STRESS AUDIT OF EMPLOYEES

The stress we take with us when we go to work and the stress that awaits us on the job are on the rise – and employers, managers, and workers all feel the added pressure. While some stress is a normal part of life, excessive stress interferes with your productivity and reduces your physical and emotional health, so it’s important to find ways to keep it under control. Fortunately, there is a lot that you can do to manage and reduce stress at work. More than ever, people all over the world and from all walks of life are taking up the practice of meditation and stress is the number one reason they are doing so. Stress and tension are a major epidemic in today’s society with the enormous pressures of work, finances, family life, studies, aging parents, etc. Stress and anxiety are often the underlying cause of many serious health problems, such as heart disease, diabetes and strokes to name a few. In our normal daily lives we all experience stress and to a certain extent a little stress is actually beneficial, but when we are exposed to long periods of stress, damage can occur in nearly every part of our body. The effects of stress are also very good at mimicking other serious conditions, with chest pain, shortness of breath, joint pain, tingling fingers and toes and heart palpitations all putting extra stress of the sufferer. These symptoms should always be checked by your doctor. Meditation and stress release helps train our minds to be more accepting and patient, giving us more stability thus stopping the urgent need to react rather than to stop and think clearly, it builds concentration and also lets us examine the habits we have formed in our way of thinking and gives us the power to alter these patterns and create less pressure for ourselves. Contemplation allows us to live in the moment and enables us to make clearer conscious decisions without making it a stressful situation. Stress is a natural part of everyday life. Simply defined, stress is the body’s reaction to any change that requires the body to adjust or respond. Stress can manifest itself in physical forms such as headache, upset stomach, elevated blood pressure, chest pain, sleeping problems, nervous tension, and anxiety. Research has shown that stress can even worsen symptoms of some diseases. There is positive stress and negative stress, both of which have effects on the body. Positive stress helps to keep us alert and avoid any dangers. Negative stress happens when we are continuously challenged without any relief or way to relax. Meditation and stress relief exercises are a very effective and natural way to return the body to a homeostatic state. Meditation and stress relief exercises restore the body to a calm state, helping the body repair itself and prevent any damage. The physical effect of meditation on our bodies decreases our heart rate and slows breathing. Blood pressure returns to a normal state, oxygen is used more effectively and the amount we sweat is decreased. Less Cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenalin is produced and our bodies produce more positive hormones. Practicing meditation and stress relief exercises will slow the aging process, improve immune function and possibly increase creativity. For workers everywhere, the troubled economy may feel like an emotional roller coaster. "Layoffs" and "budget cuts" have become bywords in the workplace, and the result is increased fear, uncertainty, and higher levels of stress. Since job and workplace stress grow in times of economic crisis, it’s important to learn new and better ways of coping with the pressure. The ability to manage stress in the workplace can make the difference between success or failure on the job. Your emotions are contagious, and stress has an impact on the quality of your interactions with others. The better you are at managing your own stress, the more you'll positively affect those around you and the less other people's stress will negatively affect you.