Strategies Which May Help to Combat Stress - Research Paper Example

Introduction Beyond all doubt in contemporary world the majority people permanently live on the verge of stress. Just fancy! Bad ecology, inelastic timetable of urban life, aggressive social environment, financial aggro - there are so many factors that influence our everyday life and emotional state. It should be said that these factors influence all people: adults and children, poor and rich, politicians and mineworkers. One can hardly find a person, who had never suffered from stress. The term "stress" has become familiar in our day-to-day vocabulary. In this short and at the same time capacious word we insert the comprehension of changes in own behaviour and a full scale of emotions and feelings, which come up in difficult situations or in danger, which have become essential of our modern way of life. However it is inherent to people to dramatise difficulties of a given moment. Human's existence had never been easy. Let us remember the history of mankind. The entire development of civilization from ancient times to today has been accompanied with continuous stress. In different times people suffered from hunger, wars, deceases, nature cataclysms, conflicts of interests, necessity to adapt to new forms of social structure and changes of technologies. So stress is not an "achievement" of modernity, it has just reshaped under the influence of new conditions. What is Stress The notion of "stress" can be referred to one of the basic scientific categories, which has become an object of many fields of study: biology, medicine, physiology, psychology, demography, law, management and others. Hans Selye, a recognized expert in studying of the phenomenon of stress, has defined it as a "non-specific response of the body to a demand." In general we may determine stress as some natural reaction of our organism adaptation to any pressure coming from the environment. Such a definition, which has appeared in physiology in thirties of the twenties century, shortly went beyond the scope of narrowly biological treatment and became widely used both in science and in everyday life. Nowadays the question of vital importance for the society is to cope with global work-related stress, which is observable in all spheres of human activity. One of the most stress-liable groups is students. It is obvious that they have to cope with great physical and mental tasks. They often have to deal with lucubration in exams period. So stress is a 'shadow' of any student. That is why it is important for every student to know how to cope with stress. Let us consider General Exam Stress-Busting Tips, which have been offered by ISMA (n. d.), a registered charity with a multi-disciplinary professional membership, which exists to promote knowledge and best practice in the prevention and reduction of human stress. ISMA suggests all students Believe in yourself. Don't try to be perfect. Take steps to overcome problems. Don't keep things bottled up. Keep things in perspective. In the UK it is estimated that each working day 270,000 people are absent from work with stress, and in 1996 sickness absence cost UK business & 12 billion (Ameghino, 1998). The HSE report that almost twenty millions working days a year are lost because work-related illness, and off the two million suffers of job-linked illnesses, 500,000 workers say that stress is so bad that it is making them ill (Milne, 1998). Causes of stress According to Arthur (2004, p. 160), "employees do not become stress just because of character flaws or mental health vulnerability; rather the context in which people live and work can stress them". Work-related tress can be caused by various factors (stressors). The most widespread reasons of stresses are conflicts with the leadership and colleagues. Often the stress is determined by congestion with work, overwork. Stress can be provoked by numerous assignments and requirements of leaders, which must be fulfilled immediately, without taking into account opportunities of the executor. The most negative influence on a mental state of the worker is made by inconsistent requirements coming from one or several managers. In this case a person is put before a choice whose or what requirement he/she should carry out. Negative influence on some workers, in particular ambitious, may have the lack work, in which they see underestimation of their opportunities and abilities. Together with other factors stress can caused by such irritating phenomena, as noise, an unpleasant smell, neighborhood and contacts on work with persons one feels antipathy, etc. Strategies, which may help to combat stress So it is obvious that we should not just give up and to suffer from our stress. If we have not had any possibility to prevent stress we should manage it. In other words if we have problem we must solve it. According to D'Zurilla & Nezu (1999, p. 17), problem solving refers to "the self-directed cognitive-behavioural process by which an individual attempts to identify or discover solutions to specific problems encountered in everyday living". According to McCracken (2001), "risk assessment, education and awareness of the stress syndrome symptoms may help to produce a society and workforce capable of coping with our brave new world and the added stressors we have created in it. Pro active stress management will help those who suffer (usually temporarily) from excess stress symptoms and rapidly return them to the workplace balanced in body and mind". We should always remember that nobody is able to help us to combat stress better than we are able to do. Cooper (1981) states: "...organisations and institutions can lay the foundations for better health.., but it is up to the individual to reduce his/her internal pressures or to redesign his/her lifestyle... Unless the individual takes an active part in the process of stress prevention and coping, institution or government policy changes will be of little use." Moreover Jones (n. d.) points out that employers already have duties: Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, to assess the risk of stress-related ill health arising from work activities; and Under the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, to take measures to control that risk. As we have already discovered stress can render negative influence on psychological health, reducing your ability to overcome pressure of external circumstances. Also it promotes the occurrence of problems with health in the future. Effective distribution of time can help to reduce quantity of stress in your life. There are simple methods, which able to distribute time efficiently, such as making to-do lists, keeping a diary, and precise following to the records. The organized recordkeeping will become very helpful assistant in the management of your time. Small time expenses for the organization of your day will be generously repaid and will bring "income" in future. Now let us consider the most important advice on time management, which may be useful both for everyday life, and study and work: PRELIMINARY PLANNING. Estimate realistically duration of a planned affair and add to this time a little more in order your schedule has some space for some unforeseen delays and rest. CREATE A SYSTEM IN, WHICH THERE WILL BE TIME, SUFFICIENT FOR PERFORMANCE OF ONE AFFAIR AND FOR TRANSITION TO ANOTHER. How to make IT - Precisely plan your time for every day, week and month. WRITE DOWN YOUR TASKS IN THE FORM OF COME-AT-ABLE RECORDS. If you do not have something that is necessary to complete some task, occupy yourself with something else. Do not wait for the big block of free time, as it will hardly appear. CHARGE. You will not make everything by your own. If you have got problems, set aside some daily business. Look back around. Perhaps, you will find assistants. Make yourself busy with affairs, which nobody can make for you. SAY "NOW". Sometimes it is quite admissible to tell "no" in response to additional duties on work, to family, or public duties. You should not be rough, but insistence is quite permissible. Overtime work can be ungrateful, not paid and underestimated. It does not mean, that you always should leave work precisely in time. But if overtime work becomes daily, maybe, it is time to overestimate your priorities and to improve the organization of time during work. MAKE BREAKS. It is not a secret that majority o people think that they will work more efficient if they will work without any breaks. But it is absolutely wrong. "Lothar J. Seiwart, in his book Master Your Own Time, cites the result of a medical study on productivity over 60-minute periods of concentration. After 20 minutes concentration has dropped to 70%, at 30 minutes it is 60%. It rallies slightly at around 45 minutes to 68% before plummeting to zero at 60 minutes" (Clark, 2001). That is why in order to make our working process really productive one should make breaks. Conclusion According to researches, today up to 90 percent of working people complain of shortage of time. The numerous methods, called to help us distribute our time in rational way, and new technologies, which help to achieve greater efficiency, nowadays receive the increasing popularity. While new technologies are originally called to help us, they eventually only make our life faster. So the change of our attitude towards time may become a step to slacken the pace of our life. Taking care of consciousness, which is generally concentrated on a present moment, can help to reduce stress in the present and abatement of anxiety in the future. Working on things, which are important to you, and aims you wish to reach in life is one more important step to become successful and happy. Once having defined the priorities, plan and distribute your time according to them. You will see that it will become easier to you to make decisions and to get any goals. Bibliography: Ameghino, J. (1998). 'Add Stress to your CV.' The Guardian, 15 September: 17. Arthur, A.R. (2004). Work-related stress, the blind men and the elephant. British Journal of Guidance and Counseling, 32 (2), 157 - 169. Clark, J. (2001). Effective Time Management. Stress News, 13, pp. No 2. Retrieved March 12, 2007, from http://www.isma.org.uk/stressnw/efftimeman.htm Cooper, C.L. (1981). The Stress Check. Prentice-Hall: London. D'Zurilla, T. J., & Nezu, A. M. (1999). Problem-solving therapy: A social competence approach to clinical intervention (2nd ed.). NY: Springer. Jones, M. (n.d.). HSE - Stress Management Standards: About the standards. Health and Safety Executive. Retrieved March 11, 2007, from http://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/standards/about.htm ISMA. (n.d.). Exam Stress. Retrieved March 12, 2007, from http://www.isma.org.uk/exams.htm McCracken, A. (2001). Stress - Survival of the Fittest. Stress News, 13, No 3. Retrieved March 11, 2007, from http://www.isma.org.uk/stressnw/stresurv1.htm Milne, S. (1998). 'Two million suffer job-linked illness'. The Guardian, 21 March: 11. Read More