Archive for July, 2009

Healing Your Past With Meditation

Healing Your Past With Meditation

We all know it is not possible to roll back time or undo or change bad decisions we made in the past,however using meditation we can change the way we feel about the bad decisions we made in the past so that they will stop tormenting us here in the present. We all carry a lot of baggage from the past,such things as maybe a broken heart,hurt feelings,or bad memories of friends or loved ones that have lied,cheated,or betrayed us,events that may have brought us pain,or we may torment ourselves over opportunities we may have missed out on or even wrong choices we made in our lives.

We absolutely cannot allow ourselves to let things in the past we cannot change take over our present lives.Meditation is simply collecting our thoughts in a relaxing atmosphere.If you take the time to learn how to heal your past it will enable you to be happy in the present. You may ask how can you heal the past? You can look at past situations you cannot change in a brighter light with a new understanding on the events in the past have hurt you.When your by yourself in a quiet place start your meditation.

Think about how whatever may have happened to you in the past may even be a benefit to you.You know how bad you felt when something or somebody said or did something to you that you felt that you had no purpose in life or was not good enough to associate with others.Meditating about how those things in the past made you feel helps you to understand how others who are now in the same situation you were in then feel about themselves.

You know how they feel so you maybe can tell them your experience back then and how you turned it around and made a life for yourself.So many of us just need someone to take the time to just say hello or nice day isn’t it? Just a kind word to someone who has had a bad day can make all the difference in the world. My dear sweet mother told me all the time that you can kill more flies with honey. Meditation can make you feel so much more positive and give you a different outlook on life in general, it is something very positive you can do to help yourself.

What she meant was if you have been around someone that wasn’t pleasant or had a bad attitude don’t act like that person does, instead just turn the other cheek and it may rub off on the person who has a bad attitude. Meditation could be the key to this happening. So you see meditation can be used to turn bad situations into something good or even good situations into something great. Shining the light of the new understanding on those events that happened in the past will help you have a feeling of acceptance, peace,and happiness.

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Controlling Anger By Meditation

Controlling Anger By Meditation

I have never really thought of myself as an angry person.I would always do whatever I could to try and help someone out,nor did I do anything that would hurt someones feelings,or I would try as hard as I could not to. Every month we struggle to get by but I really didn’t complain. I was just happy that we did have the money to pay our bills and have a place to live even though we barely had enough to survive on after paying the bills. Meditation is very much needed in most peoples lives, no doubt about that.

Even after all that I did not get angry,That changed last week.I really had to meditate to myself when I went with my sister to the doctor last week.My sister is a very hard worker.She never misses work unless it is absolutely necessary.Last year my sister had become sick and finally after being so weak she went to the doctor.He put her in the hospital and gave her 4 bags of blood and said she had pneumonia.

I just couldn’t understand how do you lose blood by having pneumonia.As I meditated thinking about last year I was not prepared to hear what the doctor was going to say as my sister and I were driving to the doctor.You see my sister got sick again. She nearly collapsed at work and was taken to the hospital.This time she needed 5 bags of blood.She would keep telling me she was anemic.After the hospital did a ct scan on her they said she needed to go to her lung doctor immediately.That’s where my sister and I were going.

My sister never wants me to worry so she never told me anything and did not want me to go in the room with her when she went in to see the doctor.After I meditated on this I decided when they called her name I would go back with her,and that’s exactly what I did.The doctor came in and you could see immediately the concern on his face.He starting reading the results of her ct scan.He was reading something about her lungs.

He talked about something growing in her nodules and spreading to her lymph nodes.He wasn’t saying it was cancer but I knew by what he was reading it was. I didn’t want to scare my sister so meditating to myself while he was talking I asked what does all this mean? Instead of asking is it cancer I asked could it be cancer?

His response was yes mam.She has to go for a biopsy in a couple of days to see how far it has progressed.I really find myself angry at this point because she has never smoked a day in her life,And here she is 49 years old with lung cancer.So instead of worrying for the next couple of days and getting angry,I simply practice meditation by praying that god please heal my sister.

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Stress and Your Health

Stress and Your Health

Dangers of Stress

Stress is a constant part of most people’s lives. And although it is quite common, it still needs to be addressed given its impact on an individual’s health condition. When you experience stress, your body produces chemical changes in your brain that could also affect your health.

While some sources of stress are temporal, there are those that are produced over a long period of time so that it builds up. Before you know it, it becomes so serious that it affects your health in various levels. Even if you do not have any existing health condition, it can actually enhance your risk of developing them.

You can exhibit the following symptoms of stress, which eventually contributes to the health problems associated with stress:

? sleeping troubles
? lack of energy
? tension
? headaches
? depression
? anxiety
? high blood pressure
? pain in the back or neck
? weight loss or gain, etc

Stress Related Illnesses and Conditions

Continued research is being done to show more of the impact that stress has on one’s overall health. But despite of this, there has been several scientific claims linking stress to several health conditions from backaches, to insomnia, and chronic fatigue syndrome.

When a person experiences stress, it produces chemical changes in the body that consequently alters some biological processes. For instance, some women who had to deal with stress in their lives suffer abnormalities in their menstrual cycle. Others miss their menstruation, while some suffer from abnormal bleeding. Aside from that, stress could also result to hormonal imbalances that cause symptoms for fibroid tumors and endometriosis to exhibit.

Heart disease is another common illness associated with stress. It intervenes with your cardiovascular condition such that people with stress can suffer from conditions like heart attacks, heart palpitations, high blood pressure, and stroke. Other common illnesses suffered by highly stressed individuals include fatigue, emotional disorders, headaches, ulcers, IBS, infections, colds, and lowered immunity system responses.

Taking Care of Your Body

Having known the impact that stress has on one’s body, it is then important to take all the necessary steps to not only combat stress but also keep yourself free from any type of illness. Some people are too consumed with stress that they fail to pay attention to their body. Be more sensitive to your body and health needs.

The following are helpful tips on how you can handle stress and improve your health:

? Take time off work to relax. Give your body a chance to recuperate.
? Get enough amount of sleep, especially if you are going to work excessively during the day.
? Eat well. Include enough amount of fruits and vegetables in your diet, as well as proteins.
? Engage in a physical activity during your free time. Working out releases endorphins in your system, which is why it improves your mood.
? Never resort to unhealthy methods of dealing with stress, such as drugs, smoking, or alcohol.

Seeking Professional Help

When stress begins to concern your health, it is important to seek professional guidance on the matter. The case is more important when stress has affected your health to a large extent. Indeed, there are professionals that can help you deal with the situation and overcome stress so your health can recover as well.

But a person can be too consumed with their stressful situation that they fail to recognize when help is necessary. The following are symptoms of too much stress and requires immediate professional attention:

? sleeping problems due to anxiety
? suicidal thoughts
? loss of appetite often leading to weight loss
? feeling of isolation or desire to be isolated from other people
? high irritability

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Importance of Stress Management

Importance of Stress Management

Impacts of Stress

Stress management is an essential step for you to take once you have determined you are facing stressful situations in your life, regardless of the cause. Although there are helpful types of stress that enables you to cater this added burst of energy into something positive and productive, it is not recommended for your body. Long term stress can specifically produce negative impacts on your health and is recognized to deteriorate your health faster than some other diseases.

Furthermore, stress can reduce your capacity to perform and function well, either at school or in the workplace. Therefore, stress isn’t something to be dismissed. Aside from the personal impacts you can experience from stress, it also affects how you deal with the environment and the people in your lives.

Knowing Your Stress Level

When it comes to stress management, determining the source of stress is often not enough. For people who are often stressed, keeping a stress journal is highly recommended in order for you to monitor the different levels of stress you are experiencing and what effects it produced. This is an effective way for you to closely study your levels of stress, its triggers, and for you to pinpoint exactly what you can do to relieve yourself from it.

Starting on Stress Management

Now that you know the effects that stress can do to you, getting started on a stress management method is necessary. Managing your stress helps you regain control over your life, instead of being consumed by the amount of stress you had to deal with. Here’s how you can get started:

? Determine what causes stress in your life.
? Think of ways that you can reduce that stress.
? Formulate your stress management technique for relieving stress.

Steps on Stress Management

One thing you need to keep in mind is that you cannot expect to totally get rid of stress. It is a process wherein your initial goal would be to reduce the amount of stress in your life until you eventually get rid of it.

The following ideas will help you establish a stress management method that could work for you:

? Improve your time management skills. Most of your stress in life are a result of your inability to squeeze in your plans within the time available to you. So, creating your schedule will enable you to achieve more in less time. When creating your schedule, put the most important items on top of your list.
? Study the way you react with stress. This requires your honesty to determine whether your own coping mechanisms are effective or not. If not, then look for other means.
? Take care of your body. This is often the most neglected aspect of stress management. Get enough rest and eat well. Your health is the most vital factor in stress management.
? Change your mindset. Oftentimes, stress is produced only by your mind. So, if that is the case with you, then adopting a new perspective might reduce your stress levels.

Benefits of Stress Management

If you cannot fully understand the importance of stress management, then try thinking in reverse. Imagine yourself not suffering from the negative impacts of stress. Without the negative results of stress in your life, then a person is able to enjoy a more satisfying and stress-free life.

To sum it up, here are the benefits that can be derived with practicing an efficient stress management method:

1. It improves your overall health status.
2. You are able to assume a more positive attitude and outlook in life.
3. It increases your productivity since you are able to focus clearly on your tasks.
4. You have better control over your emotions and how you respond to it.
5. And more importantly, you reduce or eliminate stress in your life.

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Job Stress and Working With Problem People

Job Stress and Working With Problem People

At the workplace, an employee must not only deal with the workload but also with the environment, particularly the people you work with. Here, several factors come into play and contribute at producing job stress. Problem people on your job may include your co-workers, managers, or your boss. You need to learn how to properly deal with them so you can prevent stress from devastating your working experience.

Manage Stress and Problem People

Problem people are not just confined to the workplace but in other aspects of everyday life that require you to work together. However, it is more pressing to address this issue at work since the company’s productivity is in the line. If you are leading a group of co-employees wherein you need to work at a given task, you have to know what to do in order to manage them properly. Or else, you’d fail to meet the task deadline and end up suffering from high levels of stress. Here are some strategies you can employ:

? Be tough. If you find that some of your co-workers or employees are not pulling their weight, you need to impose authority in order for them to realize the need to provide quality workforce. You can do this by setting standards and work boundaries for employees to live up to.
? Communicate assertively. Openly discuss with the people you are working with about each of your responsibilities to a given project or task. If possible, try to approach the matter objectively and free of any emotional leverage. Emphasize your aim to produce an efficient working relationship that results to higher productivity.

About Unreasonable Demands

Most jobs entail their own set of demands. However, there are certain instances wherein unreasonable demands could arise. You need to learn how to identify one against the other in order to know which ones to attend to first. One way to do that is to analyze your job description and what type of work is expected of you by the company. If any demand outside of your work description arises, you need to know how to turn it down while focusing on your job priorities.

This is not to say that you must refuse to attend to real emergencies in the workplace. However, this must not involve just one person but everyone who is concerned. You need to work together in coming up with an effective solution to any of these problems when they arise so you can reduce the level of stress produced by that given situation.

Producing Better Teamwork

If you’re serious about reducing job stress, then you need to come up with an efficient checklist system for your team design. This will enable you to raise awareness about issues or problem areas experienced by your team when working on a given project or task. One way to produce better teamwork is to encourage a feedback system. With this, you can remained focus on increasing performance and relieving team stress.

When coming up with a team design, you need to consider the following important factors:

? The number of people in your team.
? Do you need to work together? Or, must you perform separate and individual tasks towards a common goal?
? Does it require technical skills?
? Does it require social skills?
? Does your team have all the resources it need?
? What is the time frame for working on the project?
? How effective is your feedback system?

Proper Team Negotiation

Much of the job stress involved with working on a team project is rooted in your inability to resolve conflicts within the group. Therefore, having proper team negotiation skills will help you conquer the stress. Although neither an aggressive nor a passive approach will help your cause, you need to come up with a solution that is agreeable to both parties and one that will benefit the organization.

Different situations require different manners of negotiation. Therefore, you need to use this point to determine exactly what the source of conflict is. Is it lack of resources or lack of proper communication? Then, you can plan a solution accordingly. Once you have worked out possible solutions for the problem, then you will realize how it can significantly reduce the amount of job stress and you’d achieve a more productive working environment.

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