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The UK Governments health advisers are advising businesses to deal with stress in the workplace. Not only is stress is a killer and destroyer of lives it is also the cause of an awful lot of lost money. As much as 25% of all business losses due to sickness are down to stress, according to the research. My own research might suggest that as much as 80% of the costs to business of sickness could be due to stress.

The BBC has a fuller report on the recommendations but I can’t help but wonder why it is so hard to get businesses to take stress seriously enough to do something about it?

Have you noticed how angry everyone seems to be getting these days? It’s not a young person thing either, in fact it may be an older person thing. Psychologists have all kinds of answers as to why this might be – but whatever the causes of it there is no doubting that things are getting worse. I find it happening to me as well at times. It usually happens when I get tired or there are just too many things to think about and then something tips me over the edge and I can feel that anger rising inside me. Although I can’t say I’m perfect at managing it I do try and I think we should all be making an effort not to get so angry. So here are some tips for controlling anger.

1. Recognise you are getting angry
   The first step has always got to be to recognise the anger that is inside you. I’m not talking about frustration here, I’m talking about anger. We all get frustrated but anger is when we let that frustration out in an aggressive way. If you don’t notice the anger then you won’t be able to control it.
2. Acknowledge that you are in control
   You also need to understand that you are in control of the anger. You don’t need to give in to it.
3. Choose not to be angry
   Now is the time to reject getting angry. Sometimes this might mean removing yourself from the situation so you can calm down or just taking a pause to stop yourself from expressing the anger.
4. Use diversion techniques
   You should work out some techniques that will help you to stop getting angry.
5. Get help
   If you have a very big problem with anger then you should go to see your doctor. Anger can shorted your life and so it is important to deal with it properly.
6. Relax
   After the situation has passed you should make sure you get some relaxation to let go of the tension you are feeling.

Anger is very destructive and I can think of very few situations (if any) where it is justified to get angry. Anger seldom gets anyone what they want and always leaves others feeling small. It can be very destructive to relationships, even when you are not on the receiving end of anger but only an observer. Of course differences need to be settled and rights need to be maintained but anger is not the way to achieve this.

According to the gm.tv website research, led by psychologist Dr Malcolm Cross at City University London, has shown making and drinking a cup of Tea when under stress really does help. This, of course, goes against most other research that suggests the caffeine in a cup of Tea will raise your levels of stress. The research does seem pretty convincing though with a 4% reduction in stress being reported for those who had Tea after a stressful event compared to those who went without.

However 4% is a pretty meagure amount of stress reduction and this might not work for everyone. This study was undertaken in the UK where there is a kind of informal Tea ceremony in times of crisis – “let’s put the kettle on”. British people have often taken a few moments to think through a problem over a cup of Tea and it could well be the positive psychological effect of this stopping and thinking that could be the reason for these results.

I’m still to be convinced that Tea itself has any medical stress benefits but having a calming routine you can use whenever a crisis hits will certainly help (as I believe this study really shows).

There is a great temptation to always think that the worst is going to happen to you. You know the kind of thing – you have to see the doctor, you have to see the boss, your wife tells you she wants to have a talk about something, etc. It’s easy to think that something is wrong and you are about to have your world turned upside down.

Then you discover that in fact your test results were fine, the boss wanted to thank you for doing a good job, your wife wanted to talk about holiday dates, etc.

Pessimists will tell you that it is best to anticipate the worst because then you are ready for it and anything above the worse is a bonus. However thinking this way leads to an increase in stress (high blood pressure – enlarged heart – sleepless nights – and so on). All this stress makes life miserable. The truth is that it is better not to anticipate the worst but the best.

The optimist discovers that they may not be right more of the time (although there is some evidence that suggests they are) but that when they get bad news they think about how they can cope rather than falling apart (a common misconception about optimists – that they go to peaces if they hear bad news).

So teach your self to aniticipate the best and not the worst.

One of the most sought after commodities in anyones life is peace. There is even a children’s book written about a mum who can’t find five minutes peace. The great news is that peace is a free commodity – it won’t cost you a penny to buy. However, the bad news is that this is not something you can simply buy, there is no shop where you can go in and say, “I’ll take five minutes peace please”.

You will find plenty of charlatans who will try to persuade you that they can sell you peace – but they are wrong. Peace is not something you can buy and you can’t get it just by following a new exercise regime or purchasing the latest book about it.

The truth is that peace is something you only get by working at it.

To get peace you need to give yourself a gift of some time

If you want more peace in your life then you need to take some time to get it. Now I know that is is possible to have inner peace even when things seem to be like bedlam all around you but you can’t get that without first of all learning how to do it. So you will need to give yourself some time. I suggest finding at least 15 minutes every day for this. Put it in your diary now.

To have peace you need to be filled with peaceful thoughts

If your mind is full of frantic and desperate thoughts then you will never find peace. You can go to the most wonderful place in the world but if your mind is full of activity then you will not find peace there. The only way to find peace is to put peaceful thoughts into your mind.

You can do this in many different ways. You can use words that are peaceful to help you think in a peaceful calm kind of way – try words like: calm, clear, still, rest, etc. Or you could think about peaceful places you have been to. Or you could make use of a relaxation exercise. Or you could go to someone very peaceful and let yourself indulge in the peace.

Whatever you do you need to get some peaceful thoughts into your mind.

Another way

I hope you will indulge me for just a moment because I want to share a way that I have found peace – a deeper peace than I could have found otherwise. Please don’t think I’ve gone all nutty and religious on you here but I just wouldn’t feel comfortable keeping this to myself when you are searching for peace.

I find that God provides me with a deep inner peace. As a Christian it gives me great comfort and peace to know that God loves me. I still need to think those peaceful thoughts (there is a lot of good stuff in the Bible if you want some extra help on this – if you are not sure where to start then try Psalm 23) but without my faith I don’t get the kind of peace I can get otherwise.

In studies this simple truth has been shown time and again. People with a faith tend to be less stressed than those without. You make your own mind up but I’m happy I have what I do.

Parents who care for children with developmental problems are likely to suffer from a reduced immune system. This reduction leaves them open to illness.

In a recent report produced by reasearchers at Birmingham University –  reported in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity – found that carers of children with developmental problems had a poorer immune response to a vaccine against pneumonia.

The reason for this? Increased stress.

You can read more about this story at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7513661.stm

Stress can have a deteremental effect on the immune system which has big implications for any sufferer.

The reduced immune system will leave you open to all kinds of problems and is likely to result in more absence from work. Coughs and colds as well as more serious problems are all made more likely and worse by stress.

The answer is to manage that stress effectively.

This post is pretty long but it covers a lot of ground. Stress in the workplace (wokplace stress, work related stress etc) is on the increase. It is arguably the most serious problem that businesses must face in the modern world. Anyone who employs someone should be aware of the demands placed on their workers and the effects this is having.

This presents an opportunity to improve productivity and hence profit. When stress is managed productivity increases. Happy workers work harder.

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Stress does not cause illness – or at least as far as we know. But stress can trigger illness and certainly stress makes illness worse. In studies undertaken with cancer patients it has been shown that quality and length of life is increased among those who undertake some kind of relaxation therapy.

So what illness have been linked to too much stress?

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There are as many different answers to the question of “what is stress?” as there are people in the world. What is stressful for one person is not for another. For instance many people find it hard to stand up in front of a group and speak yet others find this kind of thing very easy to do.

Psychologists talk about the ABC of stress.

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Stress is a fairly new phenomenon. I don’t mean that is has just been invented but it is only recently that it has been given a name. Where does the name come from and what the heck is stress anyway?

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