This  July ADHD ezine is all about STRESS  and  ways to put some fun in your life! 7 hints for a stress free life Activities for children to give you a break, or to enjoy their company Stress and Worry on the job can be harmful Laughter! A natural supplement to help stress

1.  Take 5 minute breaks regularly throughout your day.  Sit or walk on your own and relax, breathe deeply and feel     peaceful.  You will feel more relaxed and not so overwhelmed, increasing  your level of concentration and ability  to achieve more, in less  time.

3.  Take responsibility for your actions.  Actions that you take  are a result of choices that you've made.  When you take responsibility for your actions you realize that you are able  to make different choices.

4.  Clean up your work space.  Such as, find a way to eliminate the piles of paperwork.  Working in an environment that is clean and organized will free up your mind and reduce distractions for you.  When our space feels cluttered it leads to our mind feeling cluttered.

5.  Manage yourself rather than your time.  You cannot change time yet you can make changes to yourself by organizing yourself, setting priorities, taking responsibility…. When you  manage yourself you will have more time to create the life you  really want.

6.  Learn to say no.  A straight forward "No" is best although if this feels difficult at first try, "No, my time is committed elsewhere."  Saying no is a skill to learn, takes practice and you can do it pleasantly.  You will never please everyone and  accepting this will reduce the pressure you put on yourself.

7.  Reward your achievements. Choose the reward before you start both for small and large achievements and use it to move you forward, particularly when overcoming an obstacle.  Rewarding yourself will encourage you to keep persevering and focusing on winning.

Grab some popping corn from the supermarket and put 1 tablespoon  of corn in a pot with 1 tablespoon of butter.Put the pot, with a lid on, on a hot element on the stove and move around constantly. Very soon you will hear the popping start. When it stops, take off the lid and pour into a bowl with heaps of icing sugar. That's it.  Mike does this with some of the children he works with, and uses a glass pot and lid, so they can watch the popping! Great fun, and fast! It's easy, it's rewarding and about the right time span for ADHD kids.  Mike also finds the kids love making real ice-cream, and real fruit iceblocks so if you would like his recipes email him by clicking here and we'll pop them on your email. They take a bit longer and need patience though, but oh the taste is great and a brilliant way to have quality time in the holidays.

You knew that!  (Hope you don't take offense at the graphic..we thought it may give you a giggle!)

But you can learn to avoid your "stress-building" thoughts and replace them with alternative  "stress-busting" thoughts!

When you are under stress, what messages are you sending yourself? Are they alarming or reassuring? You can decrease your stress by learning to talk to yourself in a reassuring way. This is what "stress-busting" is  about--getting your thoughts back on a reassuring track.

Stress-busting thoughts come from what we call the "Rational You." The Rational You thinks its way through life's events, evaluating the degree of safety versus danger involved. What happens to the Rational You in a stressful situation? It gets pushed aside by stress building thoughts which disrupt concentration and  productivity at work.

  Stress-Building Beliefs

     Perfectionism
    Do you feel a constant pressure to achieve?
    Do you criticize yourself when you're not perfect?
    Do you feel you haven't done enough no matter how hard you try?
    Do you give up pleasure in order to be the best in everything you do?
    Control
    Do you have to be perfectly in control at all times?
    Do you worry about how you appear to others when you are nervous?
    Do you feel that any lack of control is a sign of weakness or failure?
    Are you uncomfortable delegating projects to others?
 
People Pleasing
    Does your self-esteem depend on everyone else's opinion of you?
    Do you sometimes avoid assignments because you're afraid of disappointing your boss?
    Are you better at caring for others than caring for yourself?
    Do you keep most negative feelings inside to avoid displeasing others?
    Competence
    Do you feel you can never do as good a job as other people?
    Do you feel your judgment is poor?
    Do you feel you lack common sense?
    Do you feel like an impostor when told your work is good?

     Yes answers indicate potential road blocks to a stress-free work life. Challenge these beliefs. Experiment.
     Try acting in a way that is opposite to your usual behavior. Then, evaluate the results. For example, if you
     feel overburdened because of a need to control, delegate a task and observe the consequences.

     Become aware of how your stress-building beliefs affect your behavior. Replace them with more realistic and
     less stressful thoughts.

  Helpful Techniques

     Keep a record of stressful situations and rate the actual level of stress from O (most relaxed) to 10 (most
     stressed). Start to monitor your stress on the "Practice Journal" worksheet before, during and after stressful
     events or situations. As you begin to observe your levels of stress, you will notice that these levels are not
     constant. You will find that stress levels increase when you are concentrating on your most alarming thoughts
     and bodily reactions, but stress levels fall when your attention turns away from these areas. This will show
     you that one way to reduce the level of stress in your life is to actively turn away from negative "stress
     building" thoughts and to concentrate on positive stress busting ways of thinking.

     Combating negative thoughts and replacing them with positive ones takes practice, but the results are
     worth it. Review the facts. What is your evidence? Is there another way to view the situation? If not, what is
     the worst thing that could happen? You may have been concentrating on the worst possible, but by no means
     the most likely, outcome.

    Portions of this article are taken from Overcoming Panic, Anxiety and Phobias, Babior and Goldman, Whole
     Person Press, 1996. 

This is an article you can click on the graphic to see fully, but it really says stress is bad for you and laughing helps!
So we thought we would use the Clinton graphic again as the link!

Stress has been shown to create unhealthy physiological changes. The connection between stress and high blood
pressure, muscle tension, immunosuppression, and many other changes (13) has been known for years. We now have proof that laughter creates the opposite effects. It appears to be the perfect antidote for stress.

Berk, at Loma Linda University School of Medicine's Dept. of Clinical Immunology, has produced carefully  controlled studies showing that the experience of laughter lowers serum cortisol levels, increases the amount of activated T lymphocytes, increases the number and activity of natural killer cells, and increases the number of T cells that have helper/ suppresser receptors. In short, laughter stimulates the immune system, off-setting the immunosuppressive effects of stress. (13,15)

This research is part of the rapidly expanding field of psychoneuroimmunology which defines the communication  links and relationships between our emotional experience and our immune response as mediated by the  neurological system. (16,17,37)

We know that, during stress, the adrenal gland releases corticosteroids (quickly converted to cortisol in the blood
stream) and that elevated levels of these have an immunosuppressive effect. Berk's research demonstrates that laughter can lower cortisol levels and thereby protect our immune system. (13,15)

Activation of T cells provides lymphocytes that are "awakened" and ready to combat a potential foreign substance.

Natural killer cells are a type of immune cell that attacks viral or cancerous cells and do not need sensitization to be  lethal. They are always ready to recognize and attack an aberrant or infected cell. This becomes very important in the prevention of cancer. Cells within our bodies are constantly changing and mutating to produce potential  carcinogenic cells. An intact immune system can function appropriately by mobilizing these natural killer cells to destroy abnormal cells. (18)