Stress Guide 101

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Stop Panic Attacks Now and Forever

Photo: stop-your-panic-attacks-today.com

Panic attacks are frightening experiences that can happen unexpectedly, for no apparent reason. So when they happen, you want to stop them dead in their tracks. But this is easier said than done when you're in the middle of one, unless you know the steps to take. Here, you'll get 3 key steps to take to stop your panic attacks, or at the very least, lessen their intensity and shorten their length.

Stop, hang on a minute, just what are panic attacks and what causes them?...

Now I know this may be hard to believe, but they are a result of your body's defense mechanism making a mistake. We all have a primeval survival mechanism in us that gives us the best chance of survival when we're in physical danger. When the body 'perceives' you're in danger it triggers a reaction we call it's 'fight or flight' response. By rapidly affecting chemical changes in your body, your defence mechanism is setting you up to either fight to the best of your ability or run away from the danger as fast as you can.

But what has this to do with my panic attacks?...

Well, when you're anxiety levels are particularly high, all it takes is for an additional stressful event or situation, e.g. shopping in a busy supermarket, driving in heavy traffic, sitting an exam, etc., to push your total anxiety to such a level that your defences mistake your elevated anxiety as a signal that you're in danger, so triggers it's response, resulting in a panic attack.

The symptoms you experience during an attack, e.g. shortness of breath, choking sensation, tightness across your chest, nausea, trembling, dizziness, racing heartbeat, etc., are just the result of the changes happening in your body. You aren't having a heart attack, or stroke, or anything bad at all. They're just the symptoms of a mistake made by your own body. It's a medical fact that a panic attack cannot harm you.

And that key fact is the first step in stopping your attack, or at least reducing it's effects significantly. For the purposes of this article, the assumption is that you have already been diagnosed with at least one panic attack. So at the onset of the symptoms (which you'll now recognize) remember this golden nugget; they cannot harm you, you aren't going to die.

Now this puts you in a positive frame of mind for the next step, which is to start to get your hyperventilation (rapid shallow breathing) under control. This is important because you need to get your oxygen / carbon dioxide ratio back in balance. Breath slowly, deeply and rhythmically in through your nose and out through your mouth. Don't just use chest breathing though, you must also use your diaphragm to use all of your lung capacity.

The third step is to start to focus intently on things around you, such as buildings, trees, people, etc. Anything to stop you analyzing your symptoms. Analysing your symptoms is like a vicious cycle that just makes them seem more severe. So stop that and look and think outwardly, not inwardly.

Of course this is what you do during a panic attack, but what about stopping them from happening in the first place?...

Now here's the thing... once having had a panic attack you never want a repeat performance because the symptoms are just so terrifying, right.? So you have an in-built fear of having that other attack. You may be aware of this fear, or, it could be in your subconscious. But the consequences are the same; this fear stays with you.

The problem is that this fear is so strong that it can actually trigger another attack! But every time you have an attack the fear is their again, perhaps even worse. So it can bring on another attack, anytime, any place, and without warning. Eliminating that fear is the key to stopping panic attacks forever.

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So next, to discover the simple 'ONE MOVE' technique that will eliminate your fear and so break your vicious cycle of anxiety, please go here now http://eliminatepanicattacks.blogspot.com and stop your panic attacks forever.

Source: http://www.articletrader.com

How To Beat Self Confidence Blues - A Must Read!

by Nicola Tewhare

Photo: sheffield-hypnosis.co.uk

Are you having a hard time in trying to build your self-confidence? Here are some tips on how to beat self-confidence blues. Look for someone that has strong self confidence and make him/her your role model. Ask for advice and learn from them. You just simply ask them to share to you the reasons why they are so confident and what are the things they did in order to maintain their confidence level.

This is not as difficult as you may think. Role models come in all shapes and sizes and from all walks of life. One person may have become more confident after losing weight. Another person may have become more confident after practising new skills at work.

You get to choose your role model and let their opinions guide you through your own self confidence level.

Instead of looking at your failures, direct your focus on your achievements. Just thinking of all the things you have achieved in your life will make you feel better and will make you appreciate yourself more. As for your failures, ask yourself why you failed and evaluate the things you need to do in order to avoid the same mistakes again. Look for ways on how to do it right next time so you will be able to correct what you have done.

Find out what makes you feel good and work hard to achieve those things.

Do things like you were really confident. Doing such will certainly make you feel more confident with yourself.

Know yourself more and ask yourself what it is that you like about yourself or ask your friends what they like about you. That will make you feel better and will help build your confidence level.

If you are about to do something that you feel nervous of, prepare yourself thoroughly by doing some practice.

Study any skills that you have been longing to learn. You can never be too old or too young to learn any skill you want in your life.

Practice being relaxed all the time.

Always wear a smile and stand up straight in front of so many people.

Set goals that you know you can achieve for yourself and face any challenge that may come your way.

Give some reward to yourself whenever you have been successful in doing something no matter how small the achievement is.

Finally, avoid being too competitive and stop comparing yourself to others.

About the Author:
Over One Million People Have Purchased The Self Confidence Creator And Learned How To Become More Confident Within 7 Days. www.selfconfidencecreator.info

Marriage Can Be Stressful

by Andrew John

Photo: galuhrahayu.blogspot.com

When we are getting married we never even think that the tension between us and our spouse may someday rise to the level which may destroy our feelings. Still, the sad fact is that in every marriage stress can occur in almost every moment and when we are not ready for it, it may cause separation or even a divorce. This is why we should know a few important truths about stress in a marriage. We have to have a chance to avoid some of traps or at least to know what to do when the tension between us is definitely too high and we start to hate our spouse instead of loving.

Although many of us talk a lot, more and more people have problems with communication with others. It is not only caused by the fact that sometimes we rather stay quiet that say the truth. In a marriage we feel so comfortably that sometimes we say things which can hurt our spouse. Usually we don't realize that we may destroy our relationship by doing so until it is too late. This is why we should always think twice before we say something which may be insulting to our spouse, even when we are only joking.

In almost every marriage comes the time when we feel that our spouse is not as attractive as he or she was before. Such situation doesn't have to be connected with time, it is caused by a routine rather than the time itself. When it happens, we often recall times when we fell in love and of course search for someone whom we can accuse for such situation. Still, instead of doing so we should rather break the routine and try to put the spark back into our marriage. Searching for someone to put the blame on him is the easiest way to increase the level of stress in our relationships.

Stress in the marriage is also often caused by the lack of trust. When we worry where our spouse is or why he or she is late, we automatically increase the level of stress in our relationship. What's more, some of us tend to ask their second half where they've been or why they weren't home on time. Such behavior will sooner or later lead to accusation of betrayal and make things get worse. This is why the trust is so important in marriage. Of course we have the right to worry when our spouse is late, but we should trust in his love to us. When we are unable to do it, stress will soon destroy our marriage.

There are a few distinctive points in every marriage where stress can strike. Routine, childbirth, lack of money or even moving to another place can bring tension into our relationships. Still, every problem can be solved when two people love each other and are willing to cooperate. Of course there are couples who divorce due to fact that wife wants to have a cat and her husband likes dogs and they can't find a compromise, but your marriage can be different as long as you both realize how dangerous can be stress to your love.

About the Author:
About the Author: John Andrews shares his experiences with stress, natural stress relief and how to deal with stress. For more information on Relagen and Natural Stress Relief , just click on the links.
Click here for other unique stress articles.

The Phobia And Fear Of Meeting New People

by Blueboy

Photo: healthiac.com

There are many people who feel uncomfortable when it comes to meeting new people. They become quite shy and seemingly afraid at how these new people will react to them and treat them. They may ask themselves certain questions such as, what if this new person does not like me? What if they think that I am stupid or boring? They may have a lack of confidence about their own social skills and their ability to make a good impression, people always say that the first impression counts and this just adds to the pressure. All of this stress and fear is not good and is certainly not going to help them in the situation, whenever has worrying about something ever helped anyone?

I had a speech impediment known as stuttering or stammering, this had a major negative impact on my own confidence and caused a huge amount of frustration for me to live with. It was not as if I would stutter on every word or in every situation and at times I could talk quite well, hence the frustration.

Whenever I had to meet new people, I would or the demons in my head, would always ask myself questions, how will this person react if I stutter when talking to him/her? What if I have a block and am unable to say anything at all, how will I be able to explain that to this new person? I certainly therefore had a fear and phobia of meeting new people. This may seem a trivial problem to people who are confident at socialising but was something that caused me a great deal of concern and stress. It made attending interviews, dating and employment some what of a struggle.

I eventually decided that I needed to improve my life and to gain confidence. I attempted to do this by reading a lot of books about self confidence and physcology, I also at the same time went about eradicating the stutter. After about a year of working extremely hard I managed to achieve fluency and had learnt a lot about stress, fear, phobias and confidence.

I now love to meet new people and have the attitude that I do not care whether they like me or not. Some people will take to me others may not. Some people will think I am interesting others will think I am boring. At the end of the day life is too short in my humble opinion to care too much about what other people think of us.

About the Author:
For More Article Visit :: http://www.thearticleinsiders.com/

Technique of study and handle your stress well

by Dennis Loh

Photo: yourkidsed.com.au

All of us wish to do well in our exam. Obviously, no one wants to fail in the exams. I believe that everyone has been searching for the best method of studying and minimize the level of stress. For your information, I did pretty well in my exams for the past few years and broke the records in school. I had scored a 100% in accounting, 96% in history and achieved an average of above 75%. After that, I took up a double degree program and graduated with an average of distinction. Right now, I do not intend to promote myself but to prove some of my study techniques that might be applicable to you. The below are my techniques to score well in exams.

Techniques to study effectively:
1) Understand How well do you understand that particular subject? This is the most important first step. If you do not really understand the content, then most probably you will not able to get any further. I would advice you to read in advance before attending any lecture or class, so that you will at least have some ideas in mind before the class get started. It would also be easier for you to absorb�"' or digest�"' the information while attending the class. This technique prevents you from getting loss�"' in class, meanwhile reducing the level of stress and nervous. Please make sure you fully understand the whole content either by read it yourself or seek help from your friends or tutors.

2) Remember If you can understand but cannot remember it, then you will not be able to do well in your test. On the other hand, you can still score well in exams if you able to memorize all the facts and figures even without understanding them. However, this is clearly not an efficient or effective way of doing it. This technique consumes a lot of time and energy. There are few ways that can assist you in remembering the content:

a) Draw picture/graph/chart Just draw a simple picture to illustrate the overall content of the passage. You will surely find out that remembering a picture is definitely easier than a lengthy text. You do not need to draw like an artist, because the picture is only served as your personal consumption.

b) Create simple notes Extract the keywords or points from the passage and write them down on your notebook. You are not advisable to prolong the sentence. In fact, just draw out the keywords and main points will be good enough. Then, try to amend or rearrange your notes so that all the points can be linked together and forming back to its original content or actual result.

Cope with your stress before the exams

a) Fully prepared you should study your own notes rather than reading the whole textbook, simply because you do not have much time to read it over again. You may just read your notes as they cover all the important facts and figures. Your notes will definitely help you to recall all the important points. So, if you are fully prepared, there is nothing to be afraid of.
b) Aim or target What is your target? Base on current situation, do you have the ability to achieve what you have targeted? Of course, the higher you aim the higher will be the level of stress. So, adjust your target base on your current circumstance. Please do not over target as it will decrease your confidence and performance level.

c) Get support You may want to get moral supports from your family members or friends, because they could provide some invaluable advice for you to stay calm.

d) Call your classmate Do you realize that you can release your stress via talking over the phone? Sometimes, we would rather talk to our classmate than family members due to your classmate are having the exams too and they are in the same situation as you do. On the other hand, your family members are not going to sit for the exams after all. So, you may prefer to speak to your friend as both of you are sharing the same situation. In order to release stress before going to bed, you could just give a call to your classmate to talk about the issues of the coming exams and express your feelings. I am pretty sure that they will share their feelings with you too. So, the conversation over the phone will be quite interesting or exciting. Of course, you are not advisable to have a long conversation on the phone because you still need some time to do your revision.

Are the above methods known to you?
I sincerely wish the above techniques could help you to overcome your problems.
Good luck in your study!

Dear potential friends,

Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com

About the Author:
Dear potential friends,

I am a guy who loves to read books. I personally think that reading books and learning from others are the keys to success. Whether you agree or disagree with me, please feel free to comment on my articles, so that I will have a chance to learn from you.

Thank you for reading my articles.
Have a nice day ahead!

Best regards,
Dennis

( *feel free to visit http://www.experience-centre.com )

40 Conversation Starters

By: John Donland

Photo: christian-dating-service-plus.com

Let’s face it, no matter how good a conversation is going, sometimes you’ll get stuck and run out of things to say. This can be especially hard if the person you’re speaking with isn’t keeping up their end of the conversation. Sometimes is seems you have little in common, no shared interests, and no reason to continue speaking with each other. This is usually not the case; some people just need a little kick-start to keep the ball rolling.

Below is a list of forty questions which can help keep things on track, inspire some new directions, and even help you learn a little bit about each other. This isn’t an interview; don’t fire off rapid fire questions like you’re considering hiring this person to be your new personal assistant. These are meant to inspire new conversation topics and open new avenues to help you keep things interesting. Each question, once embarked upon, should also have an interesting follow up from you. For example, don’t ask ‘What do you do for fun,’ listen to the answer and respond with, ‘Hmm.’

These are conversation starters, not conversations.

The next time you are getting ready to go out on a date, go to a party, or even meet up with an acquaintance for a business lunch, peruse this list and find a few questions which you think are interesting and would like to be asked.

1. What did you do on the weekend?
2. Did anything crazy happen this week?
3. What’s keeping you busy right now?
4. How did you fall into this career?
5. Have you seen any good movies (read any interesting books) lately?
6. How do you like to spend your spare time?
7. What do you do for fun?
8. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
9. Who do you think has been the most
influential person in your life, real or fictional?
10. That’s a nice ___, where did you get it?
(note: pair of breasts is not a good substitution in most situations)
11. What kind of music do you listen to?
12. Do you play any sports?
13. What’s your favourite place to eat?
14. Are you interested in ___?
(insert interesting interest of yours)
15. If you could spend an evening with any famous figure from history, who would it be?
16. What would you name your autobiography?
17. What would be the first thing you did if you won the lottery?
18. If you have a choice of super powers, would you rather be invisible, or be able to fly?
19. Do you have any pet peeves?
20. Name one thing you wouldn’t want to live without?
21. What is your favourite movie/book of all time?
22. What would you do on your ideal day off.
23. What is the worst job you can think of?
24. Do you have a lot of friends, or a small circle of close friends?
25. Would you rather work on a road crew or read a paper in front of 200 peers?
26. What’s your dream car?
27. What’s the most embarrassing thing that’s ever happened to you?
(Remember, if you ask this question you’ll need one as well)
28. If you were granted three wishes, excluding money or another wish, what would you wish for?
29. Do you have any hobbies?
30. Do you play any musical instruments?
31. What is your ideal job situation?
32. Do you have any bad habits?
33. Do you believe in plastic surgery?
34. What was your best subject in school?
35. What makes you really laugh? Do you have a favourite joke?
36. If you had to perform on America’s Got Talent, what would you do?
37. What is your favourite season?
38. Where did you go to school?
39. Name one thing you wish you’d known before entering high school.
40. What is the best piece of advice you have ever heard?

For more conversation starters, information, advice and resources please drop by Conversation Aid I'd love to hear from you! -John Donland
Article Source:
http://www.articlebiz.com/article/1051325795-1-40-conversation-starters/

Effective anti stress techniques

By: Jack Morgan

Photo: terramedica.sk

We live in the finest of times; we live in the sorriest of times. We live at a place and age where full-on is how a lot of people like their work to be. We put so great deal premium on doing matters fast, first, and furiously we frequently enclose every day up feeling incredibly beat. The thing about exhaustion is that it inevitably heads to a wicked trap - depression. The more tired we are, the sadder we feel. The sadder we feel, the more incapable we become of playing at optimal levels. Clearly, we all need to anti stress. Here are a couple of suggestions for anti stress techniques you are able to do now.

Set aside a time for play every week.

Busy executives like you who work long, tedious hours frequently neglect caring for your self because there never appears to be sufficiency time to do so. You hammer away at a project all the time every time until this project gets done. The trouble with repetition is that it burns you out quick. Avoid this by tossing in a fun activity or two into your workweek. You can do yoga, go fishing, or see a film. There's no pattern for what you can do. Just do it.

Stop being too tough on yourself.

These are among the finest of anti stress techniques you are able to do for yourself. You're an overachiever. Of course, you want to do matters more beneficial than anybody else. If Bob traded 17 automobiles, then you do your finest to sell 20. If Cindy put in 25 hours of overtime this week, you try to break her record by pulling a 70-hour workweek next. Stop that childish behavior at once! Being too competitive can be destructive. There is nothing to gain by outdoing everyone you know. Why? For one, you will never find satisfaction in the goals you achieve because these goals are set with others measures in mind. When you find no joy in your achievement, no lasting satisfaction over a job well done, there is no point in working so hard, is there? For another, you push yourself to achieve others' goals and beat them to it. How does this help you grow? You meet others goals, not yours.

The later you are allured to work yourself to the bone, remember that stress kills. Stress kills enthusiasm, relationships, brain cells, and ultimately, the person who's had more stress than humanly manageable. Get the better of your stressful life before it gets the better of you. You will be able to brush up on the techniques that let you do this with the help of resources such as ''Turn Stress into Energy and Enthusiasm''. Use these techniques as your secret weapon against stress. Actions follow the course we set for them so if we say no to straining out today, we are more probable to come up with habits that help us avoid stress.

Nice person who likes to share his knowledge to benefit mankind. p>Check out hub for self help books. Here are a couple of suggestions for anti stress techniques you are able to do now.
Article Source:
http://www.articlebiz.com/article/640454-1-effective-anti-stress-techniques/