Lifestyle Changes

Some of your habitual behaviours and certain lifestyle choices will have an effect on your stress levels, and this in turn can have a negative effect on your ability to carry out your job, or to take the steps necessary to finding a new one. If your job is stressful and you want to leave, you’ll need to generate some positive energy by reducing stress in other areas of your life. The same applies if you are unemployed, which can be just as stressful as having a job you don’t enjoy.

Here are a few general tips:

Balance personal, work, and family needs and obligations.

Spending too much time at work, or, if you are unemployed spending all of your time looking for a job, will cause unnecessary stress and will have a detrimental effect on your efficiency.

Develop a sense of purpose in life.

Life isn’t just about work and although work may form an important part of your purpose, it’s important to look beyond your job and include spiritual and family values, as well as those related to any cause about which you have strong feelings.

Get enough sleep – your body recovers from stress and also repairs itself when you are asleep.

Eat a balanced diet

That means plenty of vegetables and fruit, less sugar and caffeine.

Exercise– make sure you take moderate exercise throughout the week.

Limit your consumption of alcohol.

Don’t smoke.

Or at least cut down.

Change Your Thinking Patterns

Everyone has had experiences where an event triggered a few negative thoughts. A good example is when someone says something to you which reminds you of a childhood event – one which caused you to feel bad, perhaps to experience a sense of worthlessness or powerlessness. The memory automatically triggers the same feelings you had years ago. These emotions will also trigger stress, in exactly the same way as a real threat, like a charging lion or, in today’s culture, a mugger. While it’s useful to be afraid of lions and muggers, because this will help you avoid them. it’s not so useful to experience fear or depression when someone says something unkind. Learning to deal effectively with your negative thoughts and feeling will really help you to reduce stress. It may take time, but if you practise telling yourself the truth, that is that you are a capable, efficient person – or whatever the opposite of the remark might be. You should also practise looking at the bigger picture. If someone says something hurtful to you, it is usually a reflection of their own unhappiness or discontent. If you can see this, it will become easier not to take other people’s comments personally.

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