What is hostility?

If you are stress right now, beware of the hostility. Hostility is one of the worst. Hostility not only makes you miserable, but it might just kill you. There are some correlations between hostility and disease risk factors.

Hostility can be related to:

1. Increased cholesterol levels.

2. Increased tendency to smoke.

3. Increased tendency to drink and drunk.

4. Greater physical reaction such as higher blood pressure and heart rate.


It all boils down to worse health. Not all hostility research agrees, and non hostile people also end up with heart disease and unhealthy habits. Perhaps we’ll eventually discover that underlying health problems existed before the hostility surfaced.

In the meantime, one of the best things a hostile person or any stressed person can do is exercise. For the person with a really bad attitude, aerobic exercise defuses a hostile personality, making the person less reactive to stress.

A few tips for hostile person:

1. Take a walk or do weight training.

2. See the humor in situations.

3. Empathize, putting yourself in your antagonist’s place.

4. Put situations in perspective. Will today’s problem seem so important in a month?

5. Don’t hold grudges.

6. Share your feelings with caring family members and friends.

7. If your hostility is extreme, consider professional counseling.

Thrive on Stress

Pick your priorities.

->Remember your purpose - write down your goals and keep them visible.

->Set your schedule and allow some flexibility for the unexpected emergencies.

->Communicate your obligations and identify your resources.

->Ask for and acknowledge the responsibilities of others, then be prepared to support one another when appropriate.

->If there is a personality conflict, turn the focus to professional respect and responsibilities, or address the matter with appropriate professional communication when necessary.

->Identify the time of day and days of the week that you perform best under pressure, and be aware that everyone else may be different from your peak periods.

->Schedule your periods for managing the pressure and allow yourself periods for cooling down, being creative, or relaxing.

->When possible, do something physical before preparing to address a stressful situation, even if it is only a short walk.

->When necessary, take a short walk or a few moments to clear you mind after a stressful period so the intense concentration or emotions do not spill over into your other activities.

->Laugh, and most important, do not be so critical that you can not laugh at yourself.

Unhealthy Stress

Some of the leading causes of unhealthy stress are the result of individual personalities infecting an organization. This can be caused by an overbearing boss, a lack or respect or trust for certain members in management, or by unrealistic expectations. Even the best of intentions can create unhealthy stress if it is based on unrealistic expectations. Stress can be slowly introduced if management expects everyone to automatically share the same level of passion, enthusiasm and commitment without first creating bonds and buy in with the employees. Employees will not feel the same amount of passion if there is not a personal connection or a sense of purpose. It is reasonable to require performance, but management should not expect passion without first making an investment in the employee.

Individual employees can also create stress and distraction. Personality conflicts are depicted as difficult coworkers, and typically the perception is a shared one. Difficult coworkers may be described as overbearing, subversive, interfering, unproductive, or uncooperative. These are dangerous labels for one person to place on another. The labels are most often the result of specific actions or comments. It may not be reasonable to expect that every personality will get along, but it is reasonable to require professional respect and cooperation. The first step in correcting this type of unhealthy stress is not to change people's opinions, but rather to address the actions, responsibilities and expectations of the individuals involved. Keep the focus on the professional requirements and communicate precise expectations, then assess the actions.

Unhealthy stress in an organization can be caused when the atmosphere is continually threatening, overbearing and unrelenting. Stress with purpose is like an adrenaline rush during a short sprint to the finish line. Stress without purpose and without end is like running an engine at full speed and never stopping to refill the tank, you are bound to hit a brick wall or empty your tank eventually. It is far better to plan for the short sprints and the breaks to refill the tank than to find yourself stranded.

Stress Addiction

What do you know about stress addiction? You or your organization is addicted to stress? Let's be honest, some individuals and some organizations perform better under stressful conditions. Some organizations nurture a stressful culture as a means to continually pressure maximum performance with minimum manpower. Some other organizations leverage the energy associated with bursts of focused stress to overcome significant obstacles, and then minimize stress in between major hurdles to maintain a balanced workforce. How can you tell the difference?

Procrastination in dealing with important tasks is sometimes an indication of personal stress addiction. Some individuals acknowledge better performance under stressful situations. In some cases this helps to focus on a project. If this applies to you, then perhaps it is time to reevaluate your schedule, your personal goals, and your workload. By setting personal goals as commitments to complete projects or workload ahead of schedule, you can create your own deadlines and get ahead of the curve. Procrastination may be a sign that the workload is too light and you need to take on more responsibilities, or challenge yourself with more personal tasks. This will create an environment of balanced stress that you can manage by increasing or decreasing personal additional tasks to accommodate required or assigned workloads.

This does not mean that putting things off until the last minute is always a sign of stress addiction. If you continually put things off to the last minute, the result for your product or project will be in a bad quality. However if your projects or product are equivalent that would have been achieved earlier, then you are just being lazy and you need a stress inducing boss to get you moving. Last minute's work is a bad habit that will make you a clumsy person.

On the other hand, if items are continually addressed at the last minute simply because you have too many other priorities that take precedence and it is virtually impossible to catch up, then you have an unhealthy stressful environment and it is time to evaluate the conditions.

Have you ever experienced an organization that continually threatens potential layoffs, cancellation of contracts, or incessantly proclaims gloom and doom of current conditions? While organizations may perform better under short bursts of highly focused stressful conditions, it is not something that can be sustained effectively for long periods of time. Individuals within the organization will react differently to stressful conditions and will burn out at varying periods of time. After a period of high intensity it is necessary to allow a period for cooling down, refreshing and reenergizing the troops.

Manage your stress, manage your time

Works, relationships, deadlines, appointments, phone calls, etc. All of these are things many people must accomplish each day. Many times, family, friends and ourselves get put on a waiting list. Sometimes, we discover too late that those on the waiting list are, in fact, the most important, and unfortunately, we often don't realize it at all and find ourselves wondering why we are unhappy.

There are books,seminars and internet to help us find the best option for managing our time. Such sources intend to offer the best solutions.People know that time is more than gold. First of all, time means life, and more than that, it means our lives. That is why we must not to give up in stressful situations and must continue to fight for the joy of living. Remember that poor time management can cause major health problems physically and mentally. However,time can be tamed if we know how manage the it.

The first step in the process is to find out what makes your time are wasted. Usually , they are in one of two groups: " External factors (unexpected phone calls, long phone conversations, unplanned visits, traffic jammed, insufficiently trained personnel, constant meetings, interruptions by colleagues, friends and family). " Internal factors - related to ourselves (priorities and objectives that change, lack of a daily work plan, lack of self-imposed deadlines, tendency to do too many things at once, disorder, procrastination, inability to say no, poor decision-making, fatigue).

Now you already know about the external factors and internal factors, you can imagines similar situations that you have been through. Now, all you must do is find a way to get past them so you can be in charge of your time again. Here are three possible ways to do it:

" Write everything down. It is goo for your time management especially useful if you have a bad memory. Otherwise you might forget your work's dateline, to attend important meetings, to make important phone calls, etc. You can also write down inspirations that occur to you at unexpected moments.

" Make a list of priorities. It takes little time, and you can do it while you're having your breakfast. Write down what you need to do that day, in order of importance and urgency.

" Learn to say no. Sometimes you have to be strict. However, its a common mistake, many people make is to put other people's problem ahead of us. Nevertheless, by helping others in a difficult situation, we are easily stressed and we find ourselves unable to meet our previous responsibility.

Stress Reduction - Which Techniques Can be Used to Reduce Stress

Stress is a big problem to us. If not to you, at least most of us maybe your parents, friends, husband, wife, children etc. The previous topic, I've post a the dangers of stress and how to reduce it. Don't underestimate the dangers of stress, that's why I add another ways to reduce your stress. Go on read, there are several ways to reduce your stress.

Dealing with Stress

There are essentially two ways to deal with stress. One is to eliminate stressors from the environment or at least minimize the stressors. The other one is increase the resistance power dealing with stress. Truly there are a great range of useful strategies to acquire these two attributes, but the key aspect of all variations comes to a single point, that is, relaxation.

There is no single stress reduction technique; rather it needs to be implemented in combination with change in lifestyle, diet, exercise and relaxation. These factors complement a better management of stress in terms of reduction or elimination to some extent. Relaxation technique sounds pretty simple and the central theme of most of the stress reduction methods, however it is not so simple to acquire it without the expert guidance.

The modern life demands experiencing stressful stimuli almost each moment, it is seen that relaxation technique has increasingly become the expert solution against stress.

Therapeutic Measures

Therapeutic measures focusing on the mind-body connection assumes that emotions may play a significant role in physical system. These measures in particular help individuals to get a hold on daily stressors and to cope with them rather than trying to eliminate them from environmental stimuli. Individual counseling and meditation are two crucial factors of such therapies. These techniques are truly beneficial for lowering blood pressure and gastric problems.

Herbal therapies are found to be beneficial for stress management in terms of providing a special emphasis for inner balance. It stresses on the significance of natural substances in relation to the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual connectedness. Apart from that, there are other useful techniques that are effective in managing stress.

These are acupuncture, Alexander technique, aromatherapy, autogenic training therapy, behavioral therapy, reflexology, naturopathy, Rolfing, kinesiology, Tai Chi Chuan, sound therapy, Reiki, autosuggestion therapy, Ayurveda, Bach Flower therapy, bioenergetics, biofeedback, flotation therapy, Feldenkrais method, Shiatsu and many others.

The Dangers of Stress and How to Reduce it

Stress unfortunately has become a relatively normal staple in our modern-day lives. We live in such a busy society that finding people who are bogged down by stress is no harder than spotting an elephant in a bare field. The unfortunate thing though is that stress not only puts a damper on your mood, it is also extremely harmful to your health and well being. When stress is left unchecked, it can potentially cause damage to almost every important part of your body. – Especially your immune system and heart. So what can we do to help cut back on all the stress we experience?

First we need to understand stress. Stress is completely natural – when you become stressed, your brain releases hormones into your blood that cause your body to work overtime in case there is a dangerous situation that it needs to respond to. Unfortunately, we are supposed to remove ourselves from the stressful situation relatively soon. The problem is that sometimes we find ourselves continuing to live in stress, and our bodies are constantly pushing harder as a result, and suffer as a consequence.

A good way to protect yourself is to make sure that you get the occasional break, but the key to avoiding the dangers of stress comes from your ability to mentally leave behind a stressful situation once you no longer have control of it. Most of us face small situations of stress everyday, whether it be a traffic jam, a crying baby, or having to put up with an irritating history professor. These situations are unavoidable, and the only way to protect yourself is to not let them get to you. You need to take mental control of the situation. Remind yourself that this is only a minor problem, and that it isn’t serious. Think of other similar situations that actually ended up as a funny story. The bottom line is that the first step to preventing stress damage is to remain calm and relatively unaffected by the small quirks in life that we just don’t have any control of.

Unfortunately, we also have to deal with much larger issues in our lives. Sometimes we are relying on a promotion at work to pay our bills, or find ourselves working overtime at our studies and not making the grades we should be. Obviously these things need to be dealt with, but we also have to be able to walk away from them. The trick is to work hard at avoiding these problems, but once you pass that point where you can no longer do any more, you must be able to set it aside. Maybe you miss out on sleep because you are studying even when you already know the information, or maybe you are pushing your food around your plate in anxious thought about that promotion. These little things are keeping you stressed, and they aren’t helping you a bit. You need to be able to recognize when it’s time to shut the problem off, and let the card fall where they may. Ask yourself if there is anything else you can do to solve your problem. If the answer is no, rest knowing that you gave it your all.

Lastly, one great way to get rid of stress in your life is to keep yourself occupied with things that you enjoy. It can be difficult to shove aside your problems if you’re bored, but if you’re having fun, it isn’t that difficult now, is it? Identify the little things that bring pleasure into your life. Maybe it’s fishing, or building model cars, or playing sports, and helping your kids with their schoolwork. Whatever it is, try to schedule in more of it. Don’t forget to keep it simple as well – you don’t want to stress yourself out trying to plan for a time that will help you release your stress!

Stress is a natural phenomenon, but prolonged stress isn’t. It’s also not necessary. There’s no denying that many people have a lot on their plate, but there is also no reason not to cut out your stress whenever you can and enjoy your life. If you do, not only will your life be longer and happier, but you’ll find that you are able to handle your responsibilities more efficiently, cutting the stress caused by them and making your daily life much easier, more enjoyable, and more fulfilling

Less Stress Leads To A Better Rest

In the modern world of today we are constantly being bombarded with high levels of stress and anxiety. These stresses can be physical, mental or environmental. They place an enormous strain on our physical and mental health.

Most of us are aware that excessive stress can affect our ability to think straight, our digestive system, adrenal glands and heart. Research has however shown that whenever a stressful situation arises, there is a knock on effect. Firstly stress limits the blood supply going to the stomach, this hampers the digestive system and a temporary shut down of our immune system may follow. If we are overwhelmed with stress for an extended period we are likely to experience fatigue and exhaustion.

Although it may not be possible to avoid these stress factors in our lives there is help available. There are many natural herbal supplements, known for they’re relaxing properties which assist in combating the harmful effects of anxiety and stress. Several herbs are usually incorporated together to make a powerful formula.

We will take a look at some of the individual herbs, which go to make up some of these potent anti- anxiety supplements: -

* Jujube Seeds: - hypnotic and anti-anxiety effect used for hysteria, fatigue, sleeplessness, debility and restlessness.

* Magnolia Bark: - has anti anxiety, anti stress properties, lowers the cortisol, promotes relaxation and improves the mood.

* Potassium: -sustains the fluid and electrolyte balance, discharges energy from carbohydrate, protein and fat, assists in conveying nerve impulses.

* Magnesium: -is a trace mineral and its chief role is manufacturing and transporting energy, relaxing and contracting the muscles, assisting some enzymes with their task in the body and mixing proteins.

* Valerian Root: - It supports a feeling of calmness, improves sleep, reduces anxiety levels and facilitates relaxation of the central nervous system. Valerian root is non addictive and does not cause morning tiredness. It also is useful in slowing the heart in those who have the condition known as tachycardia.

* Melatonin: -is one of the most dominant antioxidants in the brain. It restores metabolism, improves the quality of sleep and slows down degenerative diseases of the brain such as Parkinson’s. Melatonin can control extreme cortical production and is therefore effectual in reducing stress levels and regulating sleep cycles.

* Vitamin B complex contains Vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5,

B6 and B12 are all essential vitamins for the nervous system

Eliminate your Stress now!

How can we eliminate stress? That is one of the most common questions asked in the twenty first century with one of the most elusive answers!

Well, in order to eliminate stress we should first realise what it is and where it comes from.

A typical dictionary definition explains stress as: "a force exerted when one body or body part presses on, pulls on, pushes against, or tends to compress or twist another body or body part."

Well when we experience stress in our lives it often feels as though an external (or sometimes internal) force is pressing against our lives. This causes a great deal of anguish and frustration to the person suffering which mainly comes from unwanted harassing thoughts and negative emotions. These thoughts and emotions cause imbalance, to a greater or lesser degree, within the mind, which if persisted in will eventually cause an imbalance in the body!

So when connected to people we can give a clearer definition of 'Stress' as "a state of heightened emotional and mental imbalance caused by internal or external forces in one's life".

So what internal or external forces can cause this emotional and mental imbalance in one's life?

At first this appears to be an almost impossible question to answer. There can be numerous causes of stress. They range from the more trivial - having a bad day at work - to the more serious - dreading an impending catastrophic event. However, if we look at all the apparent causes of stress closely we can see the root cause, which is always the same! What is it? Well it's very simple.

Stress is caused when we want things, situations or people to be different from they are! Basically, it's when we want things to be the way we want them to be but they just don't change. Remember the dictionary definition of stress - "a force exerted when one body or body part presses on, pulls on, pushes against, or tends to compress or twist another body or body part." We are desiring things to be different and when they stay the same (regardless of our actions) we experience stress. Our force of 'will' i.e. our 'wanting' the situation to change is exerting force on the situation. However, the situation remains the same and you know what happens when two forces in opposite directions collide - the stronger force wins! In such situations it is our desire that becomes compressed or twisted.

Ok, now we know that stress has its roots in 'desire' it becomes much easier to find a way to eliminate it.

Many mystical and religious traditions have told us that in order to achieve enlightenment or attain our fondest dreams we need merely achieve a desire-less state! Unfortunately not many tell us how to do this! Many tell us that in order to have something we must first stop wanting it!

This seems a strange concept but it does have solid foundations. If we desire something to the point of stressing ourselves about it, then our behaviour becomes grasping and we have little or no chance of gaining that which we desire.

Fortunately though, there is a simple effective way of eliminating such grasping desires from your life called 'releasing'. This technique is not new but it is highly effective and little known in the western world.

Let us look again at our new definition of stress and how we can use it to eliminate stress on the spot in any situation. Our definition states that stress is "a state of heightened emotional and mental imbalance caused by internal or external forces in one's life". So how do we use this? Well firstly, the next time you experience a feeling of stress (try to pick a time when you are only slightly uptight until you get the hang of this), stop what you are doing for a moment and ask yourself "what do I want to be different in this situation/person/event?" - you are identifying your thoughts behind the stress.

Then, once you have identified these thoughts, ask yourself "how does that make me feel?" - you are identifying the emotions behind the thoughts.

Let's take an example. You are at work and the boss wants you to get all your work finished by 5 o' clock but you know that this is impossible but feel a mounting pressure to succeed at the task. You find yourself rushing around doing ten things at once all the time feeling more and more stressful. So, you ask the first question - "what do I want to be different in this situation/person/event?" The answer may be, "I want my boss to stop putting me under pressure". - You have identified some the thoughts behind the stress.

Next you ask "how does that make me feel?" The answer to this may be "I feel unappreciated!" - You have identified one of the feelings behind your thoughts.

Now for one moment stop trying to suppress that emotion and fully feel it. Allow yourself to delve into that feeling and experience it and then 'let it go'. Imagine it is a spent force escaping through your stomach. Do this several times, as it takes seconds to perform. Within a few repetitions you will start to feel your stress ease away effortlessly. Keep asking the questions as there may be several reasons behind your stress or you may need to 'release' a particularly deep-seated emotion a few times before it is gone. Try it, you may just be surprised at the results!

Increase Creativity and Reduce Stess Using Alpha Meditation

In order to understand how alpha meditation can help improve your creativity, it is important to start by understanding what binaural beats and brainwave entrainment are.

Brainwave entrainment is the use of some external stimulus, usually different sounds that a person will hear with stereo headphones, to induce a certain level of brain wave activity. When a person's brainwave activity is artificially altered by these means, it will subtly shift their awareness and perception.

Using binaural beats is a common and effective method of brainwave entrainment. In order for the binaural beats to be effective, a person must be using stereo headphones so that they can hear a different sound in each ear.

Most of the time, the binaural beats will be embedded underneath the layers of tracks on a song, usually soothing ambient music or soundscapes, so that the person listening can focus on the music and not on the frequencies they are hearing. If you either find or create effective binaural beat audios to listen to in stereo heaphones, the frequencies should blend perfectly into the background, and you should not be able to consciously notice them unless you really try to isolate them.

Binaural beats are the most effective this way, when they are loud enough to still have an effect on your brainwave activity but quiet enough that you do not notice them. Depending on the difference between the two frequencies you decide to use, you can entrain any desired brainwave state and state of mind.

The ideal brainwave frequency for alpha meditation is about 9-10hz, so if we wanted to create a set of binaural beats that could be used to artificially induce this specific frequency, we could play 110hz in the left ear and 120hz in the right ear.

To any person who is hearing these different frequencies in each ear, their brain will act like a tuning fork and it will lock on to the difference between the two frequencies, which in this case would be 10hz.

'Alpha' is the name that we use for the range of brainwave frequencies from around 8hz-13hz. We go through the alpha brainwave state many times during a 24-hour period, and it is usually we are in a light sleep and are dreaming. You can also reach this state by listening to soothing soundscapes or chill-out music, preferably music with alpha binaural beat already embedded in the layers, and simply lying down and resting. When a person reaches this alpha state while they are still conscious, their imagination will be highly active and they can see very vivid imagery, like an intense dream.

After practicing this daily for a short while, even just a week or two, a person's intuitive creativity will naturally be higher and coming up with new ideas will seem easier.

Remaining in the intuitive alpha state for extended periods is the key to increasing your creativity, because this frequency stimulates the right-side creative portion of the human brain. After doing daily alpha meditation and staying in the alpha state for 30 minutes or more per day, your creative visualization capabilities will markedly increase, and it is this creative visualization that can help you achieve any outcome you desire.

If you are interested in pursuing alpha meditation, you can do a number of things. While it does not require music with alpha binaural beats, this is highly recommended because your brain will automatically lock on to the alpha frequency.

You can go to your local music store and look for CDs on 'alpha mediation' or 'alpha relaxation,' or you can also look online at places like iTunes. Or if you would like to have full control over your alpha meditation experience, you can embed any song of your choosing with binaural beats using special audio software.

Creating your own binaural beat audios will give you full control over your meditation experience, and you can experiment with different frequencies around the 7-10 hz area to see which ones give you the biggest boost in intuition and creativity.