Credit: www.quantumbinders.co.uk
Christian Book Reviews, Self Improvement, Positivity
by Lloyd Wells
Apparently, smashing up your office printer as a way to release stress and tension is now a thing. Since we all suffer from excessive anger, brought on by the chaos of our lives – traffic hold-ups, office tensions, relationship problems and so on – we should go right ahead and take a baseball bat to office equipment because it’ll help us feel better.
Bear with me.
Anger’s a perfectly reasonable emotion, the gurus tell us, so rather than keeping it bottled up, we should smash the living daylights out of old household items like printers, televisions, toasters, fridges and even washing machines, in order to restore our inner calm.
Let’s put this into perspective.
I suppose in a world that permits tennis players to grunt and scream to their heart’s content, where spectators can shout ‘get in the hole!’ at golf tournaments without being thrown out of the club, where parents allow their children to run amok in shops and restaurants but won’t allow their school teachers to tell them off, and where people are seriously considering the rules of sports games to that no-one loses, I suppose encouraging wanton destruction of innocent office machinery in the name of anger management is just the next logical step.
Whatever happened to taking a few deep breaths to calm down? To teach methods and techniques to keep anger in check? Too much to ask??
Now, I’m not an unreasonable guy, I’ve sometimes been known to curse and swear at my printer when she jams or malfunctions and I’m running late for a meeting. But I’d like to think that I can control myself sufficiently so as not to inflict terminal equipment damage.
However, there seem to be plenty of people who would disagree with me. Perhaps they’ve watched the slow-motion scene of the 1999 cult classic movie Office Space – where three office workers brutally destroy their malfunctioning printer with baseball bats – too many times?
A recent Wall Street Journal article on this printer bashing trend stated that they’d done extensive research to reveal that an average of 10 good whacks is all it takes to demolish a printer.
And in an article I read just the other day, readers are informed that because of rising stress levels at work, many companies are now investigating new and less harmful ways to help employees manage their anger. This kind of ‘let it all out’ anger management facilitation is gaining in popularity and there are now places knows as ‘Rage Rooms’ where people can pay for a smashing session! One rage room provider goes through more than 15 printers a week, saving their biggest and juiciest machines for corporate smash parties! Apparently, printers inspire more hate and loathing than any other machine.
So, is this expressive and explosive kind of anger management a good idea? Does smashing an inanimate object make people better at handling stress in a healthy way? Is it working? Sigmund Freud certainly thought so. He and his contemporaries believed that punching objects was a good way for patients to rid themselves of anger, and that they could then deal with the underlying issues causing the feelings in the first place.
Today, our knowledge of anger management and how to deal with it in the workplace has become somewhat more sophisticated – dare I say enlightened?
Concepts like mindfulness and meditation help people experience emotions including anger, sadness or jealousy and deal with them in a detached and calm way. The more detached we become from harmful emotions like anger, the more we’re able to reduce its impact on our lives, and on the lives of our loved ones. That’s a bit more like it!
And just to prove my case, scientific evidence suggests that venting anger makes things worse, not better. People who regularly express anger, even in controlled situations like a Rage Room, are more likely to suffer from heart disease. Letting out our anger actually increases our aggression towards others. Even when people feel better as a result of smashing something, they’re still more likely to be aggressive towards others. I rest my case.
Just one final thought on the issue. If your company’s printers are forever jamming and malfunctioning, making you as mad as a rattlesnake, don’t look for a hammer to smash them, rather get on the phone and outsource your print management.
Problem solved, by Lloyd Wells – a freelance writer in the tech world, working with the PBS Group to avoid the Rage Room and remain mindful.
Written by Mike James, a freelance writer partnering with Into the Blue on this and a number of other Christmas posts.
For many people, Christmas is the highlight of the year. It’s a chance to unwind from the hassles and stresses of life and celebrate the festivities surrounded by friends and family. A time to be happy and to feel loved. But what if you don’t?
People can be alone at Christmas for many different reasons – living far from home, no close family, or the recent loss of a loved one are just a few examples. Did you know that around half a million elderly people spend Christmas on their own every year?
It’s important not to confuse being alone with being lonely. While it’s perfectly possible to enjoy the solitude of your own company anywhere and anytime, Christmas included, loneliness is never fun and can be hard to bear. According to Age Concern, 1.2 million people in the UK are chronically lonely.
If you’re dreading spending the Christmas holidays on your own, here are some tips and ideas to help you cope.
Shift the focus away from your own situation and make Christmas all about giving. Many charities and voluntary organisations are active throughout the Christmas period (and beyond!) to help those in need, and an extra pair of hands is always welcome.
Volunteering is a great way to get amongst people and away from your lonely home, while making a real difference to those less fortunate than yourself. Being able to help others at this crucial time of year will give you a different sense of happiness and perhaps the opportunity to gain inspiration and strength from people in all sorts of difficult situations.
Check for charity events in your local area or online, and consider offering to help out at a soup kitchen or charity Christmas dinner, bring gifts to a children’s hospital, or visit lonely residents at a Nursing Home.
If there’s an opportunity to work through the Christmas period, why not take the chance to keep busy? There are plenty of others who will be keen to take Christmas off to spend time with their families, meaning your offer to hold the fort and keep business going may be very welcome indeed.
Develop a sense of Christmas camaraderie with other colleagues who are also on duty over the festive period and have a little celebration between you. Mince pies at the desk? Fairy lights draped around the office? Christmas carols on the radio?
Even better, depending on the sort of work you do, you could be on an attractive overtime rate. Now there’s a Christmas present you wouldn’t have had otherwise!
With over a million chronically lonely people in this country, you’re certainly not the only one to have nobody to share Christmas with. Chances are that there are others nearby in exactly the same situation. Why not club together?
Investigate local community groups or church organisations to see if you can join in with a community Christmas Dinner, possibly making new friends in the process? Alternatively, if you’d like the opportunity to cook up a Christmas feast yourself, why not be the host?
Orphan Christmas is a new movement originating in Australia, encouraging people to open their hearts and doors to those in the community who may otherwise spend Christmas on their own.
Community Christmas is an initiative to make sure no elderly person has to spend Christmas alone. They organise Christmas Lunches, pub/restaurant visits, film viewings and all sorts of other get-togethers aimed at building social interaction in the community.
Perhaps your friends and relatives are far away, or you’re not able to meet up for reasons of illness or mobility issues? In that case, have Christmas party online!
Technology, thankfully, has completely revolutionised the way we’re able to communicate with each other – you can now even get Christmas e-Cards here. From text messaging to social media, email to video calling, it’s now easy to keep in touch. Use Skype, Facetime or Google Hangouts to set up virtual meetings with your loved ones – whether they live around the corner or across the globe. By setting up a Skype chatroom or Facebook group, people can drop in and out as they please. And the best bit? You don’t have to do the cooking or the cleaning, or even get dressed!
Rather than sitting at home feeling down during the Christmas holidays, now is the chance to do something you wouldn’t normally have time for. Choir Singing or Quilting? Chess or Country Walking? As long as it’s an activity you’re excited about and it involves social interaction or team work, it’s got to be a good thing.
Why not give a Christmas present to yourself that isn’t a ‘thing’ but an experience? If you fancy yourself as a bit of a wine connoisseur, sign up for a Wine Appreciation course. If you’ve always wanted to learn how to make chocolate truffles, a Chocolate Workshop may be the perfect answer. From Flower Arranging to Salsa Dancing, Yoga Retreats to Bushcraft Skills, now’s the time to broaden your horizons.
Try to incorporate a physical element into your activity as this is proven to have mood lifting benefits. And if your mood is more positive, you’re more likely to want to reach out and connect with the people around you.
Here, regular site contributor Mike James put together a list of the most typical symptoms of anxiety to watch out for during a house move, after consulting UK based company Nice Man Big Van.
It’s no surprise to learn that moving house is in the top five of the most stressful situations we will encounter in our lifetime. Along with bereavement, divorce, major illness and job loss, moving home is one of our most notoriously stressful life experiences. It literally turns our world upside down. It represents a transition in life and it involves coping with change.
According to Anxiety UK, a charity supporting people affected by anxiety, stress and depression, two thirds of people in a recent poll voted moving house at the top of their stress list. Poll respondents reported that moving house triggered more anxiety than relationship breakdowns, divorce and starting a new job.
Feeling stressed or anxious over moving house isn’t a sign of weakness. Recognising how stressful moving house is and focusing on the positive aspects of the move will help you to remember why you made the decision to move in the first place. Recognising the symptoms of anxiety and developing strategies for dealing with the manifestations of stress are just as important as preparing for the move.
We’ve put together a list of the most typical symptoms of anxiety to watch out for. If you do find yourself suffering from anxiety, it’s not likely that you’ll get all of the symptoms at the same time, plus symptoms may come and go. As some of the symptoms may be representative of other conditions, it’s a good idea to consult your GP to rule out anything serious.
Symptoms of anxiety
Even though moving house, in most instances, is a happy occasion, the disruption to your routine, not to mention the packing, the changing of schools for the kids, and the switching of energy suppliers, all adds up to a stressful upheaval. Here are some of our best stress-busting strategies to help you deal with the potential chaos.
There’s nothing more important when moving house than being prepared. Take plenty of time to pack. Pack rooms up in an orderly manner (don’t pack the kettle, cups and teabags until last). Being prepared will significantly reduce your stress levels.
Schedule everything you need well ahead of the moving day. Give yourself eight weeks prior to the move and plan a timetable for everything that needs to be done. Treating it as a project to be managed with deadlines will help keep you on track.
A removal firm can help you with as little or as much as you like. From the simple hiring of a van, through to the entire moving process, it may be a worthwhile moving expense for your sanity. Trying to do it all alone inevitably ends up in a feeling of being overwhelmed, and it’s not long before you realise you’ve taken on too much. Many removal companies offer storage and packing solutions as well.
Having a strategy to deal with any symptoms of anxiety is a good idea. Simple breathing exercises are a really easy way of taking a step back and won’t take long. You’ll get the most benefit if you factor in breathing exercises regularly.
Mindfulness practice has hit the headlines in recent years as the cure-all for stress. There are several techniques, but here are our favourite two:
Wearing yourself out will only add to your sense of anxiety. You need respite to function efficiently. Take regular breaks in your busy schedule.
Nothing affects us in a more negative way than a lack of sleep. Don’t be tempted to stay up late to complete tasks. As the evening wears on you’ll be less efficient anyway. Sleep deprivation will only add to your sense of anxiety.
Don’t be tempted to skip meals. Looking after yourself is even more important during times of stress. You’ll need your energy for the move, so it makes sense to take the time to eat a healthy balanced diet.
While you may think you are invincible, you may have underestimated the enormity of a house move. Accept all offers of childcare, and take time off work. Don’t be afraid to ask for help either. Most of your friends and family will be willing and happy to help you out. Be clear about how they can help you.
Or time zone.
Or President.
You get the idea.
However, it’s often us woefully imperfect humans that have the most to share that could be of a helpful nature to others. Why? Because when we hit upon something right or good, it stands out like a lighthouse in the dark of night. We’re like, “Holy cats! I got this right! Let me tell you about it!”
One of the things this imperfect human “got right” was this: At some point along life’s highway, I decided that having (and keeping) a sense of humor is the secret to life. Okay, secret to life may be a little dramatic, but you can’t really fault me for that – I grew up watching Susan Lucci on All My Children. How could I not, at times, wax dramatic?
Someone else I grew up with was a father who was probably never serious for more than 10 minutes at a stretch. That’s undoubtedly where I got it from. That and an overwhelming obsession with birds, westerns, flowers, and coffee.
Cool genes.
In my Twitter bio (on my personal Twitter account, @JoiTaniaSigers), I even mention my refusal to take anything too seriously. That, of course does not imply that I am not serious when in the presence of things that are of a serious nature. Far from it. It simply means that a sense of humor is one of the two things I’ll always carry with me into any battle.
Even if the battle is an MRI and even if it’s God, Himself, I’m cracking jokes with.
When I was in my mid-twenties, my oldest daughter and I were in a bad wreck (it wasn’t remotely my fault, I just want to put that out there – so many vehicular mishaps ARE of my doing, I’m darn sure going to crow when one isn’t). I had to have an MRI – which is perfect, perfect, perfect HELL for someone who is claustrophobic. H-E-L-L. I was scared to death leading up to the MRI and I was scared to death as I was rolled into the narrow machine.
So, with eyes tightly shut, I prayed. And prayed. And prayed. (Prayer is the other thing I carry into battles.) At one point, I prayed for God to send a guardian angel to help calm my nerves so I could last for the full 30 minutes. Then I said, “No! Cancel that last order… there isn’t room for both of us! DO NOT send an angel in here.”
I immediately pictured God chuckling at my silliness and had to chuckle myself.
I lasted the 30 minutes.
Just last night, while making supper, I burned my left hand badly. No, let’s give it the respect it deserves – I burned it BADLY. I splashed a good deal of HOT bacon grease out of my iron skillet and onto the front of my left hand – and up a finger.
It hurt like crazy. It hurt like crazy when they put medication on my hand in the urgent care center and it hurt when they wrapped it. It hurt as I sat up in bed last night when I should’ve been sleeping. Kind of hard to sleep when the entire top surface of your hand and one finger are blistered up and burning like someone sat a match to a glove and stuck your hand in it.
It hurts like crazy now too – in fact, my left hand is hating me with a cruel hatred with each word I type. It’s like, “You’re doing this, why?? First you baptize me with hot bacon grease and now you’re putting me on a keyboard treadmill??”
A lot of pain and inconvenience involved – But, like the MRI, the bacon grease and the pain did not win. I won. Why? I found the humor in the situation.
That’s the thing about seeing things through clown glasses (whenever possible), you take full control of the situation – you snatch it right out of the enemy’s claws. This morning, as I sat looking at the bandaged hand and wondering when or if it would actually quit hurting, I realized that I needed to let my psyche and my family know that I was okay…. that’d I’d come out on top and had taken victory out of the enemy’s claws.
I found a stuffed girl bear, put some tape on her paw (her left paw, like mine), and took a picture. I sent it to my daughters and said, “Twinsies!”
Being goofy, being silly, being downright weird, and laughing – those are my weapons and this was my way of letting my girls know that I’d won.
Whatever you’re going through, I’m with you in spirit. I know bad situations are not funny – but I also know that if you can find any humor whatsoever, it will save you.
I am now going to give this poor hand a break and pour a tall glass of iced tea, sit in my favorite chair, watch Andy Griffith reruns – and pray the episode where the farmer’s barn burns down isn’t in the lineup.
~ Joi (“Joy”)
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