Often, the initial response to working from home is relief, perhaps due to the novelty of the situation and other benefits such as relief from long commute times, minimal contact with toxic co-workers, and not having a boss looking over your shoulder at all times. However, after a few weeks or months, people begin to feel the negative effects of isolation, which only tends to worsen over time. This is what most people around the world are now facing.

Increasing cases of mental health deterioration

As per a study undertaken by the Indian Psychiatry Society, the number of mental illness cases in India increased by 20% within a week of commencement of the first lockdown. A few months later, the number of mental health issues reported began to accelerate. Experts attributed this rise in a parallel mental health pandemic, in large part, to woes of working from home. This fallout of working from home is a global trend.

A report published in April 2020, by Blind, a US-based professional network group, states that 52.9% of survey participants across organisations like Facebook, Apple, Walmart, and LinkedIn among others were suffering from loneliness due to working from home and social distancing.

The challenges of working from home

Stress begins to surge once the uniqueness of working from home wears off and its challenges rear their ugly head, leaving people in disbelief. While working from home has its share of advantages, it can create its own unique set of stressors. Here are a few of the common stress-producing challenges that those working from home face.

1. Muddling up of personal and professional life

Professional interactions, adherence to rules and policies as well as structure and organisation are the norm at workplace. Home, on the other hand, is synonymous with relaxation, unwinding and personal/family time. Home is a cosy environment where you enjoy home-cooked meals, read a book or simply play with your kids. When you enter your home, you are supposed to leave the rigidity of your workplace and the woes of your work outside. But working from home tends to dissolve the clear boundary that exists between workspace and personal space. As a result, you begin to feel like you’re never off the job.

2. Too many distractions

The dynamics of a home are different than those of a workplace. There are often children at home, retired parents and sometimes even a non-working spouse. For no fault of theirs, housemates find it difficult to respect the sanctity of work hours and end up causing distractions, even if unintentionally — after all they are at home, which has suddenly turned into an office for you. Plus, there are doorbells, quick personal phone calls, pets, sounds of TV, snacking or lunch with family — you get the drift. What most people don’t realise is that even minor distractions can disturb the flow of work, from which one takes time to recover. The result is poor efficiency and lower productivity.

3. No sense of timing

When working from home, work tends to stretch beyond the stipulated work hours. Employees are often expected to finish work assignments or get on calls at odd hours, including holidays, late nights, and weekends.

4. Communication woes

Not being in physical presence of your colleagues can make it difficult to communicate regarding work related matters, causing potential mishaps and adding to the stress of working from home.

5. Lack of social connections

Being around people and colleagues you can talk to about work-related issues helps release the pent-up steam of stress — a vent that is unavailable to those working from home. It is worse for those who live alone. Isolation might feel blissful at the start, but it can soon transform into full-blown depression arising out of a feeling of being disconnected from the world.

6. Physical and mental strains

Virtual meetings, long phone calls and sitting continuously put tremendous strain on your physical and mental health. Computer vision syndrome, carpal tunnel syndrome, back pain and other issues are common for those who are constantly working in a virtual environment.

While this is not an exhaustive list of issues that those working from home face, it gives you an idea how and why it can be so stressful. Let’s now see how we can deal with these challenges and keep stress and anxiety to the minimum. Here is a list of 11 ways that will make working form home less stressful and more productive.

11 ways to beat the stress of working from home

1. Plan and schedule

A key trigger of stress at work, or home, is poor productivity, which is usually the result of lack of planning and absence of a proper schedule. So, start your day by writing a to-do list and strike each activity after its completion. The very acts of planning your work and listing your tasks are in themselves empowering. You will feel in control and be able to resist getting distracted and therefore improve your overall focus. You might want to use productivity apps to help your efforts. [Read Sack Your Workload to learn how clearing, focussing, structuring, and action can help you increase productivity at work]

2. Create work protocols at home

Just because you are at home doesn’t mean you are not doing serious work. If your folks at home tend to take you and your work lightly just because you’re at home, sit them down and help them understand the importance of respecting workspace. Set work-related ground rules and protocols that everyone, including you, will respect during work hours. For instance, personal phone calls should be off-limits—unless there is an emergency.

3. Treat your workspace as sacred

Give your workspace the respect it deserves. For instance, keep your desk neat and avoid leaving personal stuff there. If possible, resist the temptation of using your desk for anything other than work. Doing so will create a mental boundary to keep personal and work-related issues from becoming intertwined.

4. Schedule regular breaks

Working at a stretch can, in the long run, cause undue strain on your physical and mental health and the situation worsens in a virtual work environment. In a formal work setup, there are specific times allotted for a long lunch break and short tea time breaks etc. Continue to follow the same schedule and insist that your colleagues follow them too. Breaks are important to avoid problems like eye fatigue and brain fog, which can affect productivity and efficiency, besides adding to stress and anxiety. [Read The hidden and obvious dangers of sitting too long]

5. Ask for help

When working from home, there is a tendency to take on more than you can chew, which often becomes a source of tremendous stress. Whenever you feel overburdened, reach out to a colleague, or even your boss. Seeking help is not a sign of weakness. It is an acknowledgement that you are human and have limits — just like everyone else.

6. Step out of your home

Working from home doesn’t mean you stay glued to your chair or sofa all day. Stepping out of your home is necessary for your mental and physical fitness. Assuming lockdown rules in your region allow it, make it a point to get outdoors at least once a day. If possible, take a quick stroll during one of your break times to get some sunlight and outdoor vibes. Later in the evening, go for a walk or just run some errands.

7. List the tasks you complete

Being home all day might make you feel that you’re not doing enough and may therefore experience a sense of guilt, inadequacy or overwhelm. One way to deal with such feelings is to list down all the small and big tasks you have completed at the end of the day. Making an accomplishment list every night builds your motivation and confidence, besides keeping feelings of overwhelm and guilt at bay.

8. Be mindful of your posture

Your posture makes a huge difference to not just your health but also the quality of your work. Always sit upright with your back arched. Invest in an ergonomic chair; if that is not possible, at least put a firm cushion on the back of the chair to support your lower back. [Read Why good posture matters]

9. Spare time to relax

Spare time for some form of stress busting activity – meditation, family time, workout, dance, or art – the idea is to eliminate the stream of muddled thoughts that fill your mind. Regular practice of meditation and mindfulness can produce a deep state of relaxation as well as a tranquil mind.

10. Take days off for sickness and leisure

There will be times when you feel unwell. On such days, don’t hesitate to avail of sick leave like you would’ve done had you been working from an office. You might think it’s OK to work as long as you are physically rested. But when you are sick, you need to rest and recuperate both mentally and physically. So do take time off for full recovery. Also, don’t forget to go on leisure vacations from time to time, for the sake of preserving your mental and emotional health.

11. Go easy on yourself

Finally, there will be days when you’re not going to be as productive at home as you are at the workplace – at least till you become used to it. So, calibrate your expectations accordingly and don’t be too hard on yourself when you fall behind on occasion. Resolve to learn from the experience so that you become better at juggling the responsibilities. Likewise, don’t forget to pat yourself when you do well.

The post 11 ways to beat the stress of working from home appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

Life is difficult. Many people rely on you: your boss, your colleagues, your customers, your spouse, your children, your parents and others. Their demands pull you in all directions, and you can’t meet them all. It’s often difficult to decide whom to gratify and whom to disappoint. The decisions require a delicate balancing act.

You can’t perform this balancing act on pure instinct. Your decisions must be made consciously, and this requires an awareness of what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Once you have learned to act consciously, your thoughts and your actions will become so integrated that you will make appropriate choices naturally, without agonising over them.

The meaning of Life Balance

The whole of Creation is founded on balance. All its diverse elements have come together in just the right proportion to create this beautiful and fleeting moment in time and space that we call life. Creation, in its innate wisdom, never favours one and excludes another—because everything brings its own unique hue to the kaleidoscope.

And were it not for the delicate balance within each, life wouldn’t be as we know it.

Speaking on a balanced life, the Indian mystic Osho said, “A tree’s roots go down into the earth, and its branches spread towards the stars. Its blossoms flower into the sky, its nourishment comes from the deepest part of the earth. It is always balanced; higher the tree goes, the deeper it’s roots. You cannot have a Cedar of Lebanon, a 400- or 500-year old tree, rising so high in the sky, with small roots—it will fall down immediately. Life needs a balance between the depth and the height.”

To know what Life Balance means to you, it’s essential to know what areas of your life are most important to you

Life Balance can be viewed in many ways. It can be a balance between home and work. It can be a state of balance in one’s physical, mental, emotional, financial, and spiritual health. When you have a balanced life, you are able to spend sufficient time, both qualitatively and quantitatively, in areas that you have defined as important to you. Life Balance is a state of feeling and being. You know intuitively that you are doing the right things, and you’re able to navigate through the many opportunities and challenges. You know what is important to you and you are able to choose appropriately.

Life Balance is not a static condition. It is a dynamic and evolving blend of the body, mind, and spirit. To know what Life Balance means to you, it’s essential to know what areas of your life are most important to you. I believe that life is balanced when we are centred. Being centred allows us to find equilibrium amid flux and change.

You are centred when you have a set of principles that are well grounded. When you’re centred, you know what you want and why you want it. This comes from clarity of purpose. This clarity allows you to navigate through changes without compromising your core values and principles. You become like an orchestra. It has diverse players and different instruments, yet all are synchronised to produce a beautiful symphony. This is how you synchronise your body, mind, and spirit to your purpose. You are able to make life decisions from your core values and principles, rather than succumbing to a reactive, “fire fighting” mode.

Being balanced means catering to your own needs as well as those of your family and the society you live in. You become an asset to the world you live in.

Going all-out pursuing every objective is a recipe for burn-out. Rather, pick your objectives and pursue them at an optimum pace

Moderation is the key

An airline pilot who picks up a tail wind, opens his throttle, and points his aircraft in the general direction of his intended destination may make excellent time. But when he arrives, he may find himself at the wrong airport.

Going all-out, all the time, in pursuit of every objective is a recipe for burn-out. To achieve Life Balance, it’s necessary to pick your objectives and to pursue them at the optimum pace, which means the fastest sustainable pace.

It doesn’t help to go at the fastest sustainable pace if you don’t have a clear idea of where you’re going.

A clear vision helps balance Ying and Yang

To master the balancing act in life, you must have a clear vision and a commitment to make the vision a reality. You can’t waste energy pursuing all the possibilities that are out there for you. You must decide which possibility you want to zero in on, and focus everything you do on this objective.

You must also understand all the aspects of your life, and keep them in balance. Taoists explain this as a balance between Ying and Yang. Ying and Yang represent the balance of opposites in the universe. When Ying and Yang are in balance, all is calm. When one outweighs the other, confusion and disarray set in.

Buddhism recommends the “middle path”—the one between the opposite extremes of luxury and hardship. The laws of the “Eightfold Path” were designed to guide people without making life too strict or too easy. They represented balance.

Staying in balance requires that you understand your whole being. You must know your physical, mental and spiritual needs, and you must bring them into congruence. If you don’t understand how each contributes to the whole of your being, you may end up catering to one facet of your life at the expense of the whole. If you understand the whole in relation to its parts, you can determine the amount of time and effort to invest in each facet.

To acquire balance means to achieve that happy medium between the minimum and the maximum that represents your optimum. The minimum is the least you can get by with. The maximum is the most you’re capable of. The optimum is the amount or degree of anything that is the most favourable towards the ends you desire.

In his book Stairway to Success, Nido Qubein gives the example of the Marathon runner who goes all-out for the first mile. This person will take an early lead, but the victory will go to the runner who strikes the highest sustainable pace. If your pace is too slow, the others will pass you. If it’s too fast, you’ll run out of energy before you reach the end of the race. You have to choose a happy medium.

To acquire balance means to achieve that happy medium between the minimum and the maximum that represents your optimum

You need to strike the same kind of balance in your personal habits and behaviour. If at work you try to produce the maximum, you may face burnout. If you go for the minimum you will get poor results and will not tap into your potential.

Let us look at some aspects of your life that call for balance between Ying and Yang; that call for pursuing the “Middle Path”; that benefit from adopting the fastest sustainable pace.

» Head vs Heart

“Your reason and passion are the rudder and the sails of the seafaring soul,” wrote Kahlil Gibran, the great Lebanese-born philosopher, poet, and painter. “If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.”

An equilibrium between reason and passion—between head and heart—is one of the essentials of Life Balance. It has been said that when the mind and the heart go to war, the body becomes the battlefield.

The mind allows us to think, to reason, and to apply our wisdom to make a difference. The heart is where we feel. Through it, we love and use our creativity without inhibition. When we merge education of the mind with education of the heart, we strike a dynamic balance. We look with “both eyes”—the eye of the heart and the eye of the mind. We look at life as a whole, realising that one element affects the other.

Reason without passion is lame, and passion without reason is blind. Reason alone is dull, whereas passion alone can lead to destruction. When we marry the two, we have a wonderful synergy. Our reasoning protects us from doing silly things. Our passion gives us the drive to excel and go the distance.

» Home vs Career

The balancing of home and career is the most common challenge that executives face. Many feel compelled to make a choice between home and career. Studies show that those who are employed outside the home cannot balance work and family demands. Most give higher priority to their work than they do to their families. Life Balance makes that stark choice unnecessary.

We’re living in the age of burn-out, in which workaholics pursue frenetic lifestyles that hog their time, drain their resources, and leave them empty and unfulfilled. Many people engage in activity for activity’s sake, burying themselves in work or play to avoid facing real personal and spiritual needs. Others are in love with money, and seek to express that love by spending all their waking hours pursuing their careers. But truly successful people know that balance is essential to achievement, and they make room for quality time for family, friends, spiritual interests, and hobbies.

Most give higher priority to their work than they do to their families. Life Balance makes that stark choice unnecessary

Lee Iacocca, as president of the Ford Division of Ford Motor Company and CEO of Chrysler, put in long days on the job. But he was also committed to staying home every weekend, enjoying time with his family, going to church, and reflecting on his life and times.

» Independence vs Interdependence

“No man is an island,” wrote John Donne, 17^th century English poet and churchman. We are all dependent on our fellow humans, and they are dependent on us. We are individuals with our own unique traits, but we are also tied to other individuals through bonds of family, religion, culture, community, nation, and many other commonalities. Our happiness depends, to a large extent, on how well we strike the balance between our independence as individuals and our interdependence with others.

When you foster strong and healthy relationships with others, especially those who are closest to you, the balancing act becomes easier. These healthy relationships provide a foundation for pursuing common goals. They also give you the confidence to pursue individual interests on your own. But if you don’t cultivate healthy and strong relationships, achieving balance will always seem like an uphill battle. Strong, healthy relationships don’t just happen. They require a huge investment of time and effort before they become reality.

Among the most sadly neglected areas of interdependence is the one shared between husband and wife. If you’re married, the marital relationship must take priority over all other human relationships if you are to achieve Life Balance. Too many marriages have floundered on the shoals of indifference and neglect. All too many men and women, hard-pressed for time, have suddenly discovered that time has run out for the person at their side. After years of playing second fiddle to jobs, careers, hobbies and other activities; after too many evenings deprived of the company of a soul mate; after too many meals in which conversation was no deeper than “pass the salt,” or “are you through with the newspaper?” the marriage partner opts out—emotionally, physically, or both.

Among the most sadly neglected areas of interdependence is the one shared between husband and wife

So don’t miss a chance to take a pleasant walk with your wife, smelling the roses as you go. Don’t miss an opportunity to take in a good movie with your husband. Look for shared experiences that will provide fuel for pleasant conversations far into the future.

Invest your time and heart in relationships with others who are close to you: your children, your extended family, your colleagues and your friends. Enhanced relationships lead to Life Balance and to joy in living.

The question of job vs. family doesn’t need to be an either/or proposition. For example, one day I returned home late from work to find my son Tawfiq, who was eight years old then, eager to play video games. Tawfiq was on a break from school and had been waiting all day for his dad to come home.

The next morning, I was scheduled to make an important business presentation before 40 senior executives. Should I disappoint Tawfiq and concentrate on polishing my presentation? Or should I use the evening to nurture my relationship with my son?

I chose to take Tawfiq to a video arcade. I later realised that the evening with my son was good for Tawfiq and good for business. It was a valuable chance to knit even closer the father/son relationship. And it took my mind off business long enough for me to shed my stress and approach the presentation in a fresh and relaxed frame of mind. The presentation drew plaudits. I was a success at home and at work. It wasn’t the result of good luck. It was the result of a good choice. It was the result of a balanced decision.

The balance between independence and interdependence has become critical in this age of diversity. Stephen Covey, in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, explained that we are living in an age that values independence; yet we occupy a globe that is interconnected as it has never been before. This has created a massive imbalance. We all need to learn to make choices that lead us to invest time and effort in building trust, appreciating diversity, and valuing and respecting others.

The balance between independence and interdependence has become critical in this age of diversity

Covey’s advice: “Seek first to understand; then to be understood.” What this means is that we must first seek to understand people who are different from us before we can expect them to understand us. Once we understand our own place in this interconnected world, we are better equipped to balance this interdependence with a healthy level of independence.

A healthy understanding of others is impossible unless you have a healthy understanding of yourself. A good relationship with yourself enables you to cultivate good relationships with others. It is an inside-out approach.

» Do it now vs Do it later

One of the songs sung at the funeral of the assassinated President William McKinley in 1901 was “Beautiful Isle of Somewhere.” Written in 1897, it was about an imaginary land in which the sun was shining, the songbirds dwelled, and conditions were perfect. One of its verses begins this way:

Somewhere the day is longer,
Somewhere the task is done…

Many people spend their lives dreaming about the “Isle of Somewhere” but never getting any closer to it. The isle remains indefinitely “somewhere”; the day is always “some day”; the accomplishment is always in the future.

Such people dream of taking that family vacation “some day”; of pursuing that hobby “some day”; of losing weight, or spending more time with their parents, or enjoying some other enjoyable experience in that misty “some day” on the “beautiful Isle of Somewhere.”

It’s time to stop postponing your dreams and your happiness. It’s time to bring your beliefs and your actions into congruence. If what you do is not aligned with what you dream—if your actions are not aligned with your principles—you’re out of balance.

“Some day” is meaningless. “Today” is what counts. Sure, it’s easy to let things slide; to put off bringing your life into balance. The worthwhile things in life require effort. But the rewards for persistence are sweet. Make the right choices today. Tomorrow, you’ll be glad you did.

Life Balance manifests itself in many ways. It may be in the accomplishment of goals you set for yourself after leaving high school. It may be in the satisfaction that comes from the contributions you’ve made at work and in the security of having a retirement plan. You may achieve it through making friends or in cultivating outside interests such as the theatre or sports. You may find it in a family life that suits your needs and standards. And you may find it in a set of ethics that you yourself have defined.

All these areas add up to the sum of your life. Look them over and decide whether you’re satisfied with all of them. If you see areas where improvement is needed, go to work on them. Do it here and now. Don’t wait until “some day” on the “Beautiful Isle of Somewhere.”

It’s time to stop postponing your dreams and your happiness. It’s time to bring your beliefs and your actions into congruence

Balance in your business life

Life Balance can bring richness to your personal life that goes far beyond the possession of material things, and significance to your business life that goes far beyond financial success.

Here are some things to consider as you seek balance in your business life:

» Slow vs Fast

“Slow but sure wins the race,” is the moral of Aesop’s fable of the tortoise and the hare. “He who hesitates is lost,” states the oft-quoted adage. Life Balance requires a middle course between these two pieces of wisdom. Doing things quickly can save you time, and that time may be spent doing more important things. But doing things in a rush, before you’ve had time to think through the repercussions, can land you quickly in the wrong place. Life Balance requires that you know what results you expect before you take action. It requires that you focus first on where you’re going and how you plan to get there. It requires an assessment of obstacles and strategies for overcoming these obstacles. Only when you’re focussed on the destination, the ways, and the means, is it advisable to proceed with all due speed.

» Taking risks vs Playing it safe

If you risk too much, you may lose everything. If you risk nothing, you will gain nothing. Taking risks is a balancing act. Intelligent risk-taking is a key to success in any endeavour. How do you know when to take a risk and when to play it safe? Here’s Nido Quiben’s advice:

The process of risk analysis is not that complicated. Before embarking on a venture, answer these questions:

1. What is the best thing that could result from this action?
2. What is the worst that could result from this action?
3. What is the most likely result of this action?

If the most likely result would take you toward your vision, and you’re willing to deal with the worst possible result in exchange for a shot at the best possible result, go ahead with the venture.

» Focus vs Being distracted

“For everything there is a season,” wrote the wise King Solomon, “and a time for every purpose under heaven.”

So, when you’ve set aside time for a specific purpose, should you allow interruptions and distractions to break your focus? Some people are easily distracted. They’ll stop what they’re doing at the drop of a hat and enter into an unrelated conversation, focus on a different train of thought, or embark on a different task. Others become so absorbed in what they’re doing that they’re oblivious of everything going on around them. It practically takes an explosion to break their focus.

Life Balance enables you to know when to keep your focus and when to surrender to the distraction. If you allow yourself to be distracted by every minor interruption, every unplanned circumstance, you’ll never accomplish anything constructive. But, as Solomon reminds us, there’s “a time to keep silence and a time to speak.”

Suppose your teenage daughter wants to talk to you heart to heart about a problem she’s facing. Should you ignore her in favour of the column of figures you’re adding up, the speech outline you’re working on, or the specifications you’re drawing up for an important project?

A few minutes invested in connecting with your daughter will, in the long run, more than compensate for a few minutes in which your business interests are put aside.

Balance in your personal life

Balance in your personal life goes far beyond the accumulation of money and goods. At the end of the day, it’s not how much you’ve enriched your material assets that counts; it’s how much you’ve enriched your life, and through it, the lives of others.

How can Life Balance bring richness to your personal life? Here are some areas in which to cultivate balance:

» Receiving vs Giving

It may surprise you to learn that it isn’t enough to be a generous giver. Life Balance requires that you also be a gracious receiver. Giving and receiving are opposite sides of the same coin. For every gift there must be a receiver. If everybody gave and nobody received, to whom would we give?

There is joy in giving, so allow other people to give as well so they can also experience joy. When you perform as an artist and people applaud, allow them to finish their applause; people want to show their appreciation. Be worthy of both giving and receiving.

Kahlil Gibran explained the two-way benefits of giving and receiving this way:

“It is the pleasure of the bee to gather the honey of the flower, but it is also the pleasure of the flower to yield its honey to the bee… and to both, bee and the flower, the giving and receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecstasy.”

There is joy in giving, so allow other people to give as well so they can also experience joy

» Less vs More

You want to accomplish as much as you can. But when you aim strictly for volume, you may be adding accomplishments that add very little to your happiness or balance. Suppose someone were to show you a large bin containing a mixture of $100 bills and discarded tissue paper and offer to let you keep whatever you could remove in 30 seconds. Would you scoop up the contents by the handful, or would you quickly pick out the $100 bills and ignore the tissue paper?

You’d be most likely to go for the $100 bills, for they’d be far more valuable than the tissue paper. Picking up the tissue paper would simply distract you from picking up the important stuff.

In life, too, the best strategy is to focus on what is important and do it first. The person who does more is not always the person who succeeds. It’s better to do a little that moves you toward your goals than to do a lot that gets you nowhere. And if an action moves you farther from your goals, it’s best to heed the words of Chinese author and scholar Lin Yutang: “Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of nonessentials.”

» Hard work vs Laziness

A life of total leisure is the hardest career to pursue. But being overworked can cause stress and anxiety, which inhibit productivity. Life Balance means finding a middle ground between the two.

Quiet time can lead to ingenious ideas. A few moments spent in total relaxation can be more productive than hundreds of hours spent at hard labour. Archimedes, the ancient physicist and mechanical engineer, was given the task of determining whether a crown made for the king was of pure gold. The solution to the problem came to him as he lay in a bathtub.

Relaxation paid off for Archimedes. But if you spend all your time relaxing and meditating, your ideas will never make it out of your imagination. To implement your ideas, there’s no substitute for action. So dream to bring your future into focus and act to bring it into reality.

Short-term imbalance

Once in a while, it may be necessary to allow for temporary imbalance as a means to achieve long-term goals. Such imbalance is tolerable, even desirable, if it is just for a short time. But if it continues longer, it can lead to danger. An author working on a book may have to work extra-long hours to meet a deadline, or may have to go to extraordinary lengths to conduct research. Athletes training for the Olympics may have to push their bodies extra hard to whip them into shape for world-class competition. A contractor may have to push extra hard to bring a project in on time and avoid severe monetary penalties.

An occasional imbalance is OK if you’re working toward something that will contribute to long-range stability. But make sure that the imbalance is temporary. And don’t forget let your family and others close to you know what to expect.

» Material responsibility vs Spiritual responsibility

At the end of the day we leave this world as we came—with nothing. So in the final analysis, material things become short-term and spiritual things long-term. But if we ignore our material responsibilities, we won’t be able to sustain our spiritual side. So the balance between the two is important. In fact, if we were to marry the two it would be a good blend: pursuing material things with a spiritual foundation. We have multiple needs and we cannot ignore our spirituality by being obsessed with material wellbeing. My friend once asked her mother how she would live her life if she were given a second chance. She responded: “I would try to make twice as much difference in people’s lives.”

The good news is that no matter where you are in life, you can always make a fresh start. Where attention goes, energy flows

The ultimate aim: well-balanced health

In this modern world, where wealthy leisure is often held out as the ultimate goal, many individuals have stood at the pinnacle of success only to find themselves looking down into the grave.

Paul almost became one of them. He was a senior vice president of a major corporation. He had been engrossed in climbing the corporate ladder, and was on the verge of realising a lifelong dream: promotion to CEO.

Then he was hit by a series of distressing developments. First he learned that his teenage daughter had a drinking problem, apparently arising from her feeling that her parents were neglecting her. Then his doctor told him he suffered from a heart problem and would need an operation. Then he received a letter from his wife’s lawyer—accompanied by separation papers. It caught him totally by surprise, though warning signs had been there for months. He had been so focused on his work that he had turned a blind eye toward his family and his health, and never realised it.

He recognised—just in time—that his life was out of balance and that success could not be sustained unless balance was restored. He made some conscious new choices, began putting his family and health first, and in two years turned his life around.

To accomplish this turnaround, Paul

• turned down the CEO position and opted to continue to work as senior vice president.
• gave up part of his salary to hire an executive assistant to help him with his many administrative duties.
• committed to building friendship with his teenage daughter. He accepted her problem, showed her unconditional love, and scheduled regular weekly meetings with her.
• went to counselling sessions with his wife to iron out their marital issues. He showed her that she mattered the most to him.
• hired a personal trainer and worked with her three days a week. He also switched to a healthier diet.

Roger and Rebecca Merrill, in their insightful book Life Matters use the term “navigational intelligence” to refer to the ability to make the choices that create what we want to have in our lives. Paul intelligently navigated his way back into Life Balance. But he began the balancing act as a reaction to his problems. If he had been proactive from the start, he might have avoided his heart condition, averted his daughter’s drinking problem, and headed off his marital conflict before it became a crisis.

The good news is that no matter where you are in life, you can always make a fresh start. Where attention goes, energy flows. When Paul turned his attention toward his family and health situation, results changed—gradually but effectively.

Some practical tips

1. The hour of power

In my book, The Corporate Sufi, I have suggested: “Practice the ‘hour of power’ first thing in the morning: 20 minutes of meditation. 20 minutes of exercise. 20 minutes of reading something inspiring. Go to sleep an hour earlier.”

Starting your day with an hour of power gives you a head start. Generally, if you leave things for the end of the day, they don’t get done. So I recommend that you start your day with things that are important in your life.

2. Smart use of time

Another way of finding balance is to combine two important activities. Try listening to educational CDs while driving or running on a treadmill. Or spend 20 minutes a day walking with your spouse, child or a friend. That way, you make sure you are spending time with the people in your life who are important, and are still getting your exercise. By scheduling weekly family activities, exercise, reading, or prayer time, you can ensure that you do not overlook them in your busy week.

3. “Undo list”

Eliminate unimportant elements from your life. If you can’t eliminate them, delegate them. If you can’t delegate them, postpone them. Then choose those remaining very important things in your life and execute them. In other words, execute around a tight set of priorities. Be proactive in putting important things in your life first.

4. Let principles, values, and ethics guide you

Whatever you do, be guided by principles, values, and ethics and make appropriate choices that invite Life Balance. The key is to exercise integrity in the moment of choice; otherwise, everything becomes a theory with no practical application.

As you can see from the above, the balancing act is needed in many areas of life. Don’t be overwhelmed by the many different possibilities. Focus on your vision and principles, and let them be the foundation for everything you do. Having a vision and keeping your feet on the ground will help you with the balancing act and will invite integrity and harmony into your life.

Parts of this article were excerpted from the book Life Balance The Sufi Way by Nido Qubein and Azim Jamal.

The post Success without life balance is incomplete and leads to burnout appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

On the morning of 8^th June, I was out for a jog. 40 minutes into my run, I experienced a sudden exhaustion that compelled me to pull up and stop where I was. This was followed by a bout of electrical twitching in the left side of my body—mainly around the hip and downwards. This made me so weak that I had to sit down on the side of the road and ask my wife Urvi to come over and pick me up—something I had never done before. The weakness and twitching subsided after a few minutes and I was able to get up and walk a few steps. After Urvi picked me up, we went to a garden center where I had an energy drink to hydrate my system and also get some essential salts.

Feeling better, I decided to run home for the remaining two miles of the distance, completely oblivious of what had actually happened to me.

Life goes on

I was working throughout the rest of the week with a busy travel schedule and an ever busier work schedule—as if nothing had happened. Through the week, I could feel numbing and weakness progressively increasing on the left side but I continued to neglect it—attributing it to this freak incident, which I reasoned must be due to physical exhaustion or lack of hydration.

Strangely, I somehow could not correlate this development with another phenomenon that I was lately experiencing. Over the previous 6 – 8 weeks, I was finding it difficult to drive my car properly due to poor clutch control [left leg!]. I used to grope for the clutch and often could not locate it. And when I was able to find it, I didn’t know how much I had pressed or had to press.

I live in London and I was scheduled to travel on a trip to India in the week of 17^th June for an important business engagement. Through the week, I was waiting for some improvement in my condition, to feel comfortable enough for the hectic trip ahead. But things did not improve. I waited until the weekend and found that the condition was getting worse. I had now begun limping and dragging my left foot around several times a day, and was carrying on through sheer willpower.

Through the week, I was waiting for some improvement in my condition, to feel comfortable enough for the hectic trip ahead

On 17^th June, I once again experienced two bouts of electrical twitching on my left side, each lasting 2 – 3 minutes, where I could not control my hands/feet and was reduced to a mute spectator. I ignored it once again. When we are in the flow of life and work, we tend to cast aside such incidents as routine—trivial matters, which do not need to be given too much attention.

My wife’s ultimatum

By now, Urvi was seriously concerned and gave me an ultimatum: I would be allowed to travel to India only if I went to see a doctor. Having no choice, I agreed and we landed up at an urgent care center, where a nurse on duty told me that I probably had a trapped nerve. She suggested that I see a GP. The same night, we went to A&E [accident and emergency] for a check-up. After an initial examination, the attendant doctor called in back-up doctors to further investigations. These new doctors were a bit more animated and went about performing a thorough check, which quickly led them to detect a big weakness throughout the left side of my body. For the first time, I too grasped a big difference between the two sides of my very own being and was quite flustered.

Now things began moving quite swiftly and decisively. I was admitted to the hospital and was inspected in the morning by an expert neurologist, who promptly dismissed all conjecture about exhaustion or trapped nerves. He strongly suspected some imbalance in the brain function, which had to be investigated on priority. An MRI scan on 19^th June disclosed a mind-numbing 52mm cyst in the right top side of my brain. Since this discovery, my perspective of life has changed completely.

Different possibilities

My scan was referred to Queen’s Hospital [National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery] right away and they immediately accepted my case. On 21^st June, I was moved to the best hospital that specialized in treating my condition.

We ignore our body signals until we are brought down to our knees in one sudden and swift chop

At this point, I contemplated what would have happened if

1. I had paid attention to my left leg/clutch problem and got it checked a couple of months ago
2. I had realized on the 8^th June that my sudden experience of exhaustion was actually a mini-seizure and worth a check-up
3. I had actually forced myself to fly out to India overruling the condition set by Urvi—I have been known to take such liberties with my health all my life. I shudder to think of the eventual outcome this could have lead to and I was so close to taking that decision!

We all tend to take our health and life for granted. We push ourselves through pain barriers, health warnings and common sense. We ignore our body signals until we are brought down to our knees in one sudden and swift chop.

A changed world

The discovery of a cyst in my brain had changed my world. Having spent a few days in the hospital, the first step out was special. I felt that I was setting out on a unique journey. I wanted to savor each and every moment of this. I could feel the gentle breeze. I could see the sun rays filtering through the green surroundings. I watched the clouds float around lazily and smile back at me. The day was wonderful and the scene looked divine. I was going back to where I belonged!

I could scarcely wait to reach home and get back to my life… the same life, which I was living so mechanically until only a few days back. The same house, the same footsteps the same door—but when it opened this time, the only thing different was me. I now realized how important it is to have this sanctuary that I call home within this vast world, where I can be myself in the presence of a loving family that surrounds me all the time.

I wanted to go and see each part of the house—the garden, the flowers and the vegetables

Everywhere I looked around, it seemed magical and wonderful. I wanted to go and see each part of the house—the garden, the flowers and the vegetables. Just like an excited little child, I enjoyed this second coming to a place that, until recently, I had taken for granted and was just using as a boarding home.

Reordering priorities

What I learnt on that day is that life can take us into multiple directions and we end up mixing our priorities and perspectives. The busy schedules that we create are often not important or urgent. Days turn to weeks, then months and years… we get into a rut even as we take the most important people in our lives for granted, ignoring their needs and importance in order to achieve our ambitions.

Before the fateful day, I had been neglecting my family, paying them little attention, under the pretext of being busy. I spent all my time, energy and efforts on other seemingly immediate and urgent deadlines, deals, risks, issues and pursuits of work and life. Even a beep of a new email would distract me from what might have been the most important conversation and I just couldn’t do anything else until I had finished dealing with the interruption, irrespective of the time of the day.

Since I wasn’t paying heed to the signs, life decided to pick me, put me in the washing machine and then through a tumble dryer…before squarely depositing me in the front seat of a humongous roller-coaster—without a seat belt! In hindsight, this has been an eye opening experience for me. How I decide my priorities from here onward has changed forever. One thing is clear to me—my family, my home, my friends… can’t be anywhere except at the top of the list. Work is, and will remain, important but it cannot replace everything else… otherwise I am living a lie instead of a genuine life.

Before the fateful day, I had been neglecting my family, paying them little attention, under the pretext of being busy

Lucky to be alive

In spite of everything that has happened over those two weeks, and the uncertainty associated with the future, I feel I am lucky to be alive. There is no other way of looking at it, considering my complete disinterest in maintaining the natural balance of life.

Also read » How to be mindful during a busy day at work

As I settle down in my new world, I have begun asking myself few questions:

1. When was the last time I sat down with my wife to spend quality time or just held her hands in mine? How often do I tell her that I love her dearly and how much she means to me? Have I asked her if she is happy with how we are living our life together?
2. When did I last tell my parents or the immediate family how much I love them? Have I asked them if there was something I could do to make them happier?
3. Have I done anything for a social cause recently?
4. Have I compared the time I spend on my gadgets [TV, iPad, phone, Facebook, WhatsApp] with the time I devote to in-person conversations and bonding with family and friends?

This introspection can go on. The essence is to understand our real priorities. I leave it to the readers to draw their own parallels from my story. All I can say is: if you drift too far away from the balance in life, nature will take its own drastic course correction on your behalf!

A version of this was first published in the August 2013 issue of Complete Wellbeing.

The post The High Cost of the Rut appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

Work is where we get to employ most of our talents. It’s where we experience some of our greatest triumphs and failures. It’s also the basis for our standard of living. All of this means that, when work is not working for us, we become unproductive and unfulfilled.

Being unhappy at work can make you sick and being happy at work can make you healthier. This sounds like an unlikely claim at first, but it’s perfectly true. Lancaster University and Manchester Business School performed a study in 2005 involving 250,000 employees, which found that low happiness at work is a risk factor for mental health problems, including emotional burn-out, low self-esteem, anxiety and depression. The report warned that just a small drop in job satisfaction could lead to burnout of considerable clinical importance. Mental stress symptoms like the ones found in the study also increase the risk of physical health issues including ulcers, heart problems and a weakened immune system.

So what is the answer? Well, realistically there is no magic formula; however, there are certainly measures that can be taken to address some of the health issues that occur. Learning to manage personal stress can help considerably, and a better understanding of what we can do to help ourselves is extremely important.

In today’s workplace, wellness is becoming an increasingly topical issue. With terms like stress-related illness and burnout becoming household words, many organisations are increasingly looking for ways to reduce stress and absenteeism.

Having spent the past few years conducting research across a wide range of organisations both in the UK and internationally, I am heartened to see some very responsible actions and transformations taking place. There are some excellent examples of organisations that actively promote healthy practices and raise awareness by providing programmes within the workplace to encourage healthier behaviours.

While some organisations take a more proactive approach to looking after the wellness of their people, individuals also need to be prepared to take more responsibility for themselves. It is not about massive transformations or an unrealistic metamorphosis. It is about an appreciation of the little things that we can do in our everyday lives to improve and balance our overall health. By tackling the little things, which may seem insignificant in isolation, we can stop these mounting up until they become something that we cannot cope with.

One of my key observations is that Workplace Wellness is about taking a holistic approach. It is not really enough to be physically fit and healthy in isolation of other elements that affect you.

These involve your attitude to your work, your communication skills, how you manage personal stress, improvements that you can contribute to your work environment and being aware of how you can set goals and take personal action.

Attitude

Positive thinking is the key to happiness and health and pretty much dictates the way we go about our work and live our lives in general. A few years ago I found myself in a less-than-desirable work situation, doing a job I had no passion for and not really feeling much of a sense of pride and purpose. Clearly my relationship with positivity was somewhat challenged. When I drove to work I used to sit at the traffic lights and will them to go from amber to red so that I would have a few more moments before I had to go into work. It was not a great position to be in and made me really examine what was important in order to manifest the best attitude to work.

The essence of a happy job is to work with what is important to you, the things in life that really attract you, then chart and celebrate your successes and identify how you do well by encouraging feedback on how to do even better. The positive thinker who is unhappy at work takes action to improve things.

If you feel negative about your job, try to be more involved, rather than less. The more actively you contribute, the more control you will have.

A good way to realistically assess your happiness at work is to ask yourself the following key questions:

• Do I know what is expected of me at work?
• Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
• In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for good work?
• Does my immediate manager, or someone at work, care about me as a person?
• Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
• At work, do my opinions seem to count?
• Do I truly support the mission/purpose of my company?
• Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
• Do I have opportunities at work to learn and grow?

If you have answered no to any of these questions it is important that you take responsibility and challenge why? Ask yourself whether you are doing your very best. Challenge your views. Ask for feedback and have the courage to give feedback to your manager. A ‘shut up and put up’ attitude won’t make things any better and you will just end up remaining unhappy and affecting others.

to beat the blues, refuse the snooze on work days—get up and get going

» The Four P Principle

My own experience highlights to me that there are four key factors that truly affect happiness and productivity at work:

Pride: Pride is about self-dignity. Pride prevents you from doing just enough to get by. Give your work your very best shot and nothing less.

Passion: Just a simple plain “interest” in any work you choose isn’t enough. An enthusiasm and passion for all things worth doing is the key to being motivated and happy.

Purpose: In order to generate that passion, it is important to believe in what you do and have clear goals.

Positivity: Approach everything you do with a positive attitude and see challenges as opportunities.

» How to work wonders with your attitude

• 

  Take personal responsibility for everything you think, feel and do. The antidote for negativity is that you accept complete responsibility for your situation. The very act of taking responsibility short-circuits and cancels out any negative emotion that you may trigger. By embracing responsibility, we reap many rewards. The successes brought by this attitude act as a foundation for self-respect, pride and confidence. Responsibility breeds competence and power. By living up to our promises and obligations, we win the trust of others. Once we are seen as trustworthy, people will willingly work with us for our mutual gain.

• Refuse the snooze on work days. The first and most important thing is to be aware that you are the first person that you speak to when you wake up. Your little internal voice will wake you up and tell you how you feel. My advice here is to listen to it and challenge it.
  This is also the most powerful time of the day and it is really important to refuse the snooze! Another five minutes under the duvet will not help; actually it will probably just make it worse, giving you more time to fester. My advice is to get up and get going. I am well aware of how challenging that can be; however it is the absolute key to beating the blues.
• Make sure that your internal voice is having a positive chat with you. The more attention you pay to what you are feeding your subconscious, the more chance you will have to develop that all important positive attitude.
• Develop a positive vocabulary. There is a very interesting relationship between vocabulary and attitude. When you describe an emotional state or use words to express an emotion directly, you reinforce that emotion. If, for example, you say, “Damn!” when you make a mistake, you reinforce the anger you feel about the mistake. If instead however you say “Oops!” you’re conveying to your subconscious mind that the mistake was minor, something not worth getting too excited about. Modifying your vocabulary is one way to reduce the number of times you experience strong stressful emotions like anger.
• Look for the opportunity, not the obstacle. Thinking positively is not about putting your head in the sand; nor is it about being unrealistic. A positive attitude recognises the negative aspects of a situation, however chooses to focus instead on the hope and opportunity available. This releases you from getting locked in a paralysing loop of bad feeling and allows you to move quickly to take action and solve difficulties.
• Try not to infect others with your NAGs [Negative Attitude Germs]. I have been lucky enough to work with and meet some highly successful and inspiring people. What sets them aside and makes them special is their ability to turn a potentially negative thought into a positive one. They are also acutely aware of their attitude and how it affects others around them. They take responsibility for their NAGs—Negative Attitude Germs!
• Try not to should on yourself! We do not do ourselves any favours by using terms like ‘should have’, ‘would have’ or ‘could have’; in fact you could quite easily eliminate those phrases from your vocabulary. Retrospective regret is a waste of life because you can’t turn the clocks back and you can’t change what has happened. So my advice is don’t should on yourself. Turn the experience around, learn from it and think about what you will do better as a result next time.
• Avoid comparing yourself to others. There is a wonderful poem called Desiderata written by Max Ehrmann. It is a masterpiece and makes a wonderful creed for life. This extract sums up what happens if you become too preoccupied with other people:

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

• Be a radiator, not a drain. Some people you meet are like drains: negative, listless doom goblins and when we come into contact with them they drain us of energy. They like to tell you about negative news and when you ask them how they are, they will respond with their shoulders slumped, eyelids drooped, “Well you know … I feel really … bad!” and then they will give you a graphic blow-by-blow account of all their woes and feelings of impending doom!

Other people, however, are like radiators—full of warmth and vitality. We feel positively energised by them. They appear bright and radiant, look you in the eye and when you ask them how they are, they smile and tell you something positive.

» How to be a radiator

• Walk tall irrespective of your height.
• Look people in the eyes when you talk to them.
• Take pride in your appearance.
• Empathise with other people.
• See the glass half full, NOT half empty.
• Feed your dinner table of emotions positive thoughts. Imagine you are hosting a dinner party for all your emotions and they are sitting around the dinner table hungrily waiting to be fed. All the usual suspects are there like fear, anger, jealousy, happiness, optimism, joy and an assortment of the good, the bad and the downright ugly. You are there as the host of the dinner party and you can choose which emotion you want to feed.
  In the same way, by choosing what you think, you can starve the negative emotions and feed up and boost the health of the positive ones. You are in fact the nutritionist of your soul. What a great concept! Positive thinking is a habit anyone can adopt with some practice, irrespective of their background, education and experience.
• Turn problems into opportunities. I was delighted to find that a new word has been introduced into our vocabulary called Probortunity. This inclusive word combines problem and opportunity to describe something you want to improve and change for the better.
• Get rid of your NITs [Negative Inhibiting Thoughts]! We are at times our own worst enemy and the biggest crime that we commit towards our self is the inhibitors and excuses we create.
• Make sure that you have balance in your life. Finding balance is sometimes elusive, as we struggle to meet the pressures and challenges that are ever-present in modern society. However, there are key physiological, psychological and indeed spiritual requirements that are necessary in order for us to be fulfilled.
  It would be interesting now for you to take time to consider how you define personal success and how this differs from the kind of achievement that you feel is expected of you. Self-definement is key in order for us to feel a sense of robust self-esteem and the courage to explore our own potential.
• Use SUMO—shut up and move on. When you have some negative nagging feeling that you cannot do anything about and you are allowing it to run out of control like a rat in a maze in your mind, literally tell yourself to let it go and move forward.
  You will be amazed at how liberating this simple action can be and at the relief to others around you when you let it go and move on to focus on something more positive and constructive.
• Be positive when you respond to other people. Creating good working relationships is so important; speak well about others and congratulate their successes, even when you lose out. Take responsibility for errors, rather than shifting the blame.
  Be a positive force—celebrate when things go well and offer support when things don’t go so well. Come to work with a smile and keep smiling even when you are under pressure. Be enthusiastic rather than negative and critical about your employers or your work.

Exercise+Nutrition

In the UK alone people consume over one billion pounds worth of ready-made meals per year and spend three billion pounds on fast foods. Ironically enough, they then spend over two million pounds on diet products!

Six out of 10 people are now considered to be obese with an increasing amount of illness linked to poor nutrition and bad eating habits. Our life style is becoming more and more sedentary with people taking less than the recommended amount of exercise of thirty minutes a day. Please don’t think for one minute that I am going to take the moral high ground here. I have certainly been there myself and have on occasions treated my body more like an amusement arcade than a temple.

I have learnt, however, through experience and raised awareness that a healthy body equals a healthy mind and, personally, I have found that the health benefits—increased energy and general feel-good factor—have made a significant difference. Mental and physical health work hand-in-hand and one does not effectively work without the support of the other.

Understanding ourselves and what works best for us is the first step to better health and personal performance. There are however some key aspects of exercise and nutrition that are fundamental to all of us.

» Exercise

Almost every function in our bodies depends partly on exercise for its optimum function—our digestion and elimination, our lungs and breathing, our heart and cardiovascular system and not least of all our weight management.

Remember too that exercise helps you to make a positive investment for your future. While we worry about our pensions and make provision materially, do we also consider whether we are going to be healthy and active enough in later life to enjoy our retirement? We are living longer these days—therefore our long term health is an increasingly concerning issue. You may not have a have an outrageously excessive diet; however, if you are not moving, you will put on weight.

Get walking: It’s free and even better when using nature’s gym—the great outdoors. Walking is essential for your health. It exercises virtually all your muscle groups, with all the major muscles being used at the same time, providing you aim to walk at a brisk pace and swing your arms to help propel you along. Recently, I have discovered the wonders of a pedometer—a small device that you can clip onto your waist band to measure the amount of steps you achieve each day. Wearing your pedometer to work will act as an additional incentive to keep you moving about. You can set yourself a specific number of steps that you would like to achieve at work. Encouraging your colleagues to wear one too will promote energy levels.

How to exercise at work

• Take the stairs, when you can, instead of the lift.
• If you drive to work, park some distance from the entrance door.
• Cycle to work in good weather if you live close enough.
• Walk around the office when you can.
• Sit on an exercise ball instead of a chair.
• Set an alarm to go off every hour to remind you to stand up and move.
• Use a pedometer and keep track of how many steps you take.
• Deliver documents or messages to co-workers in person rather than by email.
• Get a headset for your phone so you can move around while you talk.

Be creative. Any movement is better than none. Adding short bouts of exercise throughout the day will help you burn more calories and will also reduce stress. Stretching at your desk and standing up when you answer the phone is also positive practice. Any kind of exercise and movement that you can do through the day will be helpful in keeping you active and energised.

» Nutrition

No matter who you are or where you live, the very fact that you are alive depends on you eating and keeping hydrated. You are essentially what you eat. Each human being is made up of roughly 63 per cent water, 22 per cent protein, 13 per cent fat and 2 per cent minerals and vitamins. Every single molecule comes from the food you eat and the water you drink. Eating the highest quality food in the right quantities helps you to achieve your highest potential for health, vitality and freedom from disease.

How to eat healthy at work

• Cook a bigger amount on a Sunday, such as veggies and pasta, or chicken and brown rice, and freeze portions to take to work with you for lunch.
• Don’t skip breakfast! Breakfast kick-starts your metabolism and it’s also healthier to eat larger meals earlier in the day because you’ll burn them off when you’re running around the office.
• If you don’t have time before work, bring low-fat yogurt [which usually has less sugar than non-fat] and a banana to eat first thing.
• Stock your desk area with healthy snacks, so an apple or some raisins are always within reach.
• Find the healthiest versions of the snacks you love and bring them to work.
• Try one new fruit or vegetable per week. There are plenty of new fruits and vegetables out there for you to try.
• Don’t completely cut out carbohydrates and fat. Healthy fats, such as those found in nuts [also useful for snacking], and whole grains give you the energy you need to get through the day.
• Keep portion size in mind. If you visit the sandwich shop at lunchtime, buy half of a sandwich, or split something with a friend.
• Hosting a meeting? Bring some healthy snacks, instead of the usual cakes, biscuits and pastries. Provide fruits and nuts.
• Always keep a supply of water handy. Most offices have water coolers, so bring a large glass or thermos or keep a water bottle nearby that you can refill.
• Do not eat at your desk. It’s a bad habit. Take a lunch break.

Communication

How many times have we experienced miscommunication through misunderstanding in the work place that has either led to time wasting, deadlines not being met or even conflict?

Poor communication in the workplace can lead to a culture of bitching, back stabbing and blame, which in turn can also affect our stress levels, especially when we don’t understand something or feel that we have been misled. It can also have a very positive effect on morale when it works well and motivates individuals to want to come into work and do a great job.

Positive communication is important in the workplace to create a happy working environment. We all have responsibility for the way that we come into work.

It is easy to blame everyone else and everything else for anything that you may feel. It is also easy to let other people get on your nerves and wind you up, but only if you let them. However, if you take responsibility, and set a positive example, it will be a positive step in the right direction of working wonders with communication at work.

» How to work wonders with communication

• Be a radiator and communicate positively.
• Be self-aware and emotionally intelligent.
• Understand your communication style.
• Appreciate that other people have different strengths and weaknesses.
• Be supportive to those around you.
• Use humour appropriately in the workplace.
• Respect and celebrate diversity.
• Actively listen and focus.
• Two ears, one mouth—use them in that quantity.
• Be an assertive communicator.
• Choose win-win outcomes.
• If in doubt, check your understanding.
• Encourage feedback about your communication.
• Use positive non-verbal communication.
• Smile – it is the universal currency in communication.

Stress Management

A little bit of pressure can be productive, give you motivation, and help you to perform better at something. However, too much pressure or prolonged pressure can lead to stress, which is unhealthy for the mind and body. Everyone reacts differently to stress, and some people may have a higher threshold than others. Too much stress often leads to physical, mental and emotional problems.

In our fast-paced society, the term stress-related burnout seems to almost go with the territory. It certainly seems to be an ever-present reality. Just-in-time development, instantaneous information from around the world, mobile communication and a whole swarm of other progressive technologies are a great benefit. However, in conjunction, these reap earlier deadlines and increased pressure.

» Stress triggers

Many factors can trigger stress according to the National Health Service. These are some of the key triggers:

• Work issues.
• Money matters.
• Relationships.
• Family problems.
• Moving house.
• Bereavement.

» Stress symptoms

Stress affects different people in different ways, and everyone has a different method of dealing with it. The chemicals that are released by your body as a result of stress can build up over time and cause various mental and physical symptoms.

Mental Symptoms

• Anger.
• Depression.
• Anxiety.
• Changes in behaviour.
• Food cravings.
• Lack of appetite.
• Frequent crying.
• Difficulty sleeping.
• Feeling tired.
• Difficulty concentrating.

The chemicals released by your body as a result of stress can build up over time and cause various symptoms

Physical Symptoms

• Chest pains.
• Constipation or diarrhoea.
• Cramps or muscle spasms.
• Dizziness.
• Fainting spells.
• Nail biting.
• Nervous twitches.
• Pins and needles.
• Feeling restless.
• A tendency to sweat.
• Sexual difficulties such as erectile dysfunction or a loss of sexual desire.
• Breathlessness.
• Muscular aches.
• Difficulty sleeping.

If you have been experiencing some of these symptoms for a long period of time you are at risk of developing high blood pressure which can lead to heart attacks and stroke.

Experiencing even one or two of these symptoms can make you feel frustrated or anxious. This can be a vicious circle—for example, you want to avoid stress but symptoms such as frequent crying or nervous twitching can make you feel annoyed with yourself and even more stressed.

» How to work wonders with stress

• 

  Understand your stress trigger.

• Take proactive steps to address stress before it happens.
• Use breathing and relaxation techniques.
• Reduce caffeine. Research has indicated that caffeine increases the secretion of stress hormones like adrenaline, so if you are already secreting higher stress hormones, caffeine will boost it even higher and exacerbate stress/anxiety or depression even further than it already is. By eventually cutting caffeine you will lower your stress hormone levels and therefore reduce stress, anxiety and depression.
• Reduce alcohol. Alcohol, when consumed in large amounts, stimulates the hypothalamus, adrenal and pituitary glands and one result of this is an increased level of both cortisol and adrenaline within the body. But both play a significant role in reinforcing the symptoms of stress.
• Quit smoking. Contrary to popular belief, smoking does not help to combat stress. In fact, it can make stress worse and it causes damage to your body.
• Eat a well balanced diet. It is essential, both to avoid direct physical stress caused to the brain and nervous system, and to reduce stress susceptibility resulting from poor health.

Environment

It makes sense that people who are happy within their working environment will work far more effectively and happily than those who are uncomfortable. Your work environment can also have a big impact on your stress levels. Creating an environment that is comfortable and stimulating and conducive to both physical and psychological wellbeing is so important. This will contribute significantly to that all important ‘feel good factor’ at work.

» Make your workplace physically better

Noise can be the cause of irreversible hearing damage and also lead to increased levels of stress. Noise is normally caused by loud machines so, when buying any new plant or machinery, remember to check the noise emission levels.

Take responsibility to keep your work area tidy. Always put things back where you found them. Clear up if you make a drink and be as tidy as possible. You will feel so much better and it is also much more considerate to those around you.

Visual images at work can really work well in raising morale. Positive pictures with happy faces and beautiful scenery can help to promote a good atmosphere.

Studies have shown that music in the workplace promotes positive mood, sense of team, improves alertness and can lessen the event of accidents. Obviously this needs to be appropriate as, in some work environments it would be completely unsuitable. The mood and style should fit the business.

Experts suggest all-instrumental soundtracks so that workers don’t become distracted by the lyrics. It is important to remember that your behaviour in the workplace is part of what makes the environment a good place to be. If everyone at work is happy and positive and friendly then the chances are it is going to be a much better place to be. Laughter, for example, can be a very positive environment enhancer.

» How to create a happy atmosphere at work

Make Friends

“Do you have a best friend at work?” Liking and enjoying your co-workers are hallmarks of a positive, happy work experience. Take time to get to know them. You might actually like and enjoy them. Your network provides support, resources, sharing and caring.

Take charge of your personal development

You have the most to gain from growing—and the most to lose, if you stand still. Take charge of your own growth.
Ask for specific and meaningful help from your boss, but march to the music of your personally developed plan and goals. Learning with others can also create a great team environment.

Take responsibility for knowing what is happening at work

Seek out the information you need to work effectively. Develop an information network and use it. Assertively request a weekly meeting with your boss and ask questions to learn. You are in charge of the information you receive.

Choose to be happy at work

Happiness is largely a choice. I can hear many of you arguing with me, but it’s true. You can choose to be happy at work. I wish all of you had the best employer in the world, however you may not. Nevertheless, thinking positively about your work and dwelling on the aspects of your work you like will help hugely. Don’t get embroiled in critical behaviour and whinging. We can all find a wealth of things to complain about if we look hard enough. Find co-workers you like and enjoy and spend your time with them. Your choices at work largely define your experience. You can choose to be happy at work.

In today’s workplace, wellness is becoming an increasingly topical issue. It is, nevertheless, important to be realistic about the extent to which organisations can support individuals and a sense of personal responsibility is essential. Work is what YOU make it and it is your attitude and approach that will have the most significant effect.

Excerpted with permission from How to Work Wonders by Liggy Webb; published by Grosvenor House Publishing Ltd.

The post Your Ultimate Guide to Workplace Wellness appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

Giving up well-paying, lucrative careers may not be as easy as it sounds, but the corporate world and tinsel town abound with examples of people who gave up money-spinning jobs to pursue a career doing what they loved. Soha Ali Khan quit a great, secure job with Citibank to turn full-time actress. Cricketing legend Kapil Dev comes from a family with a prosperous timber business. Dr Sriram Lagoo, the well-known thespian, is a qualified doctor and so was Jabbar Patel, eminent theatre and film director. Pt Ajay Pohankar, classical singer par excellence is an engineer by conventional education. With an Honours Degree in Economics and Masters Degree in Mass Communication, Shahrukh Khan would have ended up being just another high-flying corporate ad executive. He chucked it all for his love of acting to become one of India’s biggest superstars.

What is important? Job satisfaction or money?

The examples cited above are all people who effectively managed to answer one of life’s eternal conundrums: What is more important — job satisfaction or money?

Think about it this way – we typically work from the age of 22 until retirement at around 58 or 60 years. We spend an average of five days a week, eight hours a day [and that’s a conservative estimate!] working. All in all, it makes up quite a significant part of one’s life. Obviously, when we are talking about 40-odd years of working, the drudgery of being forced to do something when you would rather be doing something else can be killing.

Dr Anjali Chhabria, well-known psychiatrist and psychotherapist, endorses this view. She regularly counsels patients who suffer from depression because they pursued a career at the cost of doing something they were deeply passionate about. Eventually, they feel a sense of dissatisfaction, cynicism and dejection. Living becomes a strain and the fear of doing anything new sets in. They tend to blame others for not being able to follow their dreams, causing emotional distress and strain in relationships.

There may be a way

Fortunately, a solution can still be worked out, by integrating both career and passion and finding a middle path, where the person can pay due attention to both – job and passion.

Dr Chhabria cites Dr Tushar Shah as an example. A well-known physician, he has an innate talent for comedy. He gives his flair an outlet by participating regularly in several stand-up comedy shows on television, the Great Indian Laughter Challenge being the most recent one, where he was a finalist. There is, sometimes, a delicate balance to be struck between job satisfaction and financial security. Jyoti Matange, music teacher, gave up a promising career in playback singing because of financial constraints and the pressure of raising two children. She had to take up work as a teacher and turn homemaker. She admits to feeling a twinge of regret now, when she is often complimented for her beautiful voice. With financial security finally coming through and her children grown up, she is making amends now by dedicating herself to music full-time.

A logical viewpoint, because that little voice in your head that says “I wish I had.” is worse than the tough time and struggle faced while trying to pursue your passion. Waiting till retirement or when financial liabilities are over may be too late.

Keep this in mind

Of course, giving up money and the security is tough. With increasingly hectic lifestyles and the prevalent mall culture, spending habits are on an upswing and supporting such lifestyles is pricey. Particularly, people with dependants find it tough to provide well for their families without the financial security that a job provides.

Sarath Babu, entrepreneur and owner of Foodking Catering Services Pvt Ltd, has a word of advice here. People trying to make the switch should try and save money to be able to provide for the basic necessities for self and family for a period of at least two years, because it often takes that long to get established in the new profession.

A couple of years may have to be spent frugally, but at the end, it will be worth the effort.

The post Money vs Job Satisfaction appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.