Tag: University of Mumbai BMS Notes

Yoga is a system of mental and spiritual development with a scope of mental transformation. In India, the concept and practice of Yoga originated several millennia ago. Its founders were great saints and Sages, the great yogis gave rational interpretation to their experiences of Yoga and brought about a scientific and practical method within everyone‘s reach. Today is modern time, Yoga no longer is restricted to hermits of saints; it has taken its place in everyday life and has aroused the world wide awakening and acceptance in the last decade.

The science of Yoga and its techniques have now been re-oriented to suit physiological needs and lifestyles. Experts of various branches of medicine including modern science are realizing the role of these techniques in the prevention and management of lifestyle disorders.

The literal meaning of the Sanskrit word “Yoga is to Yoke”. Accordingly, Yoga can be defined as a means of uniting the individual spirit with the universal spirit. This is the primary objective of Yoga i.e. spiritual advancement.

All the diseases arise at mental level and then get manifested physically. Therefore

way to win over diseases is to destroy unnatural lifestyle. In fact, people have some

bad habits which do not let them stay healthy. Some of these habits are-

1. Food related habits
2. Laziness
3. Least use of fine elements
4. Affection with unnatural things
5. Unregulated use up
6. Futile treatment
7. Bad thoughts.

Yoga philosophy is one of the six systems of Indian philosophy. It is the philosophy, science and art of holistic living where the ignoble in man is transformed into the noble. Unlike so many other philosophies of the world, it is a philosophy which completely practical. It is an exact science based on certain immutable Laws of Nature.

Yoga is a process of rejoicing. It is not a suffering. It is a movement through happiness. From one state of joy, we move to another state of joy. It is not that Yoga starts with sorrow, or that it is a kind of prison-house into which we are thrown. We have sometimes a feeling that Yoga is a torture, a suffering, to the normal life of man. Sadhana means a fear, and indicates an unnatural seriousness.

Body needs a certain amount of exercise for its proper function. Lack of, exercise or wrong physical activity can aggravate or cause psychological problems. Asana is the third limb of Astanga Yoga. It consists of the performance of physical postures that release physical stress and tension. The correct postures increase the vital force, which gets blocked by wrong posture, and calms the mind, which is stressed by wrong posture. It refers to sitting postures for meditation, which are the main Asanas mentioned in yogic texts. For any real self-examination, we must be able to sit still and comfortable with an erect spine. This scientifically seen that it allows the ascending flow of energy through which the mind can empty itself out and open up the deeper layers of consciousness. Its regular practicing can aid in releasing psychological tension through releasing the physical and Pranic blocks sustaining it.

Yogic management for stress

Asanas/postures can help to relive stress, tension and anxiety. By expelling the excess negative emotions and adrenaline through physical activity, one can enter a more relaxed, calm state of being. It is one of the most important coping medium to combat anxiety and stress. It acts as a buffer against stress and may thus help protect the cardiovascular and immune systems from the consequences of stressful events. The yogic practices are:

Kriyas: Jalneti, Sutraneti, Kapalbhati, Suryanamaskar

Brisk exercise: Nadisanchlana, Butterfly asana, Pagchalana, Nabichalan.

Yogicasanas: Tadaasana, Katichakarasana, Pavanmuktasana, Sarvangasana, Matsyasana, Gomukhasana, Vakrasana, Ardhamatsyendrasana, Ushtrasana, Shashankasana, Paschimottanasana, Makrasana, Bhujangasana, Dhanurasana,  Shalbhasana, Shavasana.

Pranayama: Nadishodan, Ujjayi, Shitali, Shitkari, Bhastrika, Bhramari.

Meditation: Breath awareness, Om chanting, Om meditation.

Yoga Nidra, with this regular practice is believed to act on the subconscious level to bring about a state of homoestasis in the body and mind.

Behaviour change for reducing stress

• Keep a positive attitude. One should adopt middle path in all dealings. Avoid extremes.
• Accept that there are events that you can control.
• Be assertive instead of aggressive. Assert your feelings, opinions, or beliefs instead of becoming angry, defensive, or passive.
• Learn and practice relaxation techniques; try meditation & Yoga.
• Exercise regularly. Your body can fight stress better when it is fit.
• Eat healthy, well-balanced meals. Always take food after digestion of previous meal, according to suitability & in limited quantity.
• Learn to manage your time & speak more effectively according to the occasion with good, true & pleasing words.
• Set limits appropriately and say no to requests that would create excessive stress in your life.
• Make time for hobbies and interests.
• Get enough rest and sleep. Your body needs time to recover from stressful events.
• Don’t rely on alcohol, drugs, or food to reduce stress. Ease up on caffeine, too.
• Seek out social support. Spend enough time with those you love.

New methods for stress assessment were developed in the last years as a result of an unprecedented evolution in consumer electronics and miniaturization. Others were made possible from a better understanding of stress and its effects on the Human being at several levels: physiological, behavioral or physical. The diversity of alternatives, asshown in this section, allows for solutions to be used in specific scenarios with increased accuracy and commodity (e.g. driving vehicles, working at the computer). In this section we analyze in detail the characteristics of each of these new methods and in Section 6 we provide a critical analysis and a comparison between them.

Wearables

One of the latest trends in stress management is being fostered by wearable devices. Indeed, in the last years there was a major development in consumer electronics, with devices being used for acquiring physiological signs.

Smartphones

The evolution witnessed in the field of smartphones in the last years also led to the emergence of a new paradigm: wellness mobiles. Technological developments make it possible for health-care professionals to have access to comprehensive real-time patient data. Likewise, users can also continuously track their health on the go, build a comprehensive history and receive real-time advice or warning.

Indeed, mobile phones have a growing number and variety of sensors that can nowadays be leveraged to produce, in the near future, what can be called as personal wellness dashboards: devices with the ability to measure our heart rate or body temperature and quickly analyze our state of health. This may make personal health care cost-effective, decreasing the use of emergency care.

Some mobile apps take advantage, to some extent, of the sensors currently present in smartphones.

Although, in many cases, some of these apps lack proven scientific validity, their low cost and their availability makes them easily reach a significant number of users.

The majority of existing apps use the smartphones’ builtin sensors. Azumio’s Stress Check uses the camera and light features of the smartphone to measure heart rate. A similar approach is followed by other apps (e.g. StressViewer). There is also a significant number of apps dedicated not to measuring stress but to decreasing or coping with it, namely through breathing exercises, with visual or sound aids. Stress Releaser is one such app. Another example is DeStressify, that is based on music and specific exercises. There are also apps that use specific hardware, such as PIP Relax and Race, which is based on an electrodermal activity sensor. In this specific app, the user takes part in a race where victory is achieved only by out-relaxing the opponents. A generally competitive activity is thus changed into a relaxing one, with real-time biofeedback. Similar apps exist for this specific hardware. DroidJacket requires the use of VitalJacket – a shirt that embeds an electrocardiogram sensor, allowing a continuous monitoring of the patient.

The work described in also uses a specific sensor platform (Personal Biomonitoring System), in parallel with the smartphone, to monitor the level of stress of the smartphone user.

Other smartphone-based approaches are based on the changes in the speech production process, that happen during stress. To this end, these applications use the microphones embedded in the mobile phones. StressSense is one of such applications, based on a classifier that can robustly identify stress across multiple individuals in diverse acoustic environments. There are also authors who look at the behavior of smartphone users for stress indicators. Although not in a conclusive manner, in the authors find significant differences in location traces, visible bluethooth devices and phone call patterns when comparing stressful with stress free periods.

Computer Vision

Many different image sources can be used to monitor stress, the most frequently used being the Human face. Although cultural differences can intensify facial expression of emotions, there is considerable scientific evidence that emotions are communicated in distinct facial displays across cultures, age and gender. These approaches can be classified as two-dimensional or three-dimensional. Their main difference is that the first tries to recognize features directly from a two-dimensional decomposition/transformation of the image, and is generally not sensible to rotations and translations of the face.

The authors apply optical computer recognition algorithms to detect facial changes due to low and highstressor performance demands, with the aim to develop an approach suitable to be used by astronauts. This approach takes as input images from the whole face. On a similar approach but on a different field of application, Gao et al. present a system for detecting stress from facial expressions

in car drivers, on the other hand, consider only pupil diameter (together with physiological signals), to assess stress. To this end, they make use of a specific camera-based eye-tracking system. Speech and Other Linguistic Features

This section describes approaches for stress assessment based on vocal cues such as speed, rhythm or intonation. Interestingly, the variability introduced by stress or emotion can severely reduce speech recognition accuracy. Thus, the importance of techniques for detecting or assessing the presence of stress to improve the robustness of speech recognition systems.

The present a hierarchical framework, which consists of three layers of classifiers, for automatic stress detection in English speech utterances: a linguistic classifier, an acoustic classifier and an AdaBoost classifier. The paper presents accuracy rates higher than 90%. In a related approach, Imoto et al. address sentence-level stress detection of English for Computer-Assisted Language Learning by Japanese students. Stress models are set up by considering syllable structure and position of the syllable in a phrase, providing diagnostic information for students.

Eustress means beneficial stress either psychological, physical (e.g. exercise), or biochemical/radiological (hormesis).

The term was coined by endocrinologist Hans Selye, consisting of the Greek prefix eu- meaning “good”, and stress, literally meaning “good stress”.

It is the positive cognitive response to stress that is healthy, or gives one a feeling of fulfilment or other positive feelings. Selye created the term as a subgroup of stress to differentiate the wide variety of stressors and manifestations of stress.

Eustress is not defined by the stressor type, but rather how one perceives that stressor (e.g. a negative threat versus a positive challenge). Eustress refers to a positive response one has to a stressor, which can depend on one’s current feelings of control, desirability, location, and timing of the stressor. Potential indicators of eustress may include responding to a stressor with a sense of meaning, hope, or vigor. Eustress has also been positively correlated with life satisfaction and well-being.

Eustress occurs when the gap between what one has and what one wants is slightly pushed, but not overwhelmed. The goal is not too far out of reach but is still slightly more than one can handle. This fosters challenge and motivation since the goal is in sight. The function of challenge is to motivate a person toward improvement and a goal. Challenge is an opportunity-related emotion that allows people to achieve unmet goals. Eustress is indicated by hope and active engagement. Eustress has a significantly positive correlation with life satisfaction and hope. It is typically assumed that experiencing chronic stress, either in the form of distress or eustress, is negative. However, eustress can instead fuel physiological thriving by positively influencing the underlying biological processes implicated in physical recovery and immunity.

Measurement

Occupational eustress may be measured on subjective levels such as of quality of life or work life, job pressure, psychological coping resources, complaints, overall stress level, and mental health. Other subjective methodological practices have included interviews with focus groups asking about stressors and stress level. In one study participants were asked to remember a past stressful event and then answer questionnaires on coping skills, job well-being, and appraisal of the situation (viewing the stressful event as a challenge or a threat).

Common subjective methodologies were incorporated in a holistic stress model created in 2007 to acknowledge the importance of eustress, particularly in the workplace. This model uses hope, positive affect, meaningfulness, and manageability as a measure of eustress, and negative psychological states, negative affect, anxiety, and anger as a measure of distress.

Objective measures have also been used and include blood pressure rate, muscle tension, and absenteeism rates. Further physiological research has looked for neuroendocrine changes as a result of eustress and distress. Research has shown that catecholamines change rapidly to pleasurable stimuli. Studies have demonstrated that eustress and distress produce different responses in the neuroendocrine system, particularly dependent on the amount of personal control one feels over a stressor.

Factors

There are several factors that may increase or decrease one’s chances of experiencing eustress and, through eustress, experiencing flow.

• Stress is also influenced by hereditary predispositions and expectations of society. Thus, a person could already be at a certain advantage or disadvantage toward experiencing eustress.
• If a person enjoys experiencing new things and believes they have importance in the world, they are more likely to experience flow.
• Flow is negatively related to self-directedness, or an extreme sense of autonomy.
• Persistence is positively related to flow and closely related to intrinsic motivation.
• People with an internal locus of control, have an increased chance of flow because they believe they can increase their skill level to match the challenge.
• Perfectionism, however, is negatively related to flow. A person downplays their skill levels therefore making the gap too big, and they perceive the challenge to be too large to experience flow. On the opposite end of perfectionism, however, there are increased chances of flow.
• Active procrastination is positively related to flow. By actively delaying work, the person increases the challenge. Then once the challenge is matched with the person’s high skill levels, the person can experience flow. Those who passively procrastinate or do not procrastinate do not have these same experiences. It is only with the purposeful procrastination that a person is able to increase the challenge.
• Mindset is a significant factor in determining distress versus eustress. Optimistic people and those with high self-esteem contribute to eustress experiences. The positive mindset increases the chances of eustress and a positive response to stressors. Currently, the predominant mindset toward stress is that stress is debilitating. However, mindsets toward stress can be changed.

Examples

Eustress is common in the examples below. However, the examples depend on how an individual perceives the stress. The examples below are most often perceived as eustress:

• Meeting or engaging in a challenge
• Desired physical exercise (e. g. weight training, running, biking)
• Intentional exposure to cold water
• Playing sports
• Watching a suspenseful or scary movie
• Riding a roller coaster
• Competing in a tournament
• Gambling
• Wim Hof breathing
• People (e. g. Coaches, Parents)

Factors affecting eustress

In daily life, we often use the term “stress” to describe negative situations. This leads many people to believe that all stress is bad for you, which is not true. Eustress, or positive stress, has the following characteristics:

• Motivates, focuses energy
• Is short-term
• Is perceived as within our coping abilities
• Feels exciting
• Improves performance

In contrast, Distress, or negative stress, has the following characteristics:

• Causes anxiety or concern
• Can be short- or long-term
• Is perceived as outside of our coping abilities
• Feels unpleasant
• Decreases performance
• Can lead to mental and physical problems

As a manager you want your team to do their best. And that naturally means making sure they have all the tools they need. Unfortunately, that new calendar app, communication tool, or project management software might be causing more harm than good.

As the name implies, technostress is the stress and negative psychological impact of introducing new technologies at work.

The term was first used by Craig Brod in his book of the same name back in 1984. Yet while Brod was talking about the widespread adoption of computers in the workplace, our dependence on (and frustration with) technology has only grown since.

1: Perpetual Distraction

The persistent beeping, vibrating and flashing of notifications mean that we are constantly distracted and driven to interrupt what we are doing to check our phones.  Indeed, a UK study found that smartphone users unlock their phones on average 85 times a day; and use it for about five hours each day.  This means we are unable to focus our attention and consolidate things properly into our memory, causing us to feel more and more ‘goldfish-like’, which can be quite distressing in itself.  This is backed up by research which is beginning to show correlations between high smartphone and internet use, and poor cognitive skills such as attention, memory and learning.

2: Sleep Dysregulation

Many of us use our phone at bedtime.  You get into bed intending to go to sleep, but you just want to check your phone (just for ‘a second’) to find out something innocuous like tomorrow’s weather… and then an hour later, there you are watching a totally random video, trying to decide whether you hear a computerised voice saying the word ‘yanny’ or ‘laurel’.  Looking at our phones when we should be going to sleep has the double whammy effect of over-stimulating our brains, making it hard to wind down and switch off, and exposing us to blue light from the screen. Research suggests that blue screen exposure can reduce melatonin production, which interrupts our circadian rhythm (i.e. sleep-waking cycles), making it harder for us to fall, and stay, asleep. Unfortunately, poor sleep tends to mean poorer resilience and higher levels of anxiety and stress.

3: Work/Life Balance

While in the past there was often a clear boundary between where work life ended, and home life began. His area is now very much grey.  Most of us have our work emails on our phones, making us constantly available and contactable.  This makes it very difficult for us to ever truly disengage from work and relax.

4: F.O.M.O

Or Fear Of Missing Out is essentially a type of social anxiety that arises from the fear that you are missing out on something; whether it’s an event, a work or social opportunity, a communication, or a potential connection, or just something cool and ethereal that you might like to see or be part of.  So we want to be connected. ‘just in case’.  To test this, just ask your friends and family if they’ve ever considered coming off social media. Like us, they probably have… but the majority probably decide not to, because of FOMO.  Ironically, the more connected we are, the more likely we may be to experience FOMO, because it is often caused by the posts we see on social media sites like Facebook leading us to believe our friends and acquaintances are having exciting and/or interesting experiences in our absence.  To find out more about research exploring the relationship between problematic smartphone use, FOMO and mental wellbeing.

5: Social Comparison

We can’t help but compare ourselves to others, and social comparison theory suggests that we use these types of comparisons to evaluate how we think and feel about ourselves.  Social Media, by its nature, actively encourages social comparison, as it is littered with information that can easily be used as metrics of apparent social success (e.g. friends, likes, shares, followers and so forth). These metrics are problematic in themselves, because if we don’t get enough likes to a comment or picture we have posted, or if someone has more likes or friends than us, it can make us feel inferior.  Furthermore, the disparity between real life and what people actually post on social media means that we tend to only see an extremely edited ‘highlight reel’ of other people’s lives. This effectively gives the false impression that others lead a more exciting/perfect/interesting life than our own, which, in reality has its fair share of ups, middles and downs for everyone. increasing the likelihood of negative social comparisons being made, which can have serious consequences on our wellbeing.

Causes of technostress

Technostress isn’t just about specific tools or apps. To understand its true impact, we can group the stressors that cause technostress into five categories:

1. Invasion: “Technology is taking over my life!”

Hands up if you’ve ever taken work home with you. Thanks to smartphones and high-speed internet, jobs are rarely restricted to just the workplace. With technology invading our work and home, it shouldn’t be surprising that we’re getting more stressed.

2. Overload: “I can’t keep up with all these tasks!”

Even when work somehow stays at work, we’re often overloaded by interruptions. With the average office worker receiving 121 emails every day (and who knows how many IM notifications), people often feel under fire and overworked.

3. Complexity: “This technology is too complicated!”

Many workers inexperienced with technology find new tools unnecessarily complex and intimidating. Every app comes with new “helpful” features and its own unique jargon that you need to learn. Even Gmail has so many different options and settings you probably won’t know about them all without a guide.

4. Insecurity: “If I can’t work out how to use this technology, I’ll get fired!”

Unfortunately, most workers are expected to learn the tool by themselves as they go along, without any additional training (or even time) provided.

Worse still, many feel that if they can’t keep up-to-date with the latest technology they’ll be replaced by someone who can. This results in performance anxiety and a very real sense of insecurity, putting even greater pressure on workers.

5. Uncertainty: “Wait, is this how this technology is supposed to work?”

Finally, as technology keeps advancing, many feel a sense of instability and uncertainty about what their work (and life) will look like tomorrow. Even we writers aren’t immune, as headlines of AIs taking our jobs become increasingly common.

Looking at the five categories of stress, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that highly innovative companies that are constantly pushing the boundaries had the highest levels of technostress.

Interestingly, though, those who only use technology occasionally are more likely to suffer from technostress, as people who regularly use technology seem to develop the necessary coping skills.

Along with burnout, technostress can cause a wide range of other symptoms, such as:

• Headaches, sore neck, back, and shoulder muscles, an inability to relax, and hypertension are just a few of the common physical symptoms of technostress.
• Workers feeling overwhelmed by technology have increased errors, worse productivity, more difficulty concentrating, and low morale, and they can become depressed, mentally exhausted, and cynical toward technology.
• Technostress can cause panic/anxiety attacks, feelings of isolation, and irritability. It can also lead to less time for sustained thinking, work/life imbalance, reduced job satisfaction, and increased mental and time pressure.

Pair these with all the other things that can contribute to workplace stress and that new technology you brought in could be doing more harm than good.

Even worse, your team might not even be using the thing. Studies found technostress can lead to workers ignoring or avoiding tech-related procedures. So rather than saving time and money, that new tech could be costing you without any actual benefits.

Audit in medical practice is now an accepted part of established procedure and is a tool which can be applied to all aspects of practice.

Audit can be performed in two main ways:

• External: An outside auditor examines how work is being carried out and
• Internal: Those who actually are employed in the workplace carry out the assessment.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both of these and the tool which is used depends on several factors including the purpose of the audit, the competence of those carrying it out and available finance.

A stress audit may be carried out by someone who is medically trained or by someone with a different background. Management consultants are increasingly involved in stress because of the close links between management style and stress problems. Other specialists and non-specialists may also offer audits and treatment services.

Stress Audit

Stress might affect job performance either because working conditions are stressful or because of personal stress factors outside work. A stress audit should be designed to differentiate between these. There are several reasons why a company may decide to tackle stress. Many organizations take action without having first established whether or not stress is a problem or indeed whether or not work-related stress occurs. An analogy might be made with prescribing medication without having made a diagnosis. A wise employer should endeavour to find out whether or not stress is a problem in their working environment, identify whether or not such stress is primarily due to working conditions and quantify the extent of the problem before deciding on any measures to combat the effects of stress. This means carrying out a stress audit

There are several levels at which a stress audit may be conducted:

• Evaluation of organizational dysfunction;
• Identification of work stressors such as work overload, job insecurity, poor channels of communication, ineffective management, constant change and frustration;
• Measurement of stress-related illness in employees and
• An evaluation of indicators such as absence or staff turnover

Significant stress is often associated with organizational dysfunction and a stress audit should concentrate on management style and gain an overall picture of the health of the organization and the way in which it is run in order to be effective.

Even when they recognize that there is a problem, some employers are reluctant to agree to an audit because they fear that this may expose their deficiencies. The situation is particularly delicate when senior executives are aware that management style is likely to be a major factor in stress causation.

Methodology for carrying out a stress audit

The first task is to decide on a clear objective for the audit This might be to ascertain whether or not stress presents a problem, the extent of stress-related illness in the organization or identification of the causes of stress in a particular work environment.

Most audits are carried out using a questionnaire distributed to a study population. There are those which have already been validated (such as the Occupational.

Stress Inventory and the Occupational Stress Indicator) and it is sensible to use one of these. Otherwise, it will be necessary to carry out a pilot exercise to validate the questionnaire. The study population may be the entire workforce or may concentrate on a specific department or problem area.

Alternatively, one-to-one interviews may be carried out with a sample population. These will give a more in-depth view of staff feelings regarding stress but, realistically, only a small number of staff can be interviewed in this manner because the process is time consuming.

Evaluation and feedback

Computer-based scoring systems are increasingly used. These allow ease of collating results and have the particular advantage that, depending on the programme which is used, comparisons of different departments and other key issues can be accessed.

A report should include recommendations which give the employer action points and goals to achieve within a certain time-frame and which lead to the development of a stress policy if the employer does not have one already.

Feedback to the employer is vital. This may be the hardest part of the exercise if issues need to be raised which are not likely to find favour. However, the auditor must give an honest appraisal of the findings and encourage a positive viewpoint. The consequences of not being honest are that the auditor may be held responsible if the employer is subsequently found negligent for not tackling stress and can show that he was not aware of the audit findings. Ideally, there should be the opportunity to repeat the audit after a period of time (for example, one year) in order to evaluate what measures have been put into place and their effectiveness.

Stress could manifest as a result of increased pressure from work. It could also stem from bullying, harassment or discrimination.

No matter the cause, if left unaddressed stress may become overwhelming. This can lead to other physical, mental and emotional problems.

There are various ways to manage and support employees experiencing stress or other related symptoms at work. This post focuses on counselling for work-related stress.

While stress is a normal part of life and in some cases even manageable without the need for professional assistance, this may not always be the case.

Stress and anger management counselling is the process of talking to a professional psychotherapist about issues an employee may be experiencing.

Within the workplace, an employee assistance programme (EAP) can provide this support for employees. It allows them access to an independent and confidential helpline for them to discuss their issues with trained counsellors.

Counselling for stress at work aims to identify the causes of an employee’s work-related stress. When conducted in a private and judgment-free environment, it can help the employee to understand the cause of the stress, and find steps to manage and reduce it.

It’s common for people to experience stress at work. But it can affect everything from your mood to the way you treat friends, family or colleagues.

Extended periods of stress can be a risk factor for other underlying issues, such as depression or anxiety. This is when it might be helpful to consider counselling for stress.

As well as helping with identifying the causes of stress, counselling can also help to understand the role that your thoughts play in increasing your stress level.

The process also provides employees with a sounding board to talk about issues that they’re experiencing. It allows counsellors to work with them to develop better ways to manage these issues.

Talking to an experienced professional can provide you with a specific programme based on your particular situation and needs.

The benefits of stress management counselling

Talking is a tried and tested method of overcoming stress, anxiety or depression. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) offers employees an outlet for any negative thoughts or feelings, which can reduce stress as well as maintain their mental health.

Other benefits include:

• Better self-understanding: With the help of a therapist, employees are able to better understand themselves and find solutions to their problems. This leads to an increase in self-confidence.
• More engaged workplace: While talking to a therapist may not fully eliminate stress, it’s proven to drastically reduce it. Employees may find it easier to cope with, they’re also likely to be happier and more engaged with their colleagues.
• Reduced absences and turnover: When staff are less stressed, they’re unlikely to take extended time off work for mental health reasons. And because they’re aware you care about their wellbeing, they’re also less likely to leave your company for a competitor.

Sources/Causes of Stress

The factors leading to stress among individual are called as stressors. Some of the factors/stressors acting on employees are:

1. Organizational factors: With the growth in organizational stress and complexity, there is increase in organizational factors also which cause stress among employees. Some of such factors are-
   1. Discrimination in pay/salary structure
   2. Strict rules and regulations
   3. Ineffective communication
   4. Peer pressure
   5. Goals conflicts/goals ambiguity
   6. More of centralized and formal organization structure
   7. Less promotional opportunities
   8. Lack of employee’s participation in decision-making
   9. Excessive control over the employees by the managers
2. Individual factors: There are various expectations which the family members, peer, superior and subordinates have from the employee. Failure to understand such expectations or to convey such expectations lead to role ambiguity/role conflict which in turn causes employee stress. Other individual factors causing stress among employees are inherent personality traits such as being impatient, aggressive, rigid, feeling time pressure always, etc. Similarly, the family issues, personal financial problems, sudden career changes all lead to stress.
3. Job concerning factors: Certain factors related to job which cause stress among employees are as follows:
   1. Monotonous nature of job
   2. Unsafe and unhealthy working conditions
   3. Lack of confidentiality
   4. Crowding
4. Extra-organizational factors: There are certain issues outside the organization which lead to stress among employees. In today’s modern and technology savvy world, stress has increased. Inflation, technological change, social responsibilities and rapid social changes are other extra-organizational factors causing stress.

Stress experienced by the employees in their job has negative impact on their health, performance and their behaviour in the organization. Thus, stress needs to be managed effectively so as to set off these harmful consequences. Strategies for managing stress are as follows:

Organizational strategies for managing stress

1. Encouraging more of organizational communication with the employees so that there is no role ambiguity/conflict. Effective communication can also change employee views. Managers can use better signs and symbols which are not misinterpreted by the employees.
2. Encourage employees’ participation in decision-making. This will reduce role stress.
3. Grant the employees greater independence, meaningful and timely feedback, and greater responsibility.
4. The organizational goals should be realistic, stimulating and particular. The employees must be given feedback on how well they are heading towards these goals.
5. Encourage decentralization.
6. Have a fair and just distribution of incentives and salary structure.
7. Promote job rotation and job enrichment.
8. Create a just and safe working environment.
9. Have effective hiring and orientation procedure.
10. Appreciate the employees on accomplishing and over-exceeding their targets.

1. One thing at a time. This is the simplest and best way to start reducing your stress, and you can start today. Right now. Focus as much as possible on doing one thing at a time. Clear your desk of distractions. Pick something to work on. Need to write a report? Do only that. Remove distractions such as phones and email notifications while you’re working on that report. If you’re going to do email, do only that. This takes practice, and you’ll get urges to do other things. Just keep practicing and you’ll get better at it.
2. Simplify your schedule. A hectic schedule is a major cause of high stress. Simplify by reducing the number of commitments in your life to just the essential ones. Learn to say no to the rest and slowly get out of commitments that aren’t beneficial to you. Schedule only a few important things each day, and put space between them. Get out of meetings when they aren’t absolutely essential. Leave room for down time and fun.
3. Get moving. Do something each day to be active walk, hike, play a sport, go for a run, do yoga. It doesn’t have to be gruelling to reduce stress. Just move. Have fun doing it.
4. Develop one healthy habit this month. Other than getting active, improving your health overall will help with the stress. But do it one habit at a time. Eat fruits and veggies for snacks. Floss every day. Quit smoking. Cook something healthy for dinner. Drink water instead of soda. One habit at a time.
5. Do something calming. What do you enjoy that calms you down? For many people, it can be the “get moving” activity discussed above. But it could also be taking a nap, or a bath, or reading, or having sex (which can also be considered a “get moving” activity if you do it for longer than 5 minutes). Other people are calmed by housework or yardwork. Some people like to meditate, or take a nature walk. Find your calming activity and try to do it each day.
6. Simplify your finances. Finances can be a drain on your energy and a major stressor. If that’s true with you, figure out ways to simplify things. Automate savings and bill payments and debt payments. Spend less by going shopping (at malls or online) much less. Find ways to have fun that don’t involve spending money.
7. Have a blast! Have fun each day, even if it’s just for a few minutes. People like to play with my kids they take my mind off everything and are really hilarious, also like to play sports (again, often with my kids). Board games are fun. Sex, again, can be a fun activity. Whatever you choose, be sure to laugh.
8. Get creative. Throwing yourself into a creative activity is another great way to de-stress and to prevent stress. I like writing, but others like to paint or play music or sketch or make pottery or do interior design or build things.
9. Declutter. This is a favourite of mine. I like to take 20-30 minutes and just go through a room, getting rid of stuff we don’t use or need anymore. I look around at anything that’s cluttering up a room, and get rid of it or find a better place for it. When I’m done, I have a nice, peaceful environment for work, play, and living. Do this a little at a time it can be one of your “fun activities”.
10. Be early. it’s hard to be early when you have to get 6 kids ready. But being late can be very stressful. Try to leave earlier by getting ready earlier, or by scheduling more space between events. Things always take longer than normal, so schedule some buffer time: extra time to get ready, to commute, to do errands before you need to be somewhere, to attend a meeting before another scheduled appointment. If you get somewhere early, it’s good to have some reading material.

A lot of research on happiness and subjective well-being has been done over the last 50 years or so. It seems like everyone wants to determine the exact formula for joy.

While there is never going to be a specific prescription for attaining happiness, there are some important findings that can be guidelines for us. Here are five prerequisites for finding satisfaction or experience happiness in life:

• Human beings need relationships to enjoy optimal well-being and happiness. This is a simple truth we are born with a strong drive to establish connections with others. While many of us think that we will be happy when we find “true love,” or whatever we feel approximates that, it is not romantic relationships that are required for happiness. Simply having good friends who encourage and support you will contribute just as much to your overall feelings of happiness and contentment in life.
• Being kind to others is essential to finding a sense of personal happiness. Our human brains are wired so that we feel joy when we behave in altruistic ways. Just making plans to do something nice for others whether it is throwing a party for a friend, volunteering your time for a worthy cause, or planning a monetary donation will give you a boost and generate a sense of satisfaction and well-being.
• Acknowledging the abundance of your own life no matter how austere or extravagant it might be and experiencing gratitude for these people, experiences, and things also positively contribute to a sense of well-being. The drive to attain more and more is counter to the expression of gratitude and a feeling of contentment with who and where you are in life. The pursuit of “things” only has value if you cherish the pursuit more than the “thing” it might yield.
• Finding a sense of meaning and purpose in your pursuits are necessary for contentment and happiness. Believing that you are contributing to something beyond yourself and being a part of something larger than your individual existence is also necessary to experience a feeling of peace that is a part of happiness.
• Making healthy lifestyle choices in terms of your basic needs sleep, nutrition, and exercise also contributes to your happiness. There are many research studies that show that regular exercise even just a daily walk is effective in reducing depression. Contemplation activities, such as yoga, meditation, reflection, also are proven to reduce stress and promote well-being. Depending on your age, many people think a good night’s sleep is “optional,” but research shows that poor sleeping habits lead to greater stress, increased risk for cardiovascular illness, and even weight gain. Sure, you can “sleep when you’re dead,” to paraphrase a movie title, but why would you want to risk an earlier demise than you would otherwise need to? Regarding nutrition, healthy diets really do affect your overall health. And your physical health affects your happiness significantly. A recent research study has shown that including fresh fruits and vegetables in your diet also reduces depression and anxiety. Trading the short-term convenience of addictive processed foods or the pleasures of overindulgence of alcohol or nicotine or others recreational drugs may bring that fleeting “high,” but the crash that follows not only affects you the day you feel it but has a lasting negative effect on your long-term health and long-term happiness.

Coping Strategies

• Take a time-out. Practice yoga, listen to music, meditate, get a massage, or learn relaxation techniques. Stepping back from the problem helps clear your head.
• Eat well-balanced meals. Do not skip any meals. Do keep healthful, energy-boosting snacks on hand.
• Limit alcohol and caffeine, which can aggravate anxiety and trigger panic attacks.
• Get enough sleep. When stressed, your body needs additional sleep and rest.
• Exercise daily to help you feel good and maintain your health. Check out the fitness tips below.
• Take deep breaths. Inhale and exhale slowly.
• Count to 10 slowly. Repeat, and count to 20 if necessary.
• Do your best. Instead of aiming for perfection, which isn’t possible, be proud of however close you get.
• Accept that you cannot control everything. Put your stress in perspective: Is it really as bad as you think?
• Welcome humor. A good laugh goes a long way.
• Maintain a positive attitude. Make an effort to replace negative thoughts with positive ones.
• Get involved. Volunteer or find another way to be active in your community, which creates a support network and gives you a break from everyday stress.
• Learn what triggers your anxiety. Is it work, family, school, or something else you can identify? Write in a journal when you’re feeling stressed or anxious, and look for a pattern.
• Talk to someone. Tell friends and family you’re feeling overwhelmed, and let them know how they can help you. Talk to a physician or therapist for professional help.

Fitness Tips: Stay Healthy, Manage Stress

For the biggest benefits of exercise, try to include at least 2½ hours of moderate-intensity physical activity (e.g. brisk walking) each week, 1¼ hours of a vigorous-intensity activity (such as jogging or swimming laps), or a combination of the two.

• 5 X 30: Jog, walk, bike, or dance three to five times a week for 30 minutes.
• Set small daily goals and aim for daily consistency rather than perfect workouts. It’s better to walk every day for 15-20 minutes than to wait until the weekend for a three-hour fitness marathon. Lots of scientific data suggests that frequency is most important.
• Find forms of exercise that are fun or enjoyable. Extroverted people often like classes and group activities. People who are more introverted often prefer solo pursuits.
• Distract yourself with an iPod or other portable media player to download audiobooks, podcasts, or music. Many people find it’s more fun to exercise while listening to something they enjoy.
• Recruit an “exercise buddy.” It’s often easier to stick to your exercise routine when you have to stay committed to a friend, partner, or colleague.
• Be patient when you start a new exercise program. Most sedentary people require about four to eight weeks to feel coordinated and sufficiently in shape so that exercise feels easier.

6 long-term strategies for coping with anxiety

If anxiety is a regular part of your life, it’s important to find treatment strategies to help you keep it in check. It might be a combination of things, like talk therapy and meditation, or it might just be a matter of cutting out or resolving your anxiety trigger.

If you’re not sure where to start, it’s always helpful to discuss options with a mental health professional who might suggest something you hadn’t thought of before.

Identify and learn to manage your triggers

You can identify triggers on your own or with a therapist. Sometimes they can be obvious, like caffeine, drinking alcohol, or smoking. Other times they can be less obvious.

Long-term problems, such as financial or work-related situations, may take some time to figure out is it a due date, a person, or the situation? This may take some extra support, through therapy or with friends.

When you do figure out your trigger, you should try to limit your exposure if you can. If you can’t limit it like if it’s due to a stressful work environment that you can’t currently change using other coping techniques may help.

Some general triggers:

• A stressful job or work environment
• Driving or traveling
• Genetics anxiety could run in your family
• Withdrawal from drugs or certain medications
• Side effects of certain medications
• Trauma
• Phobias, such as agoraphobia (fear of crowded or open spaces) and claustrophobia (fear of small spaces)
• Some chronic illnesses like heart disease, diabetes, or asthma
• Chronic pain
• Having another mental illness such as depression
• Caffeine

Adopt cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

CBT helps people learn different ways of thinking about and reacting to anxiety-causing situations. A therapist can help you develop ways to change negative thought patterns and behaviors before they spiral.

Do a daily or routine meditation

While this takes some practice to do successfully, mindful meditation, when done regularly, can eventually help you train your brain to dismiss anxious thoughts when they arise.

If sitting still and concentrating is difficult, try starting with yoga.

Try supplements or change your diet

Changing your diet or taking supplements is definitely a long-term strategy. Research shows certain supplements or nutrients can help anxiety reduction.

These include:

• Lemon balm
• Omega-3 fatty acids
• Ashwagandha
• Green tea
• Valerian root
• Kava kava
• Dark chocolate (in moderation)

However, it can take up to three months before your body is actually running on the nutrition these herbs and foods provide. If you’re taking other medications, make sure to discuss herbal remedies with your doctor.

Keep your body and mind healthy

Exercising regularly, eating balanced meals, getting enough sleep, and staying connected to people who care about you are great ways to stave off anxiety symptoms.

Ask your doctor about medications

If your anxiety is severe enough that your mental health practitioner believes you’d benefit from medication, there are a number of directions to go, depending on your symptoms. Discuss your concerns with your doctor.

Some of the stress reducing strategies from individual’s point of view are:

1. Knowledge About Stress. In the first stage, an individual should become knowledgeable about stress. He should know about the process and effects of stress. He must find out the major sources of his stress. He must anticipate stressful periods and plan accordingly in advance. He must be honest with himself and decide what he can cope with what he cannot.
2. Physiological Fitness. Exercise in any form can help people in coping with the stress. Non competitive physical exercise such as aerobics, walking, jogging, swimming, riding a bicycle, playing softball or tennis have been recommended by physicians as a way to deal with excessive stress levels. There is evidence to suggest that individuals who exercise are much less likely to suffer from certain types of stress related exercises. With proper exercise, diet control and non-smoking habits, blood pressure and cholesterol become controlled and the body becomes more resistant to pressures. People are more likely to get physically sick or emotionally depressed if they are over weight or poorly nourished.
3. Time Management. Most of the people are very poor in managing their time. They don’t know that what must be done and when it would be desirable to do so. The result of poor time management is feeling of work overload, skipped schedules and tension. A well organised person can often accomplish twice as much as the person who is poorly organised. Therefore, an individual must understand how to manage his time so that he can cope with tensions created by job demands. A few of the well known time management principles are :

• Preparing a daily list of activities to be attended to.
• Prioritizing activities by importance and urgency.
• Scheduling activities according to the priorities set.
• Knowing your daily schedule and handling the most demanding parts of a job when you are most alert and productive.

4. Assertiveness. An individual should become assertive. He should not say ‘Yes’ when he wants to say ‘No’. He should start saying No to people or managers who demand too much of his time. Being assertive is an important factor in reducing stress.
5. Social Support Network. Every person should have people to turn to, talk to and rely upon. Good friends become highly supportive during times of stress and crisis. Social net work includes friends, family or work colleagues. Expanding your social support system can be a means for tension reduction because friends are there when needed and provide support to get the person through stressful situations.
6. Readjust life Goals. Every individual must know what he really wants to do. This should relate to not only the major decisions of the life but to all activities in our life. He must know what is important for him. Because of the severe competition in life to go ahead, most individuals set very high standards and goals for themselves. These high expectations and limited resources to reach such expectations result in stress. Accordingly, every person must readjust his goals and make sure he has the ability and resources to reach such goals. Perhaps the goals should be established after the resources have been analysed.
7. Relaxation Techniques. Every individual must teach himself to reduce tension through relaxation techniques such as Yoga, mediation, hypnosis and biofeedback. 15-20 minutes a day of deep relaxation releases tension and provides a person with pronounced sense of peacefulness. Deep relaxation conditions will bring significant changes in heart rate, blood pressure and other physiological factors. Yoga is probably the most effective remedy for stress. Studies have revealed that Yoga has cured several stress related diseases.
8. Plan your life in Advance. So many times, people create situations which induce stress because they either did not plan or did a bad job of planning. The traditional Indian attitude of “whatever will be, will be” a way of accepting the unexpected difficulties in life. This attitude may be relevant in those situations over which we do not have any control like death in the family, but for other events in life, it is better to plan in advance, so that we can confront them with confidence when they occur.

Individuals may design their own strategies to reduce stress, but it is a must for the organisations to develop programmes that will help the employees in reducing their stress. This will lead to less employee turnover, absenteeism and as a result productivity will improve.

Some of the measures which organisations can take are:

1. Selection and Placement. Individuals differ in their response to stress situations. We know that ‘Type A’ individuals are more prone to stress. On the other hand, in the organisations there are certain jobs which are more stressful as compared to other jobs. While doing the selection and placement of the employees, these factors must be kept in mind. The individuals who are more prone to stress should not be put on jobs which are stressful. The individuals who are less prone to stress may adapt better to high stress jobs and perform those jobs more effectively.
2. Goal Setting. Based on extensive amount of research it has been concluded that individuals perform better when they have specific and challenging goals and they receive feedback on how well they are progressing towards those goals. Goal setting can reduce stress as well as provide motivation. It will result in less employee frustration, role ambiguity and stress.
3. Improved Communication. Sometimes due to lack of effective communication from the superiors, the employees do not know what they have to do and how they have to do it. This result in role ambiguity. Similarly, when two or more persons have contradicting role demands from an employee, it leads to role conflict if there is lack of proper communication. Effective communication with employees reduces the uncertainty by lessening role ambiguity and role conflict.
4. Redesigning Jobs. Organisations should redesign the jobs in such a way as to give employees more responsibility, more meaningful work, more autonomy and increased feed back. This will help reduce the stress caused by monotony, routine work, work overload or underload and role ambiguity. Job redesigning enhances motivation, reduces the stress among the employees and enhances “Quality of work life“.
5. Participative Decision Making. If the organisations give the employees participation in those decisions that directly affect them and their job performance, it can increase employee control and reduce the role stress. The main reason of role stress is that employees feel uncertain about their goals, expectations and how they will be evaluated. These uncertainties can be reduced by the management by giving the employees a right to participate in the decision making.
6. Building Teamwork. The management should try to create such work environment in which there is no provision for interpersonal conflict or inter group conflict. Such conflicts are the causes of stress, such should be prevented from building or eliminated if they develop. Accordingly such team work should be developed that groups and the members are mutually supportive and productive. Members of the group should consider themselves as members of the same family and seek social support from each other.
7. Personal Wellness Programmes. These personal wellness programmes focus on the employees total physical and mental condition. Organisations can provide facilities at their premises for physical fitness such as gyms, swimming pools, tennis courts etc. as well as psychological counselling. They should hold seminars or workshops to make the employees understand nature and sources of stress and the possible ways to reduce it. These workshops should help those individuals who are already under stress. Moreover, a supervisor can impact personal wellness of his subordinates through positive example, encouragement and by practising the basic concepts and techniques of human resource management.