Mental Health Guidance

Stress Relief: How to Handle Life’s Nasty Curveballs

July 25, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Stress. Just hearing the word causes one’s blood pressure to rise. According to the American Institute of Stress, it’s the #1 health problem in the country. Yet, for some reason, we tend to let it rule our lives. But why should we let this nasty hang around?

Think about it. If you had a friend who continuously increased your heart rate, had you feeling anxious and caused you many sleepless nights, you would give them the boot, right? So why on earth do we let stress hang around when it does all of those things? Often there are solutions to our stress like a paycheck advance when money is tight, or tips to reduce your stress at work. This is the guide to manage all of life’s many issues.

Erasing Stress

Stress has become the nasty little friend that we can’t seem to get rid of. If you are a woman, you are three times more likely to report experiencing stress than your man.

What can you do if you want to say goodbye to stress? Well, unless you shut yourself off from the modern world, not much. There are, however, different ways you can deal with the stress that pops up in your life.

Home Sweet Stress

Stress in the home is a big trigger for many people. Depending on your lifestyle, there are many things which can be triggers such as

screaming children,
fighting parents,
noisy neighbors, and
no privacy

to only name a few.

Dealing with stress in the home can be tricky. Although situations can be short term, some can last longer, especially if a situation such as divorce or illness is introduced. Although caring for your family is probably your number #1 priority, it is important to take time out for yourself.

It could be anything, from a few minutes to an entire day. Catch up with a friend, read a book, or meditate. Do whatever your heart desires, and maybe later down the track your heart won’t palpitate from all the stress!

Working Is a Health Hazard

According to The National Institute for Occupational Safety

40% of workers surveyed reported that their job was very or extremely stressful
25% of workers surveyed viewed their jobs as the number one stressor in their lives
26% of workers surveyed said they were “often or very often burned out or stressed by their work”

For many, work related stress is created from being a ‘yes’ person. These are the lovely people who take on any task shoved at them. The only problem for them is that, even though this may look favorable to bosses, the added and unnecessary workload creates pressure and, ultimately, stress. If this sounds like you, then it’s time you start saying no.

Although doing anything and everything asked of you may do your career good, what good is a career if you don’t have your health? Pace yourself and only take on as much as you can handle and that is within your job description.

Stress Is a Part of Life

Stress is a significant contributor to illness and disease. Trauma experienced at a young age can continue to cause problems throughout a person’s life. The stress of such traumatic incidents as abuse, an accident, or even a major illness such as Leukemia can continue to have ramifications into adulthood.

Counseling can help keep stress from childhood trauma under control. It can be through a professional therapy session or just a casual chat with a family member or friend. Bottling emotions up inside will only feed the stress monster, so share the load and it will lighten a little. If you’re feeling stressed and don’t have anyone to talk to, write it down in a journal.

Take Some Advice from Country Folk

Scientists have recently found that those living in cities experience higher levels of stress than those who live in the country. Sounds contradictory, doesn’t it? Of those who participated in the study, it was found that those who lived in cities have weaker coping mechanisms for stressful situations than those who did not live in cities.

Surely those who live in bustling cities would be more adapted to stressful situations because they would be surrounded by them every day. According to the scientists, not so! A country reprieve allows the mind and body to recuperate and gather its thoughts, so to speak. If you live in a city, the chaos does not allow you to do this.

If you live in a bustling city, take a day trip on the weekend to escape the rat race for a few hours. If you live near a coastline, visit a beach. If not, find a quiet park to enjoy some time with family or friends, or just to meditate!

Money Can’t Buy You Love…

But it can buy you stress! Many people list finances as a major stressor in their lives. Whether it be too little or too much (yes that’s right, some people stress because they have too much money), the financial burden can be agonizing. In the current economic environment, some of the leading causes of stress include:

job loss,
mortgage foreclosure,
debt and
bankruptcy

If you suddenly find yourself in a stressful financial situation, ways of bringing in some extra cash include:

having a clean out and a yard sale
selling home made goods to neighbors
doing odd jobs for people, such as lawn mowing or dog walking
renting out a spare room or car space
getting a payday advance

The Body Remembers

Old habits die hard. For many, when a stressful situation emerges, they run for comfort food. This will only end up making the situation (and your health) worse. If you are feeling stressed, skip the cookies and go for a walk, a run, or turn up the music and dance around your bedroom.

Bad habits we have developed as children to deal with stress follow us into our adult lives. The more you reinforce these bad habits, the stronger they become. Taking the first step to healthier stress management is hard, but every step gets easier.

The more steps you take, the more your body will remember to think of activity instead of food in a stressful situation. Your health (and your waistline) will thank you later!

CONCLUSION:

If all else fails, laugh at yourself! Laughter and the act of smiling increases the production of endorphins in the brain. They’re what will get you feeling good when you’re feeling stressed.

Watch a funny movie or just joke around with your friends. It will not only help to relieve all of your stress, it will improve your health and make you feel better. And anyway, If you can’t laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?

Filed Under: Mental Health Guidance, Tips & Tricks

Enjoy Smoking without the Tar

January 26, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

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If you’ve ever tried to quit smoking you know exactly how difficult the process can be. For many that have smoked for years, getting off cigarettes can be much more difficult than stopping drinking or even quitting illegal drugs.

The commercials that tell people the dangers of smoking and paint a grim description of what’s going to happen to those that smoke are everywhere, yet many continue this unhealthy habit because they just can’t quit.

There may be some help, and it doesn’t involve chewing gum, wearing patches or going under hypnosis. Electronic cigarettes are becoming more popular as they give smokers the feeling of smoking while not ingesting nearly the harmful amount of chemicals they get from a regular cigarette. The active ingredient in cigarettes is nicotine, which helps with the addiction process. It’s not necessarily the nicotine that will kill you; it’s the harmful tar and chemicals that make cigarettes so deadly.

Electronic cigarettes still have nicotine, but they don’t have the same killer chemicals. They are available online and in many retail stores, so you can buy electronic cigarette products very easily. Plus, there are no flames with electronic cigarettes, so no more lighters and no more cigarette burns on the car seat. The smoke emitted from an e-cigarette is vapor, not smoke. It looks like smoke when it first comes out, but quickly fades as a burst of water vapor. There is no secondhand smoke, so kids are not subjected to your habit, yet the smoker still gets the satisfaction of having their cigarette and getting their nicotine.

If you’ve tried everything else, it’s time to try an electronic cigarette. There are so many advantages to smoking them: the effects are less dangerous, the pollution level is decreased, and your needs as a smoker are still being met with the habitual act of smoking.

Filed Under: Mental Health Guidance Tagged With: Cigarette, Electronic cigarette, Nicotine, Tobacco smoking

Easy Gifts for the Health Conscious Person

December 23, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

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Some of my favorite gifts to give people around the holidays included homemade treats or bath and body products. Unless I knew specifically what a person would want I used these items as my fall back items. I mean, who doesn’t enjoy homemade treats or the latest body lotion scent?

Imagine my surprise when one of my new co-workers was one of those extremely health conscious type people. She didn’t enjoy eating sugary treats, she avoided artificial products and she didn’t like to receive gift cards from the mall. This really put a twist in my usual holiday gift buying.

Luckily, I was able to come up with a gift buying guide for those health conscious people on your wish list. I know how hard it was to shop for my health conscious person so I thought I’d offer my advice for others.

Gift certificates to health stores or membership programs. There are tons of health stores both online and offline that offer gift cards. These can either be vitamin stores, organic shops or health food stores. While some of the gift cards won’t be cheap, there are various coupon offers like the bodybuilding.com coupons that you can use to purchase gift cards or memberships for that hard to shop for person on your list.

Healthy Recipes. Most of my holiday recipes were not what I would consider healthy. This health conscious person inspired me to try some healthy alternatives to my normal holiday treats. While I have to admit I still like the old holiday treats, the healthy treats didn’t taste so bad. Try out various healthy recipes and you could just find a healthy alternative for your homemade treats.

When it comes to the holidays there should be no one that is hard to buy for. Using some of these suggestions can help you shop for that health conscious person on your list.

Filed Under: Mental Health Guidance Tagged With: gift, Gift card, holiday, Scrip

Getting Your Life Back

December 11, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

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You may have had a life that you loved before. You may miss this life a lot and want it back. If you’ve become addicted to drugs or alcohol, the first step is realizing you have a problem. Once you see that you have a problem, you can then begin to heal yourself and get your life back.

The first step is going to a rehab treatment or facility such as MichaelsHouse.com. You will be met with qualified professionals that can help you overcome your addiction. You will start out by going through withdrawal, which is the changes your body goes through in order to rid itself of the harmful toxins that drugs or alcohol have caused.

The next stage in your rehab is meeting with a counselor. You will meet privately and in a group setting with a counselor. In private you will be able to talk about issues that caused you to do drugs or alcohol in the first place.

In a group setting it is hoped that you will realize that there are others like you out there and that you are not alone. You will be able to talk with your peers about issues that you are facing and how to deal with life after your addiction. You can choose to only listen in group or you can talk as well.

The best thing to remember is that you have all the help you need if you want it. You can go through rehab to get your life back or you can choose your drugs or alcohol. It’s all up to you in what you decide. Just know that your friends and family as well as the people at a rehab facility will be there for you when you decide to change your lifestyle and live again.

Filed Under: Mental Health Guidance Tagged With: Addictions, Alcohol, Drug rehabilitation, Health

Using Electric Cigarettes in Hospitals

December 9, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

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There are so many places, most of them public places, where there are activities that are prohibited:

A shirt is required when dining in a restaurant.
No alcohol can be bought or sold on Sundays in some states.
There’s no smoking allowed in hospitals, on airplanes, or even in some restaurants.
Animals are not allowed in restaurants, stores, or coffee houses.

It’s unlikely that these places are going to change their rules, and if they do, there will probably be even stricter requirements in other areas if some allowances are made. These days, you have to think through your whole process of going somewhere when you plan a day out, especially to a public place, because there are so many rules you’ll have to follow.

There are alternatives that let you get around some of these strict rules, and some of these alternative are very accommodating and still allow you to enjoy the things that you like to do.

For instance, it’s a long-standing rule that you can’t smoke in a hospital. Everybody knows that doing so is a no-no, but they didn’t say you couldn’t use an electric cigarette! The neat thing about the device is that it’s odorless and virtually undetectable by sight, smell or sound, unless of course, someone is looking directly at you while you’re smoking it!

Many people who are used to smoking find that it’s a great alternative for their habit, especially when they find themselves in certain uncomfortable situations and need to smoke. A hospital is one of those places, more so if the smoker has a loved one in there and they have to visit them often. Having a smoke takes the edge away, but smoking an electric cigarette satisfies those urges and keeps the hospital security from escorting you out the front door!

Filed Under: Mental Health Guidance Tagged With: Cigarette, Electronic cigarette, Regina Benjamin, Tobacco smoking

Stress Management Techniques for Health and Well-Being

November 16, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

Doctors have always lamented the effects stress can have on the body, mind and spirit. Countless times every day we see statistics on TV, read on the internet and hear around the water cooler that stress diminishes your quality of life as well as shortens it. While most of the time we cannot abolish stress altogether there are many techniques that can help us deal with it better and help us achieve an overall sense of well-being.

First and foremost you must try to breathe. Deep breathing techniques can help bring the heart rate down and instill a sense of calm to someone who feels over whelmed. For most people slowing down to breath sounds ludicrous and too simple to be effective but if they try it can actually be quite difficult to achieve. There are many deep breathing exercise videos and guides on the internet that you can take advantage of to help you in your quest to find your breath.

A technique that corresponds with deep breathing is making sure to include quiet time at least once a day, every day, for yourself. Even if you just allow yourself five minutes of peace and quiet it can produce a calming effect upon your spirit and mind.

Another powerful tension releasing tool is exercise. At times chronic pain in the neck , jaw or joints is associated with a high level of stress, physical exercise is a great way to alleviate pain in the body and allow the mind to produce endorphins which will help alleviate stress symptoms.

Regardless of how your stress manifests itself in the body the key to keep stress at bay is to take care of your body, mind and spirit. Neglecting one area will make the others weaker whether you work on them or not.

Filed Under: Mental Health Guidance

Stress management techniques

September 24, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

We are now in an era where we are glued to computers. Apart from that, we tend to multitask quite a bit and work almost 16 – 18 hours a day. Sleep cycles have also come down from what used to be 8 – 9 hours a day some decades back to about 5 – 6 hours a day. What do all of these mean to you as an individual? Definitely, a poor quality lifestyle and increased stress.

Though we keep reading about the negative influence that stress has on our bodies, from various sources like the internet, magazines and newspapers, there is very little that we do to combat stress and stay healthy. We borrow money through instruments like payday loans and credit cards to take care of trivial issues like gifts and books, forgetting that there are vital issues like medicine and healthcare to be focused on.

Following a few basic steps and altering a few habits would augur well for us in the long term to reduce stress. Exercise is the first step. We are now seen spending hours together glued to TV screens, video games and computers. Making it a point to walk everyday for a few miles or for about half hour is an excellent exercise for our muscles.

Once can also take the help of payday loans to enroll in meditation course and stress management courses. These courses teach you how to condition your mind, in addition to teaching you important techniques like breath control and yoga. Learning how to control your breathing and reducing the number of times you breathe per minute will increase your lifespan a great deal.

Finally, take some time off for yourself. This will have a calming effect on your entire system. Understanding that it is essential to control all 3 elements, namely mind, body and soul will help in keeping stress levels at bay.

Filed Under: Mental Health Guidance

Massage for Increased Health

September 17, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

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Massage can, and should, be an integral part of everyone’s health regimen. More than just a way to relax while a therapist gently rubs your skin, there are numerous styles and techniques available to help work out the kinks and muscle stresses that everyday life can instill.

Often, athletes in practically any discipline overdo their training in one way or another, which leads to muscle stress as muscles tighten. These muscles then do not release to their former supple length, which impedes free range of motion of the affected musculature. Many times, the effect is small and imperceptible at the outset. These small increases in muscle tightness lead to a compounding effect over time, until suddenly the suffering athlete realizes that they’ve lost some mobility.

Deep tissue massage in particular can be extremely useful for any athletically inclined individuals. During this style of massage therapy, the therapist uses heavy pressure with pinpoint accuracy to work on the affected muscle area. They will often utilize their elbow or a special stone to maximize the force they can apply. This technique often causes muscles to spasm, then release, in an effect similar to that caused by intense stretching. The result is felt immediately. Often, the affected area no longer hurts when it is moved, and the range of motion, once limited, is restored.

Increasing, or maintaining, your body’s athleticism, flexibility, and agility is the route to travel when you’re pursuing athletic pursuits in search of increased health. The thing to be prepared for with deep tissue massage is simple – it does hurt while the muscles are being worked out! Imagine a tight muscle being pressed hard against your rigid skeletal bones, and you’ve got an idea of what happens. However, once the pain departs, which is pretty immediate following the release of pressure by the therapist, blood flow increases in the worked area, stimulating muscle nourishment. From this point, the body takes over and realigns itself into a more normal and health balance. Regular massage keeps the small muscle tightening from turning into a larger, more complicated issue.

Filed Under: Mental Health Guidance Tagged With: Alternative, Health, Massage, Muscle

Good Mental Health is a Serious Matter

August 12, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

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Physical exercise is always talked about by doctors and others in the medical field. It’s clear that it’s important, but mental health also matters. It doesn’t get talked about as much, though, and that’s unfortunate. It’s too easy for people to overlook the fact that they should take care of their mental health so that they’re able to stay sharp well into their golden years. It’s not just about staying sharp, either. It’s also about staying happy. Stress can make you feel rundown and sad. It’s hard on your mind, and also takes a toll on your body. It’s best to keep it out of your life, but if you can’t avoid it there are ways to make it less of a problem. By doing that, you’ll be better able to keep your mind functioning well.

If you feel as though you’re having problems with your mental health, seeing someone can help you. Whether you see your family doctor to be tested for an actual medical problem, or whether you see a counselor to talk things out and look for some perspective in life, you should do something to help yourself. Both physical and psychological causes can be present with mental health issues, so it’s important to sort out what’s causing you to feel poorly. Once you figure out the cause, you can start treating it so you can improve more quickly.

Some people with mental health issues wait a very long time before they seek treatment. By then, the behaviors and patterns that they’re experiencing have become so ingrained that they have a very difficult time breaking them, even with help. Don’t wait until you get to that point. The sooner you get assistance with your problem, the easier it will be to correct and the sooner you’ll start feeling better. You can get back to your old self again, but it may take some work. It’ll be worth it to feel good and get back into life the way you used to and the way you want to for your future.

Filed Under: Mental Health Guidance Tagged With: Mental disorder, Mental health, Stress (biology)

Stress: How to Lower It in Your Life

August 11, 2010 By admin Leave a Comment

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Everyone deals with stress sometimes. There are situations that come up at work and at home where stress is impossible to avoid. Some people react much more strongly to that stress than others do. For example, some people have anxiety problems and panic attacks, which increase when they are placed under physical and/or mental stress. Other people shrug and laugh and just let things roll right off of them. Most people are in the middle of the spectrum. They get stressed out, but then they get over it without panicking or developing anxiety problems. Even for these people, the long-term effects of stress on their body can be harmful.

Since you can’t completely eliminate the stress in your life, it’s important that you learn ways to lower it and get through it faster so you can let it go. One of the best ways to do that is through deep breathing. Most people don’t breathe the right way, but they don’t realize it. No one ever taught them to breathe properly, so they struggle with stress and anxiety that they wouldn’t have if they were breathing correctly. Breathing should come from the diaphragm, not the top of the lungs. If your chest is rising and falling as you breathe, that’s too shallow. Your belly should actually be the area to rise and fall. That gets the air deeper into your lungs and helps you to feel more relaxed.

By breathing the right way – slowly and deeply from the diaphragm – it’s nearly impossible to panic or experience any kind of severe anxiety. It can help an anxiety attack go away, or prevent one from happening. It can also help a person feel less stressed out over big things and small things in life. Keeping control of your stress levels will be easier if you remember to breathe. It takes some practice, but once you’ve gotten into the habit you’ll automatically breathe the right way. Give it a try, and see how it quickly and efficiently lowers your level of stress, no matter what the situation.

Filed Under: Mental Health Guidance Tagged With: Anxiety, Health, Mental health, Stress