Article © Pathway to the Soul 2006
www.pathwaytothesoul.com

The beginning of the school year can be a very stressful time for parents. The extra pressure of getting children ready to go back to school and establishing new routines can tip the balance and put a normally calm person in to stress overdrive.

This time of year can bring up new emotions and new challenges. Children may be going to school for the first time or perhap be leaving the home to study in college. Its a time of year that can trigger extra worries, emotion and financial burdens.

Today I am going to give you an emergency kit to help you cope with those times of extra stress in your life. Something that you can use to ease the passage through a stressful period.

Ongoing stress in your life should always be treated seriously. Stress has been described as the number one underlying cause of many health problems and in Ireand 34% of men and 39% of women believe that lowering stress is the number one way that they could increase their health.

When stress persists you are at risk of serious health problems because stress can exhaust your immune system. If you suffer from ongoing stress it is essential that you learn to recognise stress symptoms and to identify the situations that evoke them and that you implement a plan to lower your stress levels.

Today however I am going ot concentrate on those occassions when you find yourself in a situation where you are stressed out and you need to take immediate action to combat this.

1. Stand Back and Take Stock

A major cause of stress is feeling like you have too much to do and too little time to do it in. The more overwhelmed you get, the less you actually achieve. To combat this stand back and take stock by writing down a list of everything you perceive you need to do and when it has to be done by.

Now go through this list and review these items and ask yourself these 4 questions about each item :

Question 1 - Is this item really important ?
Question 2 - What are the consequences of not doing this ?
Question 3 - Does it have to be done within the timeframe I have set ?
Question 4 - Could I get someone else to do it for me ?

In most cases you will be able to eliminate or postpone atleast 15% to 20% of the items on your list simply by doing this exercise You will have to be strict with yourself though, often we perceive something as being essential, when in reality, it is not. This is perhaps because we dont want to let someone else down or because we feel it is our duty to do carry out this task and because we dont want to ‘give the bad news’ to someone else that we are not going to be able to do it.

At times like this you need to be brave and to admit the difference between things you really need to do and things you feel you should do. It may mean that you have to make phone call or have a conversation that you may be a little bit uncomfortable about having but most often the fear of this is far worse than the actual event and definitely better than continuing on in a stressed out state.

2. Focus on one thing at a time

When you get stressed out you may tend to jump from one thing to the other, trying to get everything done at once. This leads to great frustration because overall everything moves slower and you can see no progress at all.

Focus on one thing at a time. Decide to give a particular item 1 hour or 1 day of you time or even to work on it until it is finished.

The feeling of progress you will get from this will encourage you and give you the energy and resourcefulness to face the other items that you need to.

You will also save time by not having to redo things that you have only half done in the first attempt.

3. Drop the Perfect Image

Trying to be perfect and to have everything perfect is a major cause of stress. Give yourself a break. None of us are perfect. Decide to do, to the best of your ability, whatever you can in the time you have available and to allow that to be good enough.

4. Breath

When we are stressed we can shorten our breathing or very often hold our breath for longer periods than normal. This affects our energy levels and will create a feeling of tiredness and poor concentration very quickly.

Make a conscious effort to be aware of your breathing and to breath right down in to your belly. Slow down your breathing, breathing in to the count of 4 and out to the same count.

This will very quickly bring you in to a calmer state.

5. Release Body Tension

Each of us have a pattern of how we react when stressed which will include tensing certain parts of your body. When we tense our body we stop the energy flowing properly and this will cause physical symptoms of pain like headache, backache and sore neck.

Start to notice where you are tense and to relax this area by allowing all the muscels to release and to relax.

Watch out for shouders, neck, jaw, lower back and chest. These are common areas that people hold tension in but also observe all the other areas of your body because each person has a unique pattern of holding.

6. Hydrate your body

Dehydration causes stress and stress causes more dehydration.

If your body is under hydrated it will not be able to cope as well as if it were fully hydrated. General health guidelines recommend that we drink a minimum of 2 litres of water a day. This a recommendation that you should always follow and be particularly conscious of in times of excess stress.

7. Keep Stimulants in Check

When you are stressed there may be a tendency to increase your consumption of caffeine. This feels like it gives us the extra boost we need to keep going but in reality is putting extra pressure on our already cranking body.

If you feel like an extra cup of coffee or tea try a herbal tea instead. I recommend Roiboos Tea also called Redbush Tea which has no caffeine, is very tasty and is full of health giving properties and which I find has a very calming effect on the body.

8. Boost your Mental and Physical Performance

There are also many tonics and herbs available to help boost your mental and physical performance and which are suited for taking in the short term in periods of extra stress. You should seek advice from a qualified physician or healthcare professional to see what would best suit you.

My personal favourite is Siberian Ginseng. It is known as an energy booster and has many health giving properties and from my experience really makes a big difference in times of short-term stress.

Please note that this advice is from my personal experience. I am not a qualified healthcare professional in the area of nutrition or supplementation. Siberian Ginseng is a very powerful herb and can have a negative impact if taken by people with certain medical conditions or when taken with certain prescription drugs or over a prolonged period. Treat it like orthodox medicine and only take it under the supervison of a qualified healthcare professional.

So thats it from me today. Its been great talking to you and I look forward to talking with you again very soon. If you want to read more from me you can sign up for my new newsletter on www.pathwaytothesoul.com and also of course I’ll be back with you in a months time on www.wicklow.com

So take care and bye for now !

Erica McKinney

© Pathway to the Soul 2006

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