Advice
Need help coping with stress? Here’s where to find professional advice that can help!
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Answer Back
The main requirement in my job is the ability to listen. After that comes the ability to talk. These sound simple, but to do both well can be very difficult.
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Reward Yourself - You’ve Earned It
We all do things we would rather not do - attend a meeting that we know will be unpleasant, participate in an activity that makes us nervous…
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Think In Concentrated Bursts
We constantly think about problems and the decisions we have to make. Most of these are mundane and common. Did I turn off the gas?
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Keep it Simple
There is a trend that began in America and is taking hold in this country called ‘downshifting’, which may be seen simply as making one’s life less cluttered.
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Take a daily stress MOT
When someone is very stressed, I can usually tell within the first 30 seconds after they sit down in front of me. It is never some one bursting into tears…
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Share Your Problems
No one is an island - we all need friends. We need them as temporary refuges from problems in other relationships. We discuss solutions and other ideas with them to get feedback on how realistic they are.
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Be Generous
Many people feel stressed because they are channelled into a particular way of thinking. They are stuck in a routine at home or at work, and life is different shades of grey instead of new colours. This leads to boredom, frustration in relationships and a lack of self-worth which in turn leads to negative thinking and stress.
Quite by chance, I saw one of the best examples of how routine can damage a relationship when a patient called Alan came to me with a minor problem. Having quickly dealt with the problem we had time to discuss his forthcoming wedding anniversary. He was very much looking forward to taking his wife to the same restaurant they went to every year, and presenting her with a bouquet of flowers at the end of the evening. He told me how much she looked for ward to this; it was one of the high points of her year as far as he was concerned. I was genuinely pleased for him and wished him well.
