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How to stop the harmful effects of stress in your life

How to stop the harmful effects of stress in your life

Who isn’t feeling some form of pressure or tension in today’s uncertain economic climate. Rarely a day goes by when the news fails to report more job layoffs or plummeting stock market earnings. Times are uncertain. And, leaders who let times like these affect their physical, mental, emotional or spiritual well-being also torpedo their ability to problem solve, think creatively, and gain insights when these skills are needed most.

Neuroscientists at a November 2008 conference in Washington presented new research findings that support the notion that even short term stress can alter how people think and the brain itself.

According to Bruce McEwen of Rockefeller University, stress creates wear and tear on the body that causes brain cells to shrink resulting in changes within the nervous system.

For example, one study subjected mice to five hours of loud rock music and concluded that the ordeal reduced the number of nerve transmitters that carry messages between nerve cells. In another 21 day study where mice were subjected to prolonged stress, the portion of the mice brain that is involved with learning and memory shank by 3 percent.

Maybe this is why people who are unable to control their response to stress over a long period of time also suffer memory lapse and problems with decision-making.

The human studies were also interesting. A Cornell Medical School study looked at the behavior and brain scans of children adopted from foreign orphanages who exhibited anxiety and emotional control problems. The scans showed that the stressful upbringing altered the portion of the brain responsible for emotion (the amygdala). The study showed that these children experienced a long-lasting brain change that made it difficult for them to control their emotions.

Maybe this is why seriously stressed people tend to lash out more at others, are irritable or withdrawn and fearful. According to McEwen, stress begins in the brain and influences thoughts and body functions such as heart rate, hormones, and blood vessel constriction.

Maybe this is why seriously stressed people often experience increased blood pressure, sleep problems, increased weight gain, depression, and loss of friends or digestive problems.

Given this, are there things a leader can do to reduce the mind twisting, body zapping stress response?

In the self-paced e-Action Guide, Melting Your Stress within 30 Days, several simple, common sense solutions neutralize the stress response by calming the nervous system and expanding the brain’s problem-solving center. Based on scientific research, the workbook leads the reader through self-paced exercises and self assessments that facilitate the reader’s physical, mental and emotional stress coping strategies.

One strategy that influences physical, mental and emotional responses to stress focuses on the power of gratitude and compassion to release endorphins that calm the nervous system by neutralizing harmful stress hormones released when people are alarmed. Based on research from the Heart Math Institute of California, feeling gratitude creates a mental and emotional shift that balances perceptions, emotions and hormones. It is a simple process of mind strengthening so that stress loses the power to fog perceptions and cloud reasoning. When practiced daily, feeling grateful can neutralize the adverse hormonal effect of stress within 60 seconds.

Another strategy that helps the brain cells to work better is to incorporate omega-3 fatty acids into the diet. Consuming omega-3 supplements, eating salmon and other cold water fish, walnuts, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds and green leafy vegetables keep the cell membranes flexible, creating a healthier and more resilient mind and body.

For leaders looking to respond to opportunity rather than react to the pressures of an uncertain market place, now is the time to gather your tools.





How to stop the harmful effects of stress in your life - To learn more about this author, visit Dianne Crampton's Website.

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Cheryl Matthynssens

Cheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur.  Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well.  A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles.  She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide-  to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being.  Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com

- Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website

Linda Richardson
Linda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website

Dave Kurlan
Dave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website

George Ludwig
George Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website


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Dianne Crampton
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Dianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here.

Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009.  Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010.  To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here.



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