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THE REGULARS

1. Stress Tip
2. Quote
3. Book Review
4. Al's Column

FEATURES

5. The Universal Laws of Success and Achievement
6. Reader's Stress Stories
7. Stress Technique

• Roll over onto your side before you get out of bed in the morning, let your feet swing to the floor.
• Gently stretch a few times before you move around - in the same way that a dog always has a good stretch after lying down.
• Try to sit straight and avoid slouching as this puts a strain on the lower back.  Keep your head up, stomach in and hips rolled forward.
• Exercise regularly as bones love gentle impact, weak abdominal and back muscles can't support the spine as effectively. 
• Squat down and let your legs do the work when you lift anything- light or heavy!

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"Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of travelling."

Margaret Lee Runback

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3. Book Review: The Joy of Stress by Dr Peter Hanson                                    

To buy this book click here

‘The Joy of Stress’ is a fascinating and amusing book on personal stress.   It has been a best seller for many years and should be found in every stress consultant’s library.  

The overriding principle of the book, as can be gleaned from the title, is that people should take a pro-active view of the things in their lives that cause them stress.   As we demonstrate in our Stress Management courses the pressures that lead to stress can, if they are handled correctly, be converted into positive results, the outcome doesn’t have to be stress.   Dr Hanson’s objective is to point out how you can turn the tables on your stress, achieve a positive result instead of a negative one and in so doing experience ‘the Joy of Stress’.

One reason this book has been so successful is that it is fun to read.   Every page includes a cartoon or two which illustrates the points being made.   Dr Hanson has the ability to choose cartoon examples which you can’t help but relate to, I certainly found this style personally motivating.    The pro-active theme is demonstrated by the Hanson Scale of Stress Resistance which emphasises the point that we all have a choice regarding the way we deal with the pressures that can lead to stress.  

Dr Hanson first of all highlights the importance of being aware of what is actually causing the stress.   As he says, you cannot fight an unseen enemy.   He then goes on to describe 10 choices we can make that will weaken our resistance to stress and 10 choices we can make that will strengthen our resistance to stress.   Each of the choices are demonstrated with everyday scenarios we can all relate to and include the ever-present cartoons that will keep you amused.

In conclusion this book will benefit anyone who wants to understand more about personal stress and how to increase their resistance to it.

By Alastair Taylor

To buy this book click here

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4. Al's Column: Good Morning!  That's a matter of opinion.                              

Some of you no doubt are lucky, nay plucky, enough to be ‘morning people’.   I salute you.   How do you do it?   How do you manage to begin, let alone continue a conversation, before eight?   I can’t.   If you pushed me I could manage a grunt, but in no way could it be accurately described as speech.   I would describe it as a sort of synaptic paralysis.

By some quirk of cruel fate these days I have to get up early quite frequently.   Usually I am staying in some charmless business hotel.   Most hotel staff (unfortunately) seem to have been on the ‘cheery good morning’ training course, and foolishly attempt to engage you in conversation.   Can’t they see I’m in ‘mourning’, grieving for lost sleep!?   Thank goodness for caffeine.   Fortunately, before I actually have to do anything involving speech, there is usually the opportunity to imbibe several cups.   Without tea I could not function in the morning.

Which brings me to America’s most sadistic invention, the business breakfast.   I was persuaded by Alastair to attend one of these bizarre functions once, much against my better judgement.   To attend and actually be alert at a business breakfast you have to get up in the middle of the night, drink twelve cups of coffee, and beat yourself vigorously with birch twigs.   I forgot the birch twigs bit, so was to all intents and purposes, still asleep during the event.  Frankly I might have had a conversation, I just can’t remember.   I do remember there was large sausages and other fried food, and feeling nauseous, but that’s about it.   God knows what I must have looked like – probably a bit like Frankenstien’s monster walking towards the tea urn.  

Allegedly, these events are for ‘networking’.   Alastair did this beautifully, buzzing about exchanging business cards and pleasantries, while I held onto a large stone column for support.   I realised I was in a zone of incompetence and vowed never again to attend one of these godforsaken, ‘before the crack of dawn’ events.   And I never have.

So if you meet me one early morning somewhere, please understand that my blank expression and gruff manner are not meant to be impolite, it’s just that there’s nothing happening from the neck up.

Alan Bradshaw

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This set of eight audiocassettes with forty-four page workbook is quite simply brilliant.  

It also has a small summary booklet of the laws for one’s pocket.   I have used it for several years with patients and executive clients to help them to develop the laws they are already using and to start on new laws in different areas of their lives, where they feel they could benefit.

It is a very comprehensive programme.   Laws govern every aspect of our life. Some of these laws date back to Ancient Greece, for example, the Socratic Law of Cause and Effect, others are very modern.   Brian Tracy, one of the best personal development consultants in the world, spent twenty-five years compiling them.

The areas covered include:

• The Laws of Success
• The Laws of Achievement
• The Laws of Happiness
• The Laws of Love and Relationships
• The Laws of Economics
• The Laws of Negotiating
• The Laws of Money
• The Laws of Wealth Creation
• The laws of Selling
• The laws of Business
• The laws of ‘Luck’
• The Laws of Self-Fulfilment

Using and applying these rules can help you turn your goals and dreams into reality, improve your relationships, develop better work and life habits, and help your business to survive.

The pack can help you to be more assertive, to increase your integrity as well as your ambition.   It can improve your communication skills, like empathy and rapport to improve negotiations, and the Law of Attraction can help you bring circumstances into your life that harmonise with your dominant thoughts.

As well as for the successful high achiever this cassette programme can help teenagers, students and employees starting out on their careers, and it is an important contribution to the home and corporate knowledge.

by Dr. D. Mason Brown.

P.S. Please remember that this programme can, like all Nightingale-Conant programmes, be requested on a thirty-day trial basis.

To buy or get more information on 'The Universal Laws of Success and Achievement', click here.

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We are currently having a break from the readers stress story section, however, if you have a story that you would like to send into us for the next copy of 'In Equilibrium' please send it to us.  Perhaps you have a good idea about combating stress at work, maybe you have an experience that you think others would learn from?  We are looking for any of your experiences, humourous or deadly serious, signed or anonymous! 

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7. Stress Technique- How to leave work at work                                             

Have you ever heard this phrase?...

"You know you're in love when you can't stop thinking about your beloved."

Does the same thing follow if you can't stop thinking about work?  Are you falling in love with your job?  I don't mean to sound negative, but in my experience this is very rare!!

However, if you can't stop thinking about work, something is causing your mind to revert back to it all the time - rather like a default setting on a computer.

Nowadays the work day is often not very well defined.  The line between work and leisure has blurred and we are taking work home literally (in a bag) and figuratively (in our heads).

Establishing boundaries can help keep work in its place and make room for important relationships and activities - even for personal time to relax.

Here are some suggestions to help you leave work at the office..

1. Don't bring work home unless it is absolutely necessary.  If you do bring it home try to make sure that you make a conscious decision when to do it, rather than getting drawn into a work related activity.  If you are not actually doing the work, tidy it away so that you don't spend the night feeling guilty that you haven't done it!
2. Try not to make work related calls in your own time.  Clear the decks so that evenings and weekends are for other things.
3. Have a life to go to after you leave work (If you don't have one get one!!). Develop compelling activities and enjoyable relationships that will enrich your free time.  Family, friends, hobbies, reading, sports and relaxation can provide a healthy counterbalance to the lure of extending your work day. 
4. Try to keep your mind in the present tense - shut off your thinking about work.  This is possible, it just takes discipline. 
5. Park your problems.  Visualise putting your work problems on a shelf when you get home and don't take them off the shelf until you are ready to start work again.
6. If solutions to business problems occur to you at home, write them down quickly and then put them away.  If good ideas pop into your head, you don't have to ignore them, just jot them down, but remember you don't have to act on them until you return to the office.
7. Organise your next days plan before you leave the office at the evening or weekend.  This is a good time, because everything is fresh and you know what you are working on.  It also makes it much easier to tune out and focus on other things.
8. Create a buffer time between work and home, stop off at the gym or meet a friend.  Or when you get home, go for a walk or have a hot bath before preparing dinner.
9. Change your clothes when you get home.  Changing into more comfortable clothes helps you to seperate from work and create a relaxed mind set for the evening.
10. Clear your desk at the end of each day.  Do this even if you haven't finished all of your tasks.  It can leave you with a real sense of order and completion.

Learn to let go and free your mind for more pleasant thoughts and enjoyable activities.  Who knows, if you work less you might end up falling in love with your job after all!!

Taken from an article by Dr David Posen. (Stress Management Keynote Speaker and Author)

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