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The Theory of Cumulative Stress: How to Recover When Stress Builds Up

The Theory of Cumulative Stress: How to Recover When Stress Builds Up
It was my first year of graduate school and my professor was standing at the front of the room. He was telling our class about a mistake he made years before. About a decade earlier, my professor had been one of the senior executives at Sears, Roebuck & Company, the large department store chain. They were in the middle of a massive national campaign and preparing for a major brand launch. My professor was leading the operation. For almost two months prior to the launch day, he was flying all over the country to strike up buzz with major partners and media companies. The week before the big launch day, his body gave out on him. Your Bucket of Health and Energy Imagine that your health and energy are a bucket of water. In your day-to-day life, there are things that fill your bucket up. There are also forces that drain the water from your bucket. The forces that drain your bucket aren’t all negative, of course. These outputs are cumulative. The Theory of Cumulative Stress Why? Related:  Stress Better

9 Ways to Feel Less Stress When Life Gets Crazy Busy Email Don’t stress. Do your very best. Appreciate each step. Forget the rest. Stress is one of the primary causes of major health problems in our lives: it can cause heart disease, anxiety, sleep deprivation, auto-immune disorders, weight problems, unhappiness, and even deep depression. But we’re busy – we all have places to be, things to do and people to see. When life gets crazy busy, you might not have time for week-long meditation and yoga retreats, weekend vacations, or even weekly life coaching sessions. I’m going to be brief about this, because time is of the essence. Reminder: Have you checked out our book? 1. Instead of being in a stressful task-switching state of mind, take your next task, let everything else go, and just be in the moment with this one task. Let yourself be immersed in this task by letting go of the feeling that you need to quickly rush through it – that you need to move on to the next task waiting for you. Bottom line: Slow down. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Is it true? 7.

The Four Elements of Physical Energy and How To Master Them I have a FitBit (glorified pedometer if I ever saw one), and since getting it, my exercise goal each day is to hit 5,000 steps. On work days, I generally hit 2,000-3,000 each day consistently, meaning I only need to take a walk around the block twice when I get home to meet my goal. Recently, due to winter, I mostly was just pacing back and forth in my apartment while watching Netflix. A process that could take me up to two hours to get those extra 5,000 steps in (it's a small apartment). I find that having a goal for step count rather than exercise is easier, because some days I just don't *feel* like exercising (like Saturdays, when I am running around doing errands), and typically on those days, I get a bunch of steps in anyways. I combine this method with Jerry Scienfeld's method of "Don't Break the Chain," which REALLY helps come Sunday when I'm not doing anything or going anywhere, and therefore really do need to concentrate to get my 5k steps in.

How To Get More Done By Having Less To Do Ask anyone how their life’s going these days, and either he or she will answer: “Busy!” “I think it’s an almost universal experience right now that people feel busy but not productive,” says Greg McKeown, whose new book, Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less, argues for paring back commitments to achieve more. If you’re feeling stretched, here’s five ways how to pull yourself back together: 1. You’re looking at a new opportunity. The point is that “we need to see the difference between things that are good and things that are exceptionally good," he says. 2. As you examine your current life commitments, the best metaphor is to clean out your closet. Likewise, if you’re holding onto a commitment only because you’ve been doing it for a while, ask yourself if you’d add it to your life if it weren’t already there. 3. We think working more hours will help us get ahead. 4. Being an essentialist is “not just about saying no to stuff,” says McKeown. 5. [Image: Flickr user toffehoff]

One Research-Backed Way to Effectively Manage Your Stressful and Busy Schedule About twenty years ago, a group of college students at Stanford University headed home for winter break. While they were gone, they were given the task of keeping a daily journal. In this journal, some of the students were asked to write about their most important personal values and then describe how the events of each day connected with those values. Another group of students was simply asked to describe the positive events that happened throughout their day. When the students returned to school after the break, the researchers discovered that those students who wrote about their personal values were healthier, experienced fewer illnesses, and had better energy and attitude than the students who merely wrote about the positive events in their lives. “It turns out that writing about your values is one of the most effective psychological interventions ever studied. But why? The Power of Personal Values Living Out Your Personal Values Each year, I conduct an Integrity Report. P.S.

The Brain Hacks Top Founders Use To Get The Job Done Katia Verresen's new client had a big problem: He needed to find three to four extra hours in his day. This, of course, seemed like an impossible feat for an oversubscribed startup founder, but his ability to fundraise and recruit the best talent depended on it. By the time he met Verresen, executive coach to many such founders, he was drained, pessimistic, dreading every week before it started. Even though tech culture champions sleeplessness, overtime and burnout, Verresen has seen how this mindset can lead to failure. But the proof is in the pudding. Her method has turned Verresen into one of the most sought after coaches in the business. Filling Your Buckets Maintaining and using energy wisely might seem like obvious advice, but it’s hardly ever heeded. Instead, she encourages her clients to visualize three types of energy as buckets that need to be filled: Physical Energy: The foundation of everything you do. Entrepreneurism as Endurance Sport Then she goes granular.

Stop Wasting Time on Things that Don't Have a Purpose in Your Life 8 Signs You’re Way Too Stressed Stress. It’s an evolutionary tactic that is great in small doses but is literally killing us now that we’re surrounded by it in our daily existence. Here are eight signs you’re succumbing to its vices. 1. Getting sick once a year is normal. 2. Too much stress leads to too much cortisol which leads to a smaller hippocampus which means you can’t remember your coworkers’ names anymore. Studies also show that this child-like activity melts stress and increases focus. 3. Stress headaches are not the worst headaches of your life. 4. Physically damaging as well, stress causes knots in the back and a stiff neck because of how we tense these muscles when feeling anxious. 5. After a long day of work, it should be no problem falling asleep soon after your head hits the pillow. When all else fails, try Sleep Switch to turn off your mind at night. 6. More common in women than in men, extreme stress can lead to the body’s immune system attacking hair follicles, resulting in hair loss. 7. 8. Read more:

4 Things You Thought Were True About Time Management - Amy Gallo by Amy Gallo | 1:00 PM July 22, 2014 I don’t know anyone who doesn’t struggle with how to make the most of their time at work. How do you stay on top of an overflowing inbox? How do you get work done when your day is taken up by meetings? To make matters worse, there are lots of misconceptions about what time management really comes down to and how to achieve it. It’s about managing your time. Time management is a misnomer, says Jordan Cohen, a productivity expert and author of “Make Time for the Work That Matters.” Teresa Amabile, the Edsel Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School and coauthor of The Progress Principle, whose expertise in this area comes from reading the work diaries of thousands of workers who documented their struggles to get work done, says it’s more about managing your overall workload. You just need to find the right system or approach. “Having a system can be useful, but it takes more than that,” says Amabile.

11 Reasons Dehydration Is Making You Sick And Fat Digestive, skin, bladder and kidney problems, fatigue and headache are just some of the adverse effects from not drinking enough water. We need it as much as air we breathe in! It’s not a joke. Did you know that when you start feeling thirsty your body is already dehydrated? The best practice is to sip water throughout a day. Have it always handy! If you’re not a morning person, have two glasses of water right after you wake up. Also, don’t think that sweetened juices, soda or tea will hydrate you as well as water does. And as an added bonus, drinking water speeds up your metabolism and makes you feel more ‘full’. Credits: SDFJ.org Memolition whydontyoutrythis.com STANDARD FTC DISCLOSURE: In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog. Did you enjoy this article?

Manage Stress by Listening to Your Body A new study in the journal Biological Psychology suggests that people with better body awareness tend to feel less stressed. That’s no surprise, perhaps, if you’ve already been practicing mindfulness, but may seem odd otherwise. Stress leads to a physiological response, such as increased heart rate or sweating. Participants who reported themselves less overwhelmed by a challenge also noticed their physical state sooner that others—with brain scans suggesting they were able to reign in anxiety before it escalated. This relatively simple idea illustrates a somewhat complex concept around stress management and mindfulness. Start with the Body Mindfulness is meant to be practical, and once again, this study shows why. Left unattended, stress often amplifies itself all day long. Being aware of our bodies helps break the stress cycle. With the body scan, we develop the capacity to notice our physical experience. Adapted from Psychology Today Thanks for subscribing!

The Productivity Paradox: How Sony Pictures Gets More Out of People by Demanding Less The Idea in Brief Human beings don’t work like computers; they can’t operate at high speeds continuously, running multiple programs at once. People perform at their peak when they alternate between periods of intense focus and intermittent renewal. Employees can increase their effectiveness by practicing simple rituals that refuel their energy, such as taking a daily walk to get an emotional breather or turning off e-mail at prescribed times so they can concentrate. If companies allow and encourage employees to create and stick to such rituals, they will be rewarded with a more engaged, productive, and focused workforce. Artwork: Antony Gormley, Capacitor, 2001. The way most of us work isn’t working. Nearly a decade ago, the Energy Project, the company I head, began to address work performance and the problem of employee disengagement. To date, the reaction to the program has been overwhelmingly positive.

Catastrophe Checklist: The Simple Art of Navigating Stress In the event of decompression, an oxygen mask will automatically appear in front of you. Place it firmly over your nose and mouth, secure the elastic band behind your head, and breathe normally. If you are traveling with a child or someone who requires assistance, secure your mask on first, and then assist the other person. What would you do in an emergency plane landing? I am sure you have heard the word “checklist.” Your first thought may be a grocery list or a to-do list. I first came to the simple power of checklists on a flight to Chicago. When I asked him the question, what would you do in an emergency plane landing, his answer was surprising. A checklist? A pilot does not rely on training or instinct to save passengers in a crash landing. When you are navigating a plane thousands of feet above the ground it is not a matter of what you know, but rather what systems you have in place. That is why checklists are so valuable, for pilots and you. Why Systems Matter Sure. Anger. Go Deeper

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