Last year, The Guardian Newspaper produced an article entitled ‘recession causes surge in mental health issues’. The year before, The Independent produced an article on the increase of stress in women. Yesterday, Mail Online  has published an article on stress and the increase of ill health. With the everyday person struggling financially, a cause of and / or made worse by the recent economic crisis, Christmas can be an added stress.

Years ago, I undertook a diploma that had a great emphasis on stress management. I learnt a lot about stress including how to identify my stressors and so prevent any ill health.

Stressors are extreme stimuli – too much or too little of almost anything; often unpleasant, injurious, or painful stimuli. They are also anything that an individual perceives as a threat (real or imagined) and arouse fear or anxiety. Stressors differ in individuals and in one individual it can be throughout the day.

My father used to tell me when I was at school that negative stress can be turned into positive stress. In fact, we need a bit of stress to get us out of bed in the morning. We need to have challenges to achieve a sense of personal accomplishment. Otherwise our skills will be under-utilised. We could become bored through lack of stimulation. This could all lead to a lack of purpose or meaning in life.

Optimum stress is what we need: a perfectly manageable balanced life even with ups and downs. Job satisfaction and a sense of achievement allow us to coast through our day without much problem leaving us pleasantly tired by the end of the evening.

Too much stress can be produced by disorganisation, bad time management, relationship problems, etc. A constant feeling of too much to do, without rest and fun, creates a permanent overdrive but without achieving expected results. This can trigger a breakdown!

Extreme stress can be identified through excessive drinking or smoking, dependence on sleeping pills or tranquilisers. Accidents might also occur due to preoccupation with unresolved tensions. Also, extreme stress can cause violence through an individual attacking someone or inciting others to attack him / her.

However, sometimes the opposite reactions may occur. A person can become withdrawn through the deterioration of relationships.

This can be avoided if individuals or others around them recognise the signs and take appropriate steps. But if they continue their efforts, despite exhaustion, they are likely to have a mental or physical breakdown such as severe depression or coronary heart attacks.

Examples of positive stress:

• Feeling confident to overcome a challenge
• Promotion at work
• Moving to a nicer place
• Falling in love
• Feeling invigorated and exhilarated by a competitive sport

Examples of negative stress:

• Being stuck in a traffic jam
• Computer breaking down
• A job interview going badly
• Having to learn a difficult task
• Last minute revision for an exam

In the next blog I will talk more on the symptoms and signs of stress and how to react more positively to stressors. I will also provide information on how to test your stress levels.

In the final blog I will provide tips on how to manage stress through time management; relaxation tips; and the effects of nutrition and sleep on stress levels.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) recently revealed survey questions to measure ‘happiness’ in the UK.

Questions they will ask, from April next year, include: how satisfied are you with your life nowadays? How happy did you feel yesterday? How anxious did you feel yesterday? To what extent do you feel the things you do in your life are worthwhile?

Neuroscientists show that happiness can be measured by assessing pleasure. Social scientists simply ask, as well as, the questions above, people to rate their happiness on a scale, i.e. from 1 to 10.

As a Cognitive Hypnotherapist, overall happiness is very subjective to individuals, based on their past experiences which influence their current / present outlook. This can be changed.

In our modern western society, we generally take for granted that we will have food, drink and shelter. This encourages us to seek other things, mainly material possessions and social status particularly comparing ourselves to others. This can result in depression and social phobias and constant feelings of lack of self-worth and love for oneself.

I recommend everyone to have a look at the website: http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx. This is the homepage of Dr Martin Seligman, Director of the Positive Psychology Centre at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the founder of positive psychology, which focuses on positive emotions and character strengths. On this website you are able, among other things, to find out your key strengths and values and whether your job or even your partner is matching these.

I also recommend the website: http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/. They provide comprehensive information backed up with scientific research on happiness.

In regards to the community role in relation to an individual’s happiness, scientific research (e.g.Yuen et al.,2008) has shown that people experience happiness through helping others. This is altruism (we feel better about ourselves for doing ‘good’) and when we see the effects our positive actions have on others, we too unconsciously mimic the other person(s) facial response.

Lifestyle choices can affect one’s happiness. Exercise for approximately twenty minutes a day will increase happiness by improving your mood through the release of endorphins; healthy eating and drinking will provide all the essential nutrients and vitamins your body need. Keeping blood sugar levels steady, e.g. through the G.I. diet (designed for diabetics as the food with the lowest scores are slow sugar releasing) will prevent significant drops in energy and mood.  Consistently sleeping seven hours a night also helps, providing protection against inflammation and disease, memory and alertness, and reducing stress. Power naps are also beneficial.

Other ways to obtain and maintain happiness are:

• Goal setting – leads to a sense of achievement, in particular if the goal is something you value and / or interested in, challenging but not impossible to achieve. This can lead to what contemporary psychology describes as a state of flow (total absorption in an activity, which can be enjoyable and even exhilarating). This state of flow can also be found in undertaking hobbies / learning new skills.

• Social interaction – especially around positive people – forming close relationships that require willingness to self-disclosure.

• Focusing on solutions when things go wrong.

• Spend a few minutes each day thinking about things that make you happy.

• Meditation can be calming on the body – deep breathing activates the vagus nerve, the diaphragm presses on this nerve to stimulate the parasympathetic system, the relaxation system – reducing stress / anxiety and encourages positive thinking. For some undertaking religious activity, which itself can be meditative and if with others can provide social contact.

• Treating yourself to a weekend break, a relaxing bath, a nice lunch, a long walk, etc.

• Believing that you deserve happiness. For some, this might be difficult to achieve and therefore cognitive hypnotherapy may be beneficial.

• Positive thinking can make you happy. Sometimes it’s not so easy to change one’s thoughts. However, if you were to think of ‘three gifts’ – good things that happened to you that day, e.g. someone being nice, work going well, appreciating nature, etc – before you go to sleep you will be priming your unconscious to notice on the next day three more gifts. This also works for treating depression – even if the sufferer thinks of one gift, over time the one will become two and then three.

Happiness is subjective but can be obtainable through positive thinking, charity / volunteering, social interaction, goal setting and a healthy lifestyle. Money doesn’t buy happiness but is also important as it can provide security from financial worries.