One of the most common vices that people use in reaction to stress is smoking. It is also the most disastrous way of dealing with tension and pressure. The very idea of rolling up tobacco leaves, sticking it in your face, and setting fire to it does seem to defy intelligent explanation. Besides, think about what it does to your body and how many deaths are caused each year due to this terrible habit.
As the world changes it seems that many of our stress issues are placed on ourselves, and by ourselves. Consider how different the modern life of telecommuting is from the world of the ancient hunger-gatherer. It would seem more reasonable to ask if there is any similarity at all. And yet, this physical body that we have was actually designed to get us through a day of searching through desert lands or a trekking through a forest, not sitting at a desk for most of the time. Your body was designed and wired to jump into high gear without asking your permission. This design has served us very well for thousands of years. However, society has changed so much and so fast that our bodies are not matching the current lifestyle that we place ourselves under. That fact is at the very heart of stress prevention.
When author Hans Selye first published his now-classic book on the stress of life, he made the proposal that “no one part of the body must be disproportionately overworked for a long time.â€Â It’s like carrying a heavy suitcase for an extended period of time with one arm, when you feel the pain (stress) of that arm, then you shift the bag to the other arm, so that the stress is equalized and no one set of muscles is overworked.
Learning to relax under pressure and stress is not easy. In fact, it’s downright tough to deal with high stress levels at work or at home and be able to effectively handle it without getting rest. But here lies the catch-22, and that is that unless we rest appropriately, then we cannot handle stress in a positive manner. So how can we relax under pressure? Why not learn to take quick “power napsâ€?