Showing posts with label stress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stress. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Saturday, August 27, 2011
How to be Patient
How to be Patient
Learning to Stay Calm
The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it open.
– Arnold Glasgow, American humorist
Here's the problem: You're waiting for someone to finish compiling a report that you need for a meeting. Because of an issue that came up, you're already 15 minutes late.
You can feel your body getting tense, and you're getting quite cross. You start sweating, and suddenly you yell at the person for being slow and putting you behind schedule. You can tell she's hurt, but you can't help it. She's making you late!
Does this sound familiar?
Many of us are impatient at times. Losing control of our patience hurts not only us, but those around us. Impatience raises our stress level and can even cause physical harm to our bodies. Being impatient can also damage relationships.
In this article, we'll examine strategies that you can use to be more patient.
Why Practice Patience?
Others often see impatient people as arrogant, insensitive, and impulsive. They can be viewed as poor decision makers, because they make quick judgments or interrupt people. Some people will even avoid impatient people, because of their poor people skills and bad tempers.
People with these personality traits are unlikely to be at the top of the list for promotions to leadership positions. Impatience can even affect relationships at home.
The more patient you are with others, the likelier you are to be viewed positively by your peers and your managers, not to mention your family and friends.
Signs of Impatience
How do you know when you're being impatient? You will probably experience one of more of the following symptoms:
•Shallow breathing (short breaths).
•Muscle tension.
•Hand clenching/tightening.
•Jiggling/restless feet.
•Irritability/anger.
•Anxiety/nervousness.
•Rushing.
•Snap/quick decisions.
Finding Your Causes
If you experience the symptoms of impatience, your next step is to discover the true cause. Many of us have "triggers." These could be people, phrases, or specific situations (like rush-hour traffic) that regularly cause us to enter an impatient frame of mind.
Make a list of things that cause you to become impatient. If you're having trouble identifying your triggers, use these tips:
•Stop and think about the last time you were impatient. What caused it? You can narrow this down to the root cause by using the 5 Whys technique.
•Ask your family, friends, and co-workers about your impatience. Chances are that they know what gets you "wound up".
•Many people become impatient due to physical factors such as hunger, dehydration, or fatigue. Analyze your body the next time you start to feel impatient. A simple remedy might be a snack and a glass of water!
•Keep a journal with you to record when you start to feel impatient. Write down what the situation is, and why you're getting frustrated.
Identifying your triggers helps because it forces you to examine your actions and uncover why you're doing what you're doing. This knowledge also helps you devise strategies to avoid becoming impatient.
Of course, it would be great if you could avoid the triggers that make you impatient. But for most of us, that's just not possible. So you have to learn to manage impatience instead.
Managing the Symptoms
When you feel impatient, it's important to get out of this frame of mind as quickly as possible. Try these strategies:
•Take deep, slow breaths, and count to 10. Doing this helps slow your heart rate, relaxes your body, and distances you emotionally from the situation. If you're feeling really impatient, you might need to do a longer count, or do this several times.
•Impatience can cause you to tense your muscles involuntarily. So, consciously focus on relaxing your body. Again, take slow, deep breaths. Relax your muscles, from your toes up to the top of your head.
•Learn to manage your emotions. Remember, you have a choice in how you react in every situation. You can choose to be patient, or choose not to be: it's all up to you.
•Force yourself to slow down. Make yourself speak and move more slowly. It will appear to others as if you're calm – and, by "acting" patient, you can often "feel" more patient.
•Practice active listening and empathic listening. Make sure you give other people your full attention, and patiently plan your response to what they say.
•Remind yourself that your impatience rarely gets others to move faster – in fact, it can interfere with other people's ability to perform complex or highly-skilled work. All you're doing is creating more stress, which is completely unproductive.
•Try to talk yourself out of your impatient frame of mind. Remind yourself how silly it is that you're reacting this way. People often don't mind if a meeting is delayed, just as long as you let them know that you're running late in advance.
•If your impatience causes you to react in anger toward others, use anger management techniques to calm down.
•Some people become impatient because they're perfectionists. However, in addition to causing impatience, perfectionism can actually slow productivity and increase stress. Learn how to stop being a perfectionist with our Coaching Clinic I'm a Perfectionist!
Remember that, although many people are naturally patient, the rest of us need to practice patience for it to become a habit. Becoming more patient won't happen overnight, but do persist – it's so important!
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTCS_78.htm
Learning to Stay Calm
The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it open.
– Arnold Glasgow, American humorist
Here's the problem: You're waiting for someone to finish compiling a report that you need for a meeting. Because of an issue that came up, you're already 15 minutes late.
You can feel your body getting tense, and you're getting quite cross. You start sweating, and suddenly you yell at the person for being slow and putting you behind schedule. You can tell she's hurt, but you can't help it. She's making you late!
Does this sound familiar?
Many of us are impatient at times. Losing control of our patience hurts not only us, but those around us. Impatience raises our stress level and can even cause physical harm to our bodies. Being impatient can also damage relationships.
In this article, we'll examine strategies that you can use to be more patient.
Why Practice Patience?
Others often see impatient people as arrogant, insensitive, and impulsive. They can be viewed as poor decision makers, because they make quick judgments or interrupt people. Some people will even avoid impatient people, because of their poor people skills and bad tempers.
People with these personality traits are unlikely to be at the top of the list for promotions to leadership positions. Impatience can even affect relationships at home.
The more patient you are with others, the likelier you are to be viewed positively by your peers and your managers, not to mention your family and friends.
Signs of Impatience
How do you know when you're being impatient? You will probably experience one of more of the following symptoms:
•Shallow breathing (short breaths).
•Muscle tension.
•Hand clenching/tightening.
•Jiggling/restless feet.
•Irritability/anger.
•Anxiety/nervousness.
•Rushing.
•Snap/quick decisions.
Finding Your Causes
If you experience the symptoms of impatience, your next step is to discover the true cause. Many of us have "triggers." These could be people, phrases, or specific situations (like rush-hour traffic) that regularly cause us to enter an impatient frame of mind.
Make a list of things that cause you to become impatient. If you're having trouble identifying your triggers, use these tips:
•Stop and think about the last time you were impatient. What caused it? You can narrow this down to the root cause by using the 5 Whys technique.
•Ask your family, friends, and co-workers about your impatience. Chances are that they know what gets you "wound up".
•Many people become impatient due to physical factors such as hunger, dehydration, or fatigue. Analyze your body the next time you start to feel impatient. A simple remedy might be a snack and a glass of water!
•Keep a journal with you to record when you start to feel impatient. Write down what the situation is, and why you're getting frustrated.
Identifying your triggers helps because it forces you to examine your actions and uncover why you're doing what you're doing. This knowledge also helps you devise strategies to avoid becoming impatient.
Of course, it would be great if you could avoid the triggers that make you impatient. But for most of us, that's just not possible. So you have to learn to manage impatience instead.
Managing the Symptoms
When you feel impatient, it's important to get out of this frame of mind as quickly as possible. Try these strategies:
•Take deep, slow breaths, and count to 10. Doing this helps slow your heart rate, relaxes your body, and distances you emotionally from the situation. If you're feeling really impatient, you might need to do a longer count, or do this several times.
•Impatience can cause you to tense your muscles involuntarily. So, consciously focus on relaxing your body. Again, take slow, deep breaths. Relax your muscles, from your toes up to the top of your head.
•Learn to manage your emotions. Remember, you have a choice in how you react in every situation. You can choose to be patient, or choose not to be: it's all up to you.
•Force yourself to slow down. Make yourself speak and move more slowly. It will appear to others as if you're calm – and, by "acting" patient, you can often "feel" more patient.
•Practice active listening and empathic listening. Make sure you give other people your full attention, and patiently plan your response to what they say.
•Remind yourself that your impatience rarely gets others to move faster – in fact, it can interfere with other people's ability to perform complex or highly-skilled work. All you're doing is creating more stress, which is completely unproductive.
•Try to talk yourself out of your impatient frame of mind. Remind yourself how silly it is that you're reacting this way. People often don't mind if a meeting is delayed, just as long as you let them know that you're running late in advance.
•If your impatience causes you to react in anger toward others, use anger management techniques to calm down.
•Some people become impatient because they're perfectionists. However, in addition to causing impatience, perfectionism can actually slow productivity and increase stress. Learn how to stop being a perfectionist with our Coaching Clinic I'm a Perfectionist!
Remember that, although many people are naturally patient, the rest of us need to practice patience for it to become a habit. Becoming more patient won't happen overnight, but do persist – it's so important!
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTCS_78.htm
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Personal Power at your Fingertips
Personal Power at your Fingertips
Release Emotions With EFT
From Joachim Schubert / Gwenn Bonnell
Stress. Anxiety. Guilt. Pain. Sadness. Trauma. These feelings and emotions are all part of our human existence. At times, however, one or more of these can become negative emotions and can block our ability to live life fully. We may find ourselves repeating patterns in relationships, with career choices, or with physical ailments, feeling stuck in situations that appear to be beyond our control.
We now have a simple but powerful tool that can help us regain our sense of choice over our negative emotions and recover our personal power. Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT for short) allows easy release of negative emotions and turns the stuck energy into empowerment so we can freely choose what is best in our lives. After the release of the negative emotions we can be free to experience more of life's joy and happiness.
What is EFT?
EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) is an easy yet effective method developed by Gary Craig that allows quick release of negative emotions. EFT involves tapping on certain meridian points that communicate energetic information throughout the human body while focused on the emotion we want to release.
Try EFT Now!
Take a few minutes to learn the fundamental steps of this powerful self-help tool.
Recall an experience when something happened that you felt was out of your control. What are your feelings as you think about that situation or the people involved? Name the feeling or emotional response that you have right now. If you cannot name the specific feeling, just call it "This emotion." Rate the intensity of the emotional response on a scale from zero to ten, with ten being the most intense and zero being no emotional response at all.
Perform The Setup: With the finger pads of the index and middle fingers of your dominant hand, begin tapping lightly the "Karate Chop" point of your other hand. The fleshy part on the side of the hand below the little finger is known as the Karate Chop point. While continuously tapping this point, repeat the following Setup Statement three times: "Even though I have this emotion, I deeply and completely accept myself." If you can name the emotion, then replace the word "emotion" with the specific feeling such as "anger," "guilt," or "sadness."
Physical pain or discomfort can also be treated with EFT. Simply replace the word "emotion" with a description of the problem such as "headache," " lower back pain," or "arthritis in my knee." For example, to treat my stress I repeat, "Even though I have this stress, I deeply and completely accept myself," three times while continuously tapping the Karate Chop point.
Next, perform the Tapping Sequence by tapping about five times on each point (see point chart) to rebalance your energy flow. Keep focused on the emotion or problem by repeating a Reminder Phrase similar to the Setup Statement. To release stress, I repeat, "This stress" while tapping lightly about five times on each of the following points:
EB = Beginning of the Eye Brow
SE = Side of the Eye
UE = Under the Eye
UN = Under the Nose
CH = The Chin
CB = Beginning of the Collar Bone
UA = Under the Arm
KC = Karate Chop Point
Points on either side of the body can be used, and sides can be switched during the tapping sequence.
Take a deep breath. Now focus on the emotion you were addressing. Rate the intensity of that feeling on the 0-10 scale. If you were feeling stress on a level of 5 or 6, is it still at that same level?
Complete Relief
If the feeling you had is completely relieved, and you feel no emotional response at all when you recall the experience from Step #1, great! You responded well to one round of EFT! You experienced, in a few moments, the power of this technique.
Partial Relief
Often, however, there is a reduction in the level of intensity of the emotion, say from a 5 or 6 to a 2 or 3. The remainder of the emotion needs to be treated with another round or two of EFT. In the subsequent rounds, it is important to adjust the Setup Statement and the Reminder Phrase to address the rest of the emotion or feeling. Use wording similar to, "Even though I still have some of this emotion, I deeply and completely accept myself," and repeat it three times while tapping the Karate Chop point. Then repeat, "This remaining stress," or "This remaining problem" during the Tapping Sequence. Do as many rounds of EFT as necessary until your emotional response is zero when you focus on the original experience from Step #1.
No Relief
If the first round of EFT did not lower the intensity of the feeling, try becoming more specific with the Setup Statement. For example, when dealing with stress you may need to define who or what is causing my stress to unblock the stuck energy. You could then repeat something similar to "Even though I have this stress about having to finish this article by today, I deeply and completely accept myself" during the Setup. Then you could use "this deadline stress" as a Reminder Phrase during the Tapping Sequence. Along with being more specific, persistence is sometimes necessary with this technique to reach a breakthrough. Try a few more rounds of EFT and see if the intensity of the problem or emotion eases somewhat.
This simple, or "shortcut," version of EFT is around 60 % effective and often results is some sort of relief for a specific problem. Coached by a skilled practitioner, who will know how to deal with special blocks that sometimes stand in the way of success, EFT has been clinically shown to be 80% effective.
How Will You Use EFT in Your Life?
Now that you have the basics of a powerful tool, try it on any negative or uncomfortable emotion you encounter and to help you gain control over many areas in your life. Try it on everything! EFT has no negative side effects, and the procedure only takes a few minutes to complete. Tap into your personal power with the self-help tool of the new millennium!
http://healing.about.com/cs/holistictherapies/a/uc_eft_emotions.htm
Release Emotions With EFT
From Joachim Schubert / Gwenn Bonnell
Stress. Anxiety. Guilt. Pain. Sadness. Trauma. These feelings and emotions are all part of our human existence. At times, however, one or more of these can become negative emotions and can block our ability to live life fully. We may find ourselves repeating patterns in relationships, with career choices, or with physical ailments, feeling stuck in situations that appear to be beyond our control.
We now have a simple but powerful tool that can help us regain our sense of choice over our negative emotions and recover our personal power. Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT for short) allows easy release of negative emotions and turns the stuck energy into empowerment so we can freely choose what is best in our lives. After the release of the negative emotions we can be free to experience more of life's joy and happiness.
What is EFT?
EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) is an easy yet effective method developed by Gary Craig that allows quick release of negative emotions. EFT involves tapping on certain meridian points that communicate energetic information throughout the human body while focused on the emotion we want to release.
Try EFT Now!
Take a few minutes to learn the fundamental steps of this powerful self-help tool.
Recall an experience when something happened that you felt was out of your control. What are your feelings as you think about that situation or the people involved? Name the feeling or emotional response that you have right now. If you cannot name the specific feeling, just call it "This emotion." Rate the intensity of the emotional response on a scale from zero to ten, with ten being the most intense and zero being no emotional response at all.
Perform The Setup: With the finger pads of the index and middle fingers of your dominant hand, begin tapping lightly the "Karate Chop" point of your other hand. The fleshy part on the side of the hand below the little finger is known as the Karate Chop point. While continuously tapping this point, repeat the following Setup Statement three times: "Even though I have this emotion, I deeply and completely accept myself." If you can name the emotion, then replace the word "emotion" with the specific feeling such as "anger," "guilt," or "sadness."
Physical pain or discomfort can also be treated with EFT. Simply replace the word "emotion" with a description of the problem such as "headache," " lower back pain," or "arthritis in my knee." For example, to treat my stress I repeat, "Even though I have this stress, I deeply and completely accept myself," three times while continuously tapping the Karate Chop point.
Next, perform the Tapping Sequence by tapping about five times on each point (see point chart) to rebalance your energy flow. Keep focused on the emotion or problem by repeating a Reminder Phrase similar to the Setup Statement. To release stress, I repeat, "This stress" while tapping lightly about five times on each of the following points:
EB = Beginning of the Eye Brow
SE = Side of the Eye
UE = Under the Eye
UN = Under the Nose
CH = The Chin
CB = Beginning of the Collar Bone
UA = Under the Arm
KC = Karate Chop Point
Points on either side of the body can be used, and sides can be switched during the tapping sequence.
Take a deep breath. Now focus on the emotion you were addressing. Rate the intensity of that feeling on the 0-10 scale. If you were feeling stress on a level of 5 or 6, is it still at that same level?
Complete Relief
If the feeling you had is completely relieved, and you feel no emotional response at all when you recall the experience from Step #1, great! You responded well to one round of EFT! You experienced, in a few moments, the power of this technique.
Partial Relief
Often, however, there is a reduction in the level of intensity of the emotion, say from a 5 or 6 to a 2 or 3. The remainder of the emotion needs to be treated with another round or two of EFT. In the subsequent rounds, it is important to adjust the Setup Statement and the Reminder Phrase to address the rest of the emotion or feeling. Use wording similar to, "Even though I still have some of this emotion, I deeply and completely accept myself," and repeat it three times while tapping the Karate Chop point. Then repeat, "This remaining stress," or "This remaining problem" during the Tapping Sequence. Do as many rounds of EFT as necessary until your emotional response is zero when you focus on the original experience from Step #1.
No Relief
If the first round of EFT did not lower the intensity of the feeling, try becoming more specific with the Setup Statement. For example, when dealing with stress you may need to define who or what is causing my stress to unblock the stuck energy. You could then repeat something similar to "Even though I have this stress about having to finish this article by today, I deeply and completely accept myself" during the Setup. Then you could use "this deadline stress" as a Reminder Phrase during the Tapping Sequence. Along with being more specific, persistence is sometimes necessary with this technique to reach a breakthrough. Try a few more rounds of EFT and see if the intensity of the problem or emotion eases somewhat.
This simple, or "shortcut," version of EFT is around 60 % effective and often results is some sort of relief for a specific problem. Coached by a skilled practitioner, who will know how to deal with special blocks that sometimes stand in the way of success, EFT has been clinically shown to be 80% effective.
How Will You Use EFT in Your Life?
Now that you have the basics of a powerful tool, try it on any negative or uncomfortable emotion you encounter and to help you gain control over many areas in your life. Try it on everything! EFT has no negative side effects, and the procedure only takes a few minutes to complete. Tap into your personal power with the self-help tool of the new millennium!
http://healing.about.com/cs/holistictherapies/a/uc_eft_emotions.htm
Thursday, September 23, 2010
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