We need to take back control over our lives by managing our emotions and stress levels in a deliberate way to reduce stress. We must get rid of the tried-and-true methods which, surprisingly, do more harm than good. This includes anything that prevents us from feeling emotions or dealing with stress.
It can be a challenge to go from avoiding problems to being proactive and trying to fix them. Society enables us to find ways to relieve stress, but these methods can actually end up making us feel worse.
Effective Stress Control to Boost Your Energy
In the long run, alcohol will actually make your stress levels and energy worse, not better.
Here are five ways that alcohol negatively impacts your stress and energy levels, and what to try instead.
1. Downward Sleep Spiral
One reason alcohol is so popular is because it Sedative effects help people to relax. At first, we may feel relaxed, even sleepy. The Metabolic Rebound Effect occurs when someone’s body starts to metabolize alcohol while they are trying to sleep, interrupting the restorative sleep cycles.
MRE amplifies our stress responsivity. The feeling of anxiety may be caused by our inability to return to sleep. We also tend to have more extreme reactions to stress in our everyday lives.
If you’re looking for a way to relax and get a good night’s sleep, try a non-alcoholic tonic. You can calm yourself without any pesky side effects by either drinking a cup of lemon balm tea or taking a few drops of valerian root tincture.
2. Your Brilliant Brain’s Muddled Mood
Funky moods mess up our energy. The reason there is a billion dollar “growth mindset” industry is because emotional energy has a direct effect on happiness, productivity, and success. But managing our mindset isn’t just about changing our beliefs— it also requires managing our emotions. This is caused by two natural brain chemicals, dopamine and serotonin.
Alcohol use for stress relief is tricky. At first, using drugs causes a large amount of happy chemicals to enter the brain. This feeling makes us think that the alcohol has improved our mood. The brain quickly balances out neurotransmitter levels that have been thrown off by using a counterbalancing approach to bring them back to normal. The levels of chemicals in our body drop lower after we drink alcohol than they were before we had a drink. This process is not limited to heavy or problem drinkers; it occurs even if you have only had one drink. [4]
Action tip: Use sustainable feel-good brain chemical boosters. There are many things you can do to take care of yourself and reduce stress, like exercising, spending time in nature, meditating, laughing, and spending time with loved ones. You can also try aromatherapy massage.
3. Naturally Energizing Nutrients Are Depleted
B vitamins are essential nutrients for energy and nervous system support. Interestingly, they help maintain healthy levels of serotonin and dopamine, two chemicals that contribute to a good mood.
The B vitamins are essential for converting food into energy for the body and brain. These water-soluble nutrients are not stored in the body. We need to eat these foods regularly to get the full benefits from them.
However, alcohol slows down the body’s ability to absorb and use many nutrients, including B vitamins.
Action tip: Regularly restore B vitamin levels. Some foods that are high in nutrients that can help with energy levels and managing stress are salmon, brown rice, spinach, eggs, lean beef, oysters, clams, black beans, kidney beans, chickpeas, lentils, chicken, turkey, yogurt, and sunflower seeds.
4. Compounding Problems Exacerbate Stress
Have you ever been late paying a bill? If your payment was not received on time, it may be for a variety of reasons such as lack of funds or it being lost in the mail. If you discovered this, did you try to stop worrying by throwing the notice away? Or did you take care of it right away to avoid any possible fees, damage to your credit, or loss of service?
If you’re careful with your money, you probably did something about it as soon as it happened, even if it was annoying at the time. The same applies to dealing with stress. Although we might feel like we’re saving energy and making ourselves feel better by ignoring our problems, the reality is that this will not fix the problem, and it often makes the situation worse.
The only way out is through. It means we have to deal with our problems directly, from a place of emotional intelligence and maturity.
When you’re feeling stressed, instead of reaching for a drink, try taking a small action to reduce the source of your stress.
Even if you don’t have the money to pay a bill right away, other steps can be taken toward resolution. You can try calling the biller to ask for an extension, or set up a plan to pay in smaller amounts over time.
Breaking a problem down into smaller pieces can relieve stress and help you figure out what to do next.
5. Heightened Stress Response
We have already talked about the “stress response reduction” that alcohol can cause. Doesn’t that mean alcohol alleviates stress?
Remember, this calming effect is only temporary. Alcohol affects the brain in a way that makes it unable to deal with stress. [5]
The longer we drink, the less pleasure we feel from activities that used to make us happy. This is because drinking artificially boosts our brain’s pleasure center, making it harder for us to feel enjoyment from other things in life. These activities are effective in controlling stress. The effects of alcohol are not limited to the time while we are drinking.
If you drink alcohol regularly, your brain will become tolerant to it. The reason you’ll notice that one or two drinks that used to make you feel better eventually stop working is because tolerance to alcohol develops quickly. It’s not unusual for people to need more and more cocktails to have the same relaxing effect over time. Noticing an increase in how much we drink can be worrying, leading us to question whether we have a drinking problem. This can be accompanied by feelings of shame and embarrassment, as there is a stigma surrounding admitting to having an issue with alcohol. yet another way that using alcohol causes more problems by leading to anxiety and less energy.
The best way to change your habits is to first assess what needs to be changed and be honest with yourself about it. You may want to consider making a change if you are feeling anxious or worried about your alcohol use, or if the effects of alcohol are not as good as they used to be. Don’t label yourself with negative terms as this will make it harder for you to get support and find positive solutions. You don’t have to be addicted to alcohol to decide to change your relationship with it.
The Emotions: Quality of Energy
Being able to control your emotions leads to better energy quality, no matter the outside stressors you’re up against. They need to be more aware of how they feel during the workday, and how these emotions affect their productivity. People usually do better when they are feeling positive. The finding surprises them because they are not able to perform well or lead effectively when feeling any other way.
Although it may be disappointing, we are not able to maintain strong positive emotions for extended periods of time without taking breaks. When faced with relentless demands and unexpected challenges, people often react with negative emotions, stepping into what is called the fight-or-flight mode. This can happen multiple times in a day. They become irritable and impatient, or anxious and insecure. People who are in a negative state of mind are more likely to have disagreements with others and to feel tired. The fight-or-flight emotions make it difficult to think clearly, logically, and reflectively. Executive who can identify the events that lead to negative emotions have more power to manage their reactions.
One simple but powerful ritual for reducing negative emotions is called “buying time.” One way to do that is by deep abdominal breathing. Breathing out slowly for five or six seconds can help you relax and recover, and turns off the fight-or-flight response. Fujio Nishida, president of Sony Europe, had the habit of lighting up a cigarette whenever something especially stressful happened, which was at least two or three times a day. Otherwise, he didn’t smoke. We taught Nishida a breathing exercise as an alternative to smoking, and he found that it worked immediately. He no longer had the desire for a cigarette. Smoking didn’t relieve his stress, we found out. Instead, it was the deep breathing in and out that came with smoking that helped him relax.
A beneficial ritual that creates positive emotions is expressing appreciation to others. This practice seems to be just as beneficial to the person giving appreciation as it is to the person receiving it. This refers to the act of expressing appreciation to others, and can be done in many forms such as a handwritten note, an e-mail, a call, or a conversation. The more detailed and specific the act of appreciation is, the higher the impact it will have. It’s more likely that you’ll stick to a ritual if you set aside a specific time to do it. Every week during the six months of his ritual, he met with two other executives, Mark King and Paul Johnson, to discuss and clarify their business goals Ben Jenkins, vice chairman and president of the General Bank at Wachovia in Charlotte, North Carolina, allocated time every week to mentor other executives. During this six-month period, he met with two other executives, Mark King and Paul Johnson, to discuss and clarify their business goals. He started making plans to have lunch or dinner with people who worked for him on a regular basis. The only times he met with his direct reports were to get monthly reports on their numbers or to give them yearly performance reviews. Now, instead of just talking about work with his employees, he makes an effort to get to know them and their goals in life.
People can improve their emotional state by learning to change the way they interpret events in their lives. Often, people in conflict will blame others or external circumstances for their problems instead of looking at their own role in the conflict. Noticing the distinction between the objective reality of a situation and the way we subjectively perceive that reality can be empowering in and of itself. Many people we work with are surprised to discover that they have a choice in how they view a given event, and that the story they tell about the event can powerfully influence their emotions. We teach people to spin the most positive light on any situation, without denying reality.
You can create positive energy in your life by learning to change the way you think about the events that have happened to you. We encourage them to always see the silver lining.
A new way of looking at stories can be achieved by looking at them through three different lenses, as opposed to the victim perspective. The reverse lens helps people see both sides of a conflict, the long lens helps people see the future, and the wide lens helps people learn from their experiences.
Nicolas Babin, Sony Europe’s director of corporate communications, was the go-to person for reporters’ questions during the company’s several battery recalls in 2006. He eventually became tired and depressed from his work. After practicing the lens exercises, he began finding ways to tell himself a more positive story about his role that would empower him. He describes how he took this as an opportunity to improve Sony’s relationships with journalists by being more available to them, and to make Sony more credible by being open and honest.
The Human Spirit: Energy of Meaning and Purpose
The energy of the human spirit is tapped into when people’s work and activities align with their values and what gives them a sense of purpose. If the work is important to them, they usually feel more positive energy, concentrate better, and show more determination. I’m sorry to say that the hectic pace and demands of corporate life leave little time for people to focus on these issues, and many people don’t even realize that meaning and purpose can be sources of energy. Focusing on the human spirit would likely have minimal impact if we tried to begin our program with that. The participants only establish the value of the rituals when they experience them in other dimensions. They then see that being attentive to their own deeper needs dramatically influences their effectiveness and satisfaction at work.
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