Emergency One Urgent Care Center offers Emergency Medical and Occupational Health Services in Kingston and Hyde Park, New York

STRESS!!! The “S” Word

Direction: Read carefully and often; share with others; try to change one thing in your life….and begin NOW!

• Stress is absolutely necessary to human existence.

• Without stress, there would be no life.
• Level of tolerance with stress differs for each of us.
• Good health is more than just the absence of illness.

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” Norman Maczoan

• Stress can be either positive (eustress) or negative (distress).

• Productive or painful
• Mind/body relationships – inseparable and important to wellness

“What does not destroy me, makes me strong.” Nietzche

• Learn to be aware of your personal “smoke signals.”

• Brain – Body – Behavior – how do these tell you when you are under more stress?

1. Exhaustion: Do you get home, hit the ‘fridge, Haagen-Dazs or Breyers, collapse on the couch…and this is on a good day??
2. Sleep Patterns: Do you crawl further and further under the covers to drown out the alarm or sunshine…or do you wake up every 40 minutes…and know all the sales on QVC or the titles of every Western ever made?
3. Eating Patterns: Do you lose your appetite…or do you hate the people that do and you eat, eat, eat???
4. Sighing: When you are overwhelmed by expectations and feel you are losing any sense of control; labored breathing or heavy sighs can be the result.
5. Boredom: Are you in a routine or a rut? Mean and green, with money or envy? Variety is vital!
6. Telephone Tremors: If you can’t set limits on yourself and other, the telephone will control you! Use the screener; set rules for when telephone is off limits.
7. Clutter: Look at your desk, office, apartment, car…be honest. It may be a sign of your life.
8. Type A Trap: Delegate versus doing it all. Enough said.
9. Cover Up: “What do you call it if you don’t have any stress?”…Denial (or death)

“There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” John A. Holmes

• Developing Skills for Dealing with Stress

• Assess what you have been doing…honestly
• Choose a habit you want to change..or something you want to start
• Break down the challenge/problem into manageable pieces
• Set challenging but realistic goal..AND time frame
• Consult with coach/counselor/physician/nurse, etc…to encourage, evaluate goals
• START
• Seeking ongoing support/evaluate…and Walk the Walk!

"Experience is not what happens to you. It is what you do with what happens to you." -Aldous Huxley

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