HRGuru

Sometimes it is the simple concepts we need to hold on to.

Nice description of stress management . There are tons of paper how to reduce  stress. One small tips to control your stress as well as your blood pressure (those who have ) . every after 2/3 hours take a small break . Be seated in your chair  ,close your eyes ,keep your back straight without support . Inhale  for 6 seconds ,hold it for another 6 sevonds and exhale it slowly without force in a very normal way for 8 seconds . Initialy you will have jerking problem while exhaling . But after few session it will be ok . While closing eyes dont put strees on the eye just close it and try to dream some good view like vast ocean ,long greeneries  or beautiful flowers.  This small breathing ( pranayama- sanskrit word)   exercise will revitalize .

Tapan - I agree completely.  It is interesting because a few years ago I had an assessment of my workstation done to ensure it met my needs.  During my interview with the nurse, she asked me how often I took a break.  I said, oh, at lunch (4 hours from the time I start work).  She replied, no, you need to take care of that and have a break at least every 90 minutes.  Now I do.  I usually do a similar approach to what you suggested, but turn my swivelling chair around so I am not facing papers, the phone and the computer and close my eyes.  It really helps to relax the body and such a freeing experience.  But I also feel I need stress to function.  Does that sound funny?  Do you feel that too, or am I alone on this thought?

Pretty much.  It is definitely adrenaline - what happens when you have something critical to do - you are under time constraints but the excitement you feel when are putting the pieces together and the more pieces you can match up brings you to another level - gives you a rush - a hgher understanding and suddenly a light bulb comes on and you accomplish it but in a way that you did not think possible.  That is what I mean.  Many people talk about stress management as an evil force - something you have to control.  But I feel that there is a flip side which you do not want to turn off.  It is so invigorating.

sarah, i agree with you that some degree of stress is required as a performance enhancer like the max productivity is when the deadline approaches but at the same time stress is required to be managed so that 'burnouts', 'flameouts' and ' heart attacks' can be avoided which are caused by continuous excessive exposure to stress esp those people who have to meet one deadline  after the other. besides this , stress can be caused by bad boss, bad colleagues , too much of ambition in life / career and bad working environment etc. different people have varied tolerance to stress.  some people are more severely affected even by little stress. all said and done, stress needs to be managed to keep it in healthy productive limits. there are various techniques to manage stress -take 5 minutes break after 40 minutes work, deep breathing when you feel stressed, regular exercises ,yoga, meditation and so on. i therefore feel that it is a very interesting topic and can be discussed till cows come home.

jagdev50 says ...

sarah, i agree with you that some degree of stress is required to as a performance enhancer like the max productivity is when the deadline approaches but at the same time stress is required to be managed so that 'burnouts', 'flameouts' and ' heart attacks' can be avoided which are caused by continuous excessive exposure to stress esp those people who have to meet one deadline  after the other. besides this , stress can be caused by bad boss, bad colleagues , too much of ambition in life / career and bad working environment etc. different people have varied tolerance to stress.  some people are more severely affected even by little stress. all said and done, stress needs to be managed to keep it in healthy productive limits. there are various techniques to manage stress -take 5 minutes break after 40 minutes work, deep breathing when you feel stressed, regular exercises ,yoga, meditation and so on. i therefore feel that it is a very interesting topic and can be discussed till cows come home.

You are so right, we could discuss this here at HRGuru until the cows come home!  And there are many good points here.

All of us should try not to miss asingle issue of Readers Digest

sarah, i agree with you and tapan that laughter is the best medicine for stress but i wish to bring out that some stress is required to ensure that the olympic records are broken in every new edition of the game!!!

tapan, in a scale of 1 to 10, i would put it at 4 to 5 ie moderate stress is required to enhance the performance.

I would think that if you remember to smile sincerely, from the heart, it would help.  I knew a man once who broke up with his girlfriend over her smile.  He said that she had taken a management course, and now, even when they were arguing, she never stopped smiling.  The problem was, he said, that the smile was not sincere.  He called it "that plastered-on manager smile", and it annoyed him.  A sincere smile, however, would annoy no one, and would go a long way to easing tensions for everyone.

everyone sincerely smiling in a work place creates a wonderful environment but is it practically possible in the present day situations? smile invariably has to come from the boss so that others can smile back . bosses rarely smile because they are caught up in some target assigned to them . but smile one must because a smile on the face means that the person is not stressed.