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Michael Mosley begins stress week by looking at the various causes of stress in the workplace by following event organiser, Justin Clarke, through his busy week to note the effects on his body.
How stressed are you? Take our test.
Tips to combat stress:
Physical exercises can definitely help with 'in the moment' stress. For example: stretching, shoulder shrugging, controlled breathing.
Keeping fit helps with stress and is a good way of unwinding and clearing the mind. For example - going for a run, swimming, the gym. This can also help with long-term stress.
Green spaces - Studies have shown that being around green spaces can reduce blood pressure and stress levels, and possibly help people heal faster after surgery.
Juggling - In addition to the benefits achieved as a form of play, research published in the journal Nature has found that learning to juggle actually increases brain size. It has also been shown to reduce stress levels and improve mood and concentration.
Chanting - Experts have found that Gregorian chanting could promote a sense of well-being and help people to cope with pressure.
Turkey - Turkey isn't just for Christmas. Along with salmon it is great for a protein called tryptophan. Low levels of this (women seem to be especially prone) impede your brain's ability to make serotonin, a nerve transmitter that helps to lift your mood and reduce anxiety and panic attacks, as well as helping you to sleep.
No alcohol and caffeine - Though alcohol is a stimulant in low doses, it also depletes the brain's mood elevator, serotonin. Caffeine blocks the soothing effects of the brain's "feel-good" messenger called GABA (gamma-amino butyric acid) that can calm mood.
How do you deal with stress? Do you have hints and tips you recommend?
Comments
Currently signed off work due to anxiety so is a nice coincidence that my favourite show has stress week going on.Will look forward to seeing if any of the tips are of any help to me.
Unfortunately the stress test isnt working for me :(
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I agree with the guest Giles Brandreth on your programme The way you speak tells alot about you. for instance people don't know how to pronounce the letter H When I was at school we spent nearly a whole lesson in English class learning about the silent (aitch)H .
. this
is not pronounced haitch. Being a school governor i was amazed when I tackled the headmaster on the silent H and he said it was pronounced haitch. WHAT CHANCE DO OUR CHILDREN HAVE TO SPEAK WELL with masters that don't know the difference.
We need people who can speak well and clearly. Alot of people who work for the media would do well to take a lesson
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tried 3 times to get my stress test results and your site doesn't work - arghhhhh!!
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Got very streesed out trying to do the stess test and getting an error message
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I have taken the stress test the result was medium, the thing i'm most stressed about is the lack of support or firms having the Alzheimers Society as their charity fund for the year, it's 1 yr since my mum died with Alzheimers and i make donations on line and buy the raffle tickets, so many people of all ages have or are likely to get this terrible disease yet very little is done by the public or businesses to help this cause the Question is WHY ?
yours faithfully
Jean Prior
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My work was always stressful trying to balance the needs of my clients against the greed of my employer, so when I took early retirement at 55 I decided that my life would change before it killed me.
If I don't want to do something I say no. If it is going to be stressful I say no. I don't feel guilty and don't offer excuses.
My blood pressure is normal, I'm healthy, happy, live for the moment and enjoy every day of our new life on the Costa Del Sol.
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Woops- just had a coffee and a glass of red wine after an exhausting and quite hard day at work. I've just done the stress test- what a surprise, apparently I'm scoring as 'Severely' stressed, is that all? I was expecting to be extremely stressed!
Joking aside, I can feel the physical affects on my body- although I'm tired I don't think I'll get to sleep too easily. I think I will have to heed the advice- try to relax more (between the ironing maybe?)
Anyway, cheerio for now, or should I say night, night.
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When I was working - I am now retired - I took the attitude that staff for whom I was responsible were "very busy" and that they should stop saying that they were "stressed". How stupid I was!
The cost to the economy of stress related absences is ca £8.6billion - yes BILLION - per year. There is a huge need to encourage employers to recognise the importance of creating an environment in which there are mechanisms to reduce stress and anxiety. The step from stress to mental ill health is a very short one; and sadly those who suffer from mental health problems (one in four people) find it increaasingly difficult to return to or enter the workplace.
We must not trivialise the problem and we must challenge the stigma that seems to attach to those who for whatever reason cannot cope.
David
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That stress test really got me worked up- just like Adrian. It essentially amounts to 7 variants of the same question "how stressed do you think you are ?"....duh!
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took the stress test ... and no surprise here, i'm severly stressed!
I resigned today but don't feel any better for it.
i agree with el higueron, if its not what you want to do, say no. it is difficult to begin but gets a little easier after a while.
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I came out pretty low on the stress test as I'm fairly relaxed although it's taken a while to learn how to do that.
The BBC could reduce my stress levels further by removing the fox and owl sounds that they put in any programme if there is a night time scene. Our dog goes berserk whenever he hears these noises. I'm sure the public can work out that it's night without them and I'm also sure there are loads of houses that don't have a fox or an owl near them so they're not exactly being accurate anyway!
My husband would proably score higher on the test than me although he finds tests stressful so I didn't put him through it!
Ali D, Dalry, Ayrshire
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Hi the OneShow. I have really enjoyed the shows this week, in particular the stress week stuff. I always seem to be stressed and wanted to see if I could get some more info on how I might get better at controlling my stress levels. Can you put me in touch with the people that ran the stress tests for the event manager chap?
THANKS
Gorkanagirl Jo
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