Sunday, January 18, 2009

Beating stress by preparing for it

"Pain is inevitable but suffering is our option"

Unpredictable, unexpected events are more stressful than predictable, expected events. We can reduce our stress by preparing in advance. Increase our awareness in the following areas will be helpful to you
1. Self- personal
2. Others- interpersonal
3. Your condition- life situations
4. External environment – government policies, economic situations, etc.

First identify what is changeable and unchangeable in the above four areas then focus your attention in the changeable one, which will help you to reduce the uncertainty. Remember the old sayings 

6 ‘p’ formula  
Proper 
Prior 
Planning 
Prevent 
Poor 
Performance

Ask four questions periodically

1. What are your upcoming challenges?
2. How you are going to (cope) handle?
3. What are all the personal resources you have?
4. What are all the social resources you have?

you are the master of your own, these four quetion appears to be simple but very powerful because it determine your action.

Workout on your own

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Stress and Personal development

Patience with self is hope
Patience with others is love
Patience with god is faith
                               -Anonymous 


How we relate to ourselves and others is very important for our personal development. Stress may help or hinder  our development. The following basic areas remain to be checked otherwise it will be our source of stress. These three step process 
3 ‘A’ 
       Accept, 
      Aware, 
      Act, 

help you to understand where you have to focus for your personal development. 

Now you can take necessary action.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Relationship, communication and stress

Do more than exist - live
Do more than touch – feel
Do more than look – observe
Do more than read – absorb 
Do more than hear – listen
Do more than listen – understand 
                                                  - John.H.Rhoade


Relationship can be a common source of stress and also important resource for combating stress. Relationships provide us 
Love, 
Intimacy, 
Reassurance of worth, 
Tangible assistance, 
Guidance 
Informational support and 
Emotional support. 

Building strong relationship is very essential to cope up with stress. High quality social relationships involves being aware of our thinking, feeling and then communicating those ideas. Maintain relationship involves recognizing difficulties early and dealing with our own hidden agenda, mind reading and negative assumptions etc. The ability to communicate care and concern is essential to maintain a good relationship. Effective communication in our interaction with others can be a significant way of lowering our own stress levels even in unpleasant situations; we can feel good about our own skillful responses. Learning to communicate better will get us involved with others and help us express our needs more clearly and calmly. We need to learn to understand and regulate emotions of other people to cheer them up when they are down, to engage them when we want them to listen to us.

Some tips to improve your communication and relationships

We share our inner feelings only with D
ear/ Near one, because they use their Ear (listen).
Did you notice
ear denote that
Empathy
Acceptance
Respect
Do you know what listening means?

Learn to wait before you speak
Initiate someone to share their feelings
Silently observe 
Test your understanding by using paraphrase, reflect back
Empathize
Need your acceptance and understanding but not your premature advice

Do you know the importance of empathy?

To Listen to some One Value Empathy
To Love some One Value Empathy
To Lead Others Value Empathy
To Link with some One life Value Empathy 

Empathy is nothing a pure form of love. Regardless of others fault, behaviour learn to love. This is a way to live.  Don’t be sources of stress to others; learn to give emotional support to others.