At Foreman and Jones, recently we have been running workshops addressing Stress and Anxiety. Having read widely on the subject and studied for many years we have come across numerous techniques for helping patients learn how to reduce their stress levels.
Recently we have been reading about Lifestyle design by Timothy Ferris. He wrote a book called the 4 Hour Work week and some of the ideas in the book we feel are really useful in re-designing your life so that it isn’t so stressful.
Since we believe that you are in control of your life (not the other way around) this book helps remind you that you can make big changes to what you do day to day and that will result in you working less and enjoying life more.
When we treat patients suffering with stress related complaints one of the major themes that comes up time and time again is that they ‘hate their job’ or ‘my job is so stressful’ or ‘all I seem to do is work!’ Hayley works with patients to help them to discover what they really want in life and what might be keeping them from making changes and improvements in their lives which would help them feel less stressed. We also help patients learn how to cope with stress in a better way using various tried and tested techniques.
In order for the body to recover life needs to a series of sprints rather than an ongoing marathon. If recovery time is planned into your life on a regular basis then you are more likely to cope better with stress. So why not decide what you find truly relaxing and enjoyable and incorporate those activities into the month. It could be something as simple as having a relaxing (un-interrupted) bath once a week, or spending time with friends or having the time to read that book that you’ve been meaning to read for ages.
In his book Timothy Ferris discusses the idea that in society there now exists a group of people called the ‘New Rich.’ These people abandon the idea that you need to work hard all your life to eventually be able to afford to retire and opt for spreading their retirement throughout their life, and enjoy it.
In order to be less stressed it is so important to take stock and figure out how to plan your life so that you include things you enjoy.
For more information on Lifestyle Design check out http://fourhourworkweek.com there are quite a few exercises that you can do, including calculating the cost of your dream lifestyle and planning your mini-retirements.
By Jodie Foreman
