More Education Means More On-the-Job Engagement, But Also More Stress
Posted on June 17th, 2011 by Ashley KasperAren’t we always told that as long as we have the most education, the rest with be smooth sailing? Well not according to a new study done in Ontario. It states that although those with higher education are more sought after in the job market, they are also the ones who have the most trouble with work/life balance and feel the most stress related to their jobs.
Read on to find out more about work/life balance and use The Oxygen Plan `stress decoded’ to help with yours!
We all have nervous habits, such as nail-biting, which may be unappealing to watch but not as dangerous to our health as others, like smoking. Even worse, they can take a toll on our bodies that we may be doing on a daily basis. Are these habits really releasing stress or adding to it? Read below for information on your nervous habit, how it affects your health and tips on how to relieve stress in a healthy manner. For more information on living in the Green® The Oxygen Plan way, check out ‘The Program’ tab on the main page.
Job Burnout Hurts (Physically)
Posted on May 3rd, 2011 by Eric LucasAn increase in job burnout over a period of 18 months is associated with a 2.09-fold increased risk of developing musculoskeletal pain during the subsequent 18 months, according to a study led by Galit Armon of Tel Aviv University focusing on 1,704 healthy people. The researchers say high job demands may increase muscle tension and decrease micropauses in muscle activity, leading to pain.
A house is a physical structure. Painting it green on the outside though, is not the same thing as living in the green, inside. Plastering your walls with life-size murals of trees and forests may remind you of your favorite cabin retreat, but it isn’t the same as bringing the greenness in for all to enjoy.
How you live and the ways in which you enjoy life are reflected in your home, not just as a place of residence, but also as your safe haven. All that makes you green — your loving interactions with spouses, partners and children; your spirituality, your decision making, your relaxing moments and hobbies — arise from and emanate from the place you call home in your heart and mind.
Your home is your retreat; the place you come to after a hard day’s work (or a hard day’s play); the place that comes alive with the voices and laughter of family and dear friends; good meals, good conversation, mutual respect and love and peaceful, renewing sleep!
Do you feel green when you walk in the door? Are you happy when you turn onto your street? Your dog or cat experiences a very green moment when they know you’re suddenly there. Or maybe just the quiet, untouched peace of the place, brings a calming, green moment when you know that this is where you belong.
How do you spend green time at home? How do you unwind? How do you have fun? Kicking off your shoes and shedding your work clothes feels so good! Cooking and/or eating a great meal; reading, catching some news on TV, enjoying your child’s pride in getting extra stars on last night’s homework are just some of life’s simple green gifts.
Sharing the comforts of your home with others spreads the green, big time. Casual get-togethers, dinner dates, video or game nights, holiday visits, play dates for kids are ways to enjoy and share your home.
Down time at home lets us recharge and be green in our own personal ways; connect with friends; tackle home projects; read a bestseller; play your favorite music over and over again; participate in an online network; good-naturedly, reach out to others in a reciprocal giving and getting of life-enriching oxygen.
There’s no place like home — your HO2ME®.
Why not make it as Green as can be – For The Best You™?
Stress in America: What’s OUR Stress Number™?
Posted on March 15th, 2011 by Donald WilliamsTrouble paying the bills. Worry about the economy. Worry about keeping our jobs and our homes. Worry about finding a job or a new home. Troubled relationships. Trying to raise kids in a world that is becoming increasingly chaotic and seemingly dangerous. Trying to get through the day much less plan ahead.
Seem at least somewhat familiar? We are not immune to the stresses of everyday life. No one is. While we all cope in different and more or less effective ways, as individuals we cannot escape the impacts of stress on our lives at home, at work and socially; stress is a significant risk factor for our work productivity, our relationships and our health. As employers, we must be concerned about stress levels in our workforce. With the cost of stress estimated at just under $5,000 per employee per year, how can employers not be concerned? Even our government must be concerned about stress levels in our country. Given the social deterioration we see, the erosion of marriages and families, the unemployment rate and the chaos we see in our neighborhoods, our cities, our country and around the world, leaders surely are concerned about this state of affairs, even if for only political reasons.
At The Oxygen Plan, we have a keen interest on stress levels and how it impacts us every day. To date, since introducing our Stress Test and Stress Number™, over 38,000 people have taken the Stress Test. And we should be concerned. In the first month of the Stress Test — September, 2009 — average Stress Numbers for home, work and social were 55, 54 and 55 respectively. That’s yellow across the board. As of February, 2011 the average scores were 52, 47 and 53, also respectively. With a sample of over 38,000 people, that is a significant shift toward the negative. While still all yellow (that’s the good news?) each score suggests stress levels are rising — along with all of the negative effects stress imparts. The work score of 47, down from 54, should be of particular concern for employers. This translates to increased health care costs absenteeism, presenteeism, disability along with decreased productivity and morale at work. And this is before the flooding in the Northeast, ever-increasing troubles in the Middle East and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan — and cataclysmic event that literally and figuratively hit our shores.
America’s Stress Numbers suggest we are in trouble and it is not getting any better. But we are not helpless. We have at our fingertips the means to identify and better manage our stress — as individuals, as couples, as families, as employers and as leaders. We owe it to ourselves and those around us. Stress is the number one modifiable health risk we face. At The Oxygen Plan our mission is to help us all accomplish the goal of becoming a "better you."
Peer Pressure: What’s a Few Pounds Between Friends?
Posted on March 11th, 2011 by Eric LucasPeer:
- noun, a person of equal standing with another; somebody who is the equal of somebody else, eg. in age or social class.
- verb, to “peer” is to look closely; to look very carefully or hard, especially at somebody or something that is difficult to see, often with narrowed eyes.
Have you peered at your peers, lately? Do they look, act and eat alike?
The New York Times and the New York Times Magazine have reported a particular peer-related study on obesity, asking the question, "do your friends make you fat?" The study concluded that when someone gains weight, their friends tend to gain weight, too.
The findings suggested that especially good friends seem to be the prime enablers in encouraging and influencing others to join them in overeating and in resulting obesity, which gives credence to the quote, "you are known by the company you keep"!
It’s no surprise that we tend to associate with people who share common likes or habits; including recreational eating, among others. Friends do share common habits and, according to this study, common maladies. Some may have hypertension in common; some share inebriation, and now, buddy eating is a confirmed cause of obesity. The opposite is also true, as the same study pointed out, that skinny people tend to "make" their friends skinny and/or mutually adhere to a chosen set of social eating habits.
For some people in some situations, it’s just not cool to stand out from the crowd. Unfortunately, many of us end up on the heavy end — perhaps, literally — of unhealthy habits and patterns by not trusting our instincts and better judgment, but opting for popularity among our peers. Over-eating; over-dieting, over anything that throws us off balance, over the top and out of the green, interferes with a full and healthy life, physically and psychologically. As a society, we seem almost driven to be noticed; not by singularity but by group consensus.
These are clearly stressful YELLOW and RED social messages that surround so many aspects of our lives, tamper with our self images and self worth, and can’t help but spill over into our work rhythms; to our co-workers; to our home environments and the loved ones who share it; and to other friends and acquaintances. The concept of socializing in the green — or doing anything in the green, for that matter — is severely threatened by peer pressure to "belong".
It’s just a matter of time before we run into problems if we start to believe that there’s something wrong with us if we don’t object to being cloned by the people we call peers and friends.
A guiding factor, in choosing friends — particularly green ones — is to make sure that they care about, respect and appreciate you for who you are, not for your suitability as a new addition to their group.
It’s uncomfortable to incorporate foreign behaviors or actions that don’t come naturally into daily living. So, if it doesn’t feel green and give you an uplifting dose of oxygen (and allow you to do the same) think twice before you become enmeshed in relationships that go against your important core life principles.
Staying true to ourselves, our core values, the lessons we learn from life and, of course, the Oxygen Plan, make socializing in bright green a very attainable goal. Healthy, green, social interactions bring discovery and positive, lasting benefits, and that unmistakable feeling of being completely at ease and comfortable with yourself and with those around you. That’s the healthy mindset of green groups of friends. Making confident, positive green social choices lets you become and share a joyful you with the world, not an unhealthy replica of something you aren’t.
Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it’s off to wO2rk® we go …
Posted on March 7th, 2011 by Eric LucasEven the Seven Dwarfs had stress issues. Imagine seven little guys — with very distinct personalities — living with the kind and gorgeous Snow White, but going to work in a Diamond Mine, by day, cheerfully singing "heigh ho, heigh ho, it’s off to work we go". Talk about optimism among competition! Poor Snow White is probably torn, too, making sure not to show too much favoritism among her eccentric little roommates.
Do you ever go to work and think of it as a cartoon environment? Humor is a very good way to diffuse any stressful situation and keep us in the green, if only momentarily. Cartoons or funny visual images, although cute and amusing, are not real. Job stress, is.
Many of us are doing exactly what we want to do; or doing our best at a job that may be a steppingstone to our real goals; or, at the least, finding ways to make the best of less-than-optimum situations in the workplace.
Most of us spend the majority of our time at work, producing products, delivering services and/or ideas for public consumption. It is a place where structure and deadlines; forms and formats; evaluations and strategies are, for the most part, imposed upon us. Pressures to produce the biggest and the best constantly hover in the background of any business, even if you own and operate your own.
So, how do we function and still stay in the green, at work?
- Re-evaluating your core values is a good — and affirming — place to start. Ask yourself, "How much of the best of me do I give to my job?" This brief and empowering self-examination will yield your own appreciation of the green qualities you bring to work! And, you can be sure, that your green attitude is not lost on co-workers or bosses. It is very contagious.
- As employees, we know from the start that we will be working and making decisions for the good of the company. We are doing that job, however, because we were the best and greenest candidates for the position. So, in addition to performing our tasks to the best of our ability, remember that we were picked for the individual skills and assets we bring to the work experience.
- Issues with particular people in the workplace are most commonly the source of on-the-job stress. It’s unrealistic to think that everyone we encounter in a given work day, is going to be green for us. When you see that stressor or an interaction approaching, thinking green on the inside will encourage you to be green, on the outside. Try it. It works! You’re in charge of your thoughts, so why not paint as green a canvas, as you can?
- Trust your own inner dialogue with yourself to a) not be drawn into YELLOW areas and/or b) to look at the situation with objectivity and optimism and c) above all, be true to yourself in the encounter to give and get as much oxygen, as possible. Limiting contact and communication with yellow-ish (or even RED) people — if you can — is the most direct way of maintaining a green mindset.
- Focusing on specific tasks/goals and prioritizing the order in which you accomplish them makes for an unbeatable green feeling of achievement.
- Take breaks — literally walk away from your desk, 2 or 3 times a day to take a peek outside, grab a cup of coffee with a co-worker OR if you need to stay at your desk, just close your eyes for a second, take a few deep breaths of refreshing oxygen, and carry on. Take a book or your iPod to lunch with you. The visual and/or aural diversion holds relaxing, recharging green benefits.
- Look forward to the end of your day; to enjoyable plans you may have with friends or family after work; to shopping; to catching a movie with your partner; to just getting out of the building and into the and green areas of your life.
- Think of the check you’ll see at the end of the week! Very green. Being financially solvent is a happy state of being, for anyone.
Whether we believe it or not, being the best we can be can’t be shut off, at will. We may have to alter the ways in which we apply and accept greenness in the world, but each of us has an awesome core of green goodness to nurture and share — even at wO2rk®!
For many people, February is the time of year when some of us, well… stagnate. Things around us just seem to slow down or run on auto pilot after the holidays pass; after the snow begins to melt (or clobber us, again), after people prepare their income taxes and learn they may have had more money last year and will have even less of it after they pay Uncle Sam, this year! Business activity and expenditures generally decline or tighten. Personal or household purchases may be limited. For many, February is a time of hibernation — at home, at work and socially.
Think back, for a moment, about your February, 2011. What green people, places and things have graced your life in the preceding 4 weeks?
- Did you spend the kind of green quality time with friends and family that renew and refresh you?
- Did you bring your partner flowers, for no reason at all, or spend lots of quality time with a child child?
- Did you change your scenery and sensory intake with short weekend trips or even go on a major vacation or take a cruise to some idyllic island paradise?
- Did you rediscover the timeless thrill of going to your favorite art or history museum?
- Did you run into an old friend and enjoy a cup of hot, freshly-brewed coffee together and catch up on old times?
- Or, did you take a vacation of the mind?
- Did you stock up on the books and magazines and lose yourself in some fantastic plot?
- Did you visit Italy by faithfully watching the Food Channel and by grabbing some incredible recipes that will really impress your guests?
- Did you create a scrapbook of an extra special event?
- Did you take painting lessons and produce a masterpiece?
- Did you do something good for someone else, like volunteering to read to kids at the local library; joining a theatre group (not all the jobs are onstage and every theatre company always needs help behind the scenes!) to usher or help build sets?
Doing something for someone who can’t do it themselves or who, perhaps, have never been exposed to certain kindnesses, makes the worth of our green deeds so amazingly high, for both parties!
Helping out at the local animal shelter will fill you with more green experiences, than you ever can imagine. Who doesn’t melt when an innocent little puppy licks your face and touches your heart?
In Freetown, Massachusetts, for example, the "Save Skippy" campaign is underway to rescue Skippy, a young golden retriever, who is at the center of an "owner neglect" issue. People from around the country and even Canada have expressed interest in fostering or adopting Skippy, as their own. This outpouring of concern and kind offers humble those involved and those who follow the story. Advocating for a living creature that cannot participate in his own fate is probably one of the most selflessly green things a person can do.
This particular story, in fact, shows people like you and me, reacting to an individual’s (the owner’s) very RED behavior by providing a very GREEN solution. Here, quite simply, is The Oxygen Plan, at work. The benefits of the plan, when applied to a very simple life situation such as this, are crystal clear, self-identifying and there, for the taking.
While you’re at it, give a quick look back at your year. What were the highs? What were the lows? Like Journaling, looking back at the big picture — or a solid year’s worth of activities and developments — gives us enough distance to see patterns, categories, actions and decisions regarding stressful issues and the strategies we used to deal with them — successfully or unsuccessfully.
Remember, that whatever you did to fill your month 02 with 02 can be repeated again and again!
You know you’re dying to do it, SO JUST DO IT!
Sweep back those depressing room-darkening, awful-ugly insulated curtains!
Pull up those noisy, plastic mini-blinds, revel in the clickety-clacking sound they make and lock the cord in place!
Give a good serious I-mean-business tug to the bottom of the window shade, let it go, and squeal at the whirring racket it makes when it hits the top of the window sash! (Sure beats an alarm clock.)
Unsnap those heavy window locks, press your face to the glass and feast your eyes on winter’s departure.
Here’s the best part. Push the windows way up!
Stick you head outside and inhale the first joyful, rejuvenating breath of spring! The branches of a tree may rustle or hum in the breeze or a mother bird may be disciplining her brood at the top of her lungs. Enjoy it. This spring thing can turn out to be a symphony of sensory delights! Thank you, Mother Nature!
But what took you so long?
Actually, Mother Nature has been faithfully doing her job all year ‘round — even if she has been a little heavy-handed in the snow department. (‘Must have been a bargain on it, wherever she shops.)
More to the point, maybe our own issues of sameness and habit; boredom, and unchanging, locked-tight thinking, have caused us to weigh ourselves down in stressful situations that repeat and continue — not the snow and ice. Come out of hibernation!
One of the beauties of the premise and application of the Oxygen Plan, from its inception, has been its ability to be absorbed and worked by anyone at any time. No matter what seasons we weather – literally or figuratively — the creation of our Personal Oxygen Plan is always possible and adaptable to changing lifestyles; thought and behavior patterns and the passage of time.
There’s nothing better than breathing in oxygen-fresh air — or re-establishing new ways to give and get oxygen which revitalizes our bodies, our minds, our psyches, our physical environments and our relationships.
The mere physical act of doing something small — like opening a window and changing the stagnant air and indoor atmosphere of a brutally cold and snowy winter, for example— is a very GREEN action. It’s positive, it’s healthy; it promotes change or, in our vernacular, it’s like CLEANING HO2USE to make it stress-proof!
The mental spark that prompts us to look at stress in our lives and put helpful programs to work to reduce it, goes hand-in-hand with the physical activities we undertake.
Taking an ongoing inventory of the people, places and things that are YELLOW (or, worse RED) for us; categorizing them, setting rules to toss them away or deal with them less stressfully and, finally, repeating the process, with individual comfort and ease, yields the same results as opening a window, as wide and as high as you can, and taking in healing oxygen to live in the GREEN.
Following and reviewing the four steps of the Oxygen Plan (Inventory, Categorize, Set Rules and Repeat) may already come together quickly for you, or you may choose to seasonally revisit each step and re-personalize them, anew. Compare this thinking to laundering your existing spring curtains or buying brand new ones! Either way, the decision and choices are downright GREEN.
On the first balmy day of a new season, be inspired to configure a way to limit and eventually eliminate contact with a RED person, place or thing by finding a GREEN person, place or thing to replace it/them with. You may love your aerobic workout sessions at the gym, but you’re not crazy about the instructor. Could you go on days when someone else leads the group?
You love your aunt Hilda, but she’s become accustomed to cooking supper for you at her house, once a week. What might have been a fun evening, once in a while, has become a weekly duty. Depending on how YELLOW this situation may be for you, you can replace this routine with a GREEN dinner activity, like volunteering at a local food pantry, where you can give and get more oxygen.
Now’s the time to air out all the possibilities!
Three little words can change your life.
Now, let’s see. How about “The Oxygen Plan” (that’s three, right?) and “I love you” (another famous trio). What about, “I need some help (oxygen)”? Compared to “I need help (oxygen)”, the first two are rather easy, don’t you think? These examples may or may not intersect in your life, but they can and maybe they even should.
We live in a cyber-society and we all know how easy it is to let technology do our talking, our explaining; our communicating. Whatever happened to the good old-fashioned, face-to-face? And, how come we assume we can do everything for ourselves and everybody else, without needing and accepting help somewhere along the line? When we lose sight of our individual selves and all the amazing, positive things we are, we become detached from the immediate reality that we are human and do not live in air-tight bubbles.
For us at The Oxygen Plan, in our green mindsets–and for you in yours—we’ve already said, “I need help dealing with the stress in my life” and The Oxygen Plan has come to the rescue! In fact, one of the most important things you’ll learn while using the Oxygen Plan, is to continually take stock (inventory, if you will) of the pieces of your life that work and of those that need help. The lasting gift of The Oxygen Plan is the one you give to yourself to gain control of your life and minimize or eliminate your personal stress issues so you can be the best you.
If people, places and things are sometimes or consistently yellow or red for you, asking for help to lessen their effects is a very healthy and green thing to do – the sooner the better. Seeking and obtaining help, most directly from the uplifting and invigorating green people, places and things in your life, will shorten the time it takes you to get back to your positive green self, with the least wear and tear on your “green-quilibrium”.
Realizing that maybe you need some help or assistance with any task in your life that causes you to worry, to procrastinate and feel overwhelmed, is the first step in lessening the stress you feel from the situation, itself. This self-discovery is empowering, not diminishing.
In asking for help, give yourself and the situation a simple reality check. The outcome may be brighter and greener than you think.
For instance, if you dread the whole moving scenario, but are determined to move all your worldly belongings from the country house you’ve lived in for 20 years, to a miniscule condo in the city, by yourself and make it all fit, chances are you can’t! When your green friends show up at your new place to help, what they’ll find is a very tired, dusty person, stuck in red or yellow mud!
A simple request for help—with a work project, preparing a meal for a house full of people, parenting; nursing sick kids or parents; on moving day; cleaning an attic, or merely asking a friend to sit down and listen to your problems— is often viewed by the “asker” as unnecessary or burdensome to those they ask. What is that saying to you about how you value yourself and the people close to you?
Fear of how others will respond to our requests for their time and energies often stop us dead in our tracks, placing us in a damaging yellow or red place. Conjuring in your head the possible scenarios about asking for help, especially from the green people you trust and who care about you, has to be one of the most stressful activities there is! Isn’t the task at hand stressful enough without piling on additional anxiety?
“I’m really putting an unrealistic burden on my friend to ask him to help me move”, is a common thought. Or, “If I ask my co-worker to look over the report I’ve done, she’ll avoid me like the plague in the future or just think I’m pretty stupid.” That’s a popular one, too. There’s a pattern here. Do you see it? In both cases, self-doubt clouds the probable positive outcome and convinces the individual that he or she is not worth the time or effort they require to progress from point A to point B. We’re not talking about a lifetime of aid and assistance, but our reactions make it seem that way.
Asking for help (oxygen) is not a sign of weakness. Rather, it is a healthy sign of clear-headedness, positive energy, direction, self-knowledge and strength of character.
Three little words can lessen your stress and paint your world very green. Please use them.