate, leading to distractibility, impaired judgment, impulsivity and thought disorder.

PKC may also be a factor in the problems faced by people with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia whose psychotic episodes can be triggered by stressful situations.

The nervous system which coordinates the brain functions gets seriously damaged under stress. We have two nervous systems, sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and Parasympathetic nervous system (PNS).

Sympathetic (SNS) system triggers the danger bells in the body to take action and when the action is taken Parasympathetic nervous system relaxes the body. Trouble is some stress hormones released by SNS don’t know when to quit pulling even after the stress causing event has gone. They remain active in the brain for quite a long time injuring and killing cells in hippocampus, the area of your brain needed for memory and learning. Because of this effect of SNS, it often requires conscious effort to initiate the relaxation effects of mind to reduce the killing effect of stress hormones.

The deep relaxation methods like meditation or hypnosis helps a lot. But simple relaxation methods like listening to soothing and slow music, spending enjoyable time with family, a funny soap on television also relaxes the mind.

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You may have thought this or may not have. But this is the greatest irony regarding stress. That is success.

The lack of success creates much stress which any stress management technique can hardly beat.It’s your conscience that beats you for failure, and no stress management technique is strong enough to heal that part of you.

The abundance of success creates again much more stress which brings all its worries and tension along with success. But here the difference is with a little bit of “own will”, you can manage this stress.

So what you would prefer? Of course success with stress. Now that is the focus to beat stress. Get a winner out of you. Do anything to change your attitude, but get one like a winner.

Remind yourself that you are the master of your own destiny. It makes you realize that the inner potential you have for success, joy, love and happiness is limitless. All you need to do is break those self limiting boundaries.

No problem is bigger than you and your life. Now it seems a bit theoretical, but this feeling is what makes you strong enough before any difficulties. With this belief, you can turn around any situation in life by taking action on strength of your belief system.

Try to go beyond logic sometimes, it helps. In fact all the new and exciting things and all the truths of this world could be discovered because someone dared to defy the existing logic. Someone went against the popular belief of his time. Someone risked something to get a better thing.

No hardcore recipes for success. Something may work for you and may not for others. So don’t hesitate to tread a new path. Listen to “Success Gurus” or “Management Gurus” but remember it is you who has to act with a successful touch of your own. Now that personal touch may go against the previously laid down “success laws” by those Gurus.

This post is neither to guide you nor to give you any hardcore success formula. It is to ignite a strong belief within you, that you are the solution to all your problems. This category will see posting related to success and successful attitudes.

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