Stress Management & Leisure

No one would expect a football player to play an entire season without taking breaks. Surprisingly though, many otherwise rational people think nothing of working from dawn to dusk without taking intermissions, and then wonder why they become distressed. The two major issues are pacing and work/leisure balance.

Pacing has two components: monitoring your stress and energy level, and then pacing yourself accordingly. It is about awareness and vigilance; knowing when to extend yourself and when to ease up. It is also about acting on the information your body gives you. Some important points:

• Increased stress produces increased performance, initially.
• Once you pass a certain point (the hump), any more stress results in decreased performance. Trying harder at this point is unproductive or even counterproductive. The only sensible move is to take a break.
• We need a certain amount of stress to function well (healthy tension) - this is called eustress (good stress). However, stress becomes harmful (distress) when there is too much, when it lasts too long or when it occurs too often.
• One of the first symptoms of distress is fatigue, which we tend to ignore. D

Work-leisure balance. Despite all our labor-saving devices, leisure is still an elusive commodity for most people. Statistics show that the average person is working an extra three hours per week compared with 20 years ago. That translates into an extra month of work each year. Add to that the phenomenon of the two career family (which makes family and leisure time even more scarce) and you start to get a picture of society on an accelerating treadmill.

Leisure time and levels of distress are inversely proportional - the less leisure, the more stress. Docotors ask patients to fill in a chart so they can both see what their work/ leisure ratio looks like. They ask them to think of their lives (excluding sleep time) in four compartments (work, family, community and self) and then to assess what percentage of their time and energy in an average week goes into each part. There is no normal range but doctors become concerned when work is over 60% and/or when self is less than 10%. We all require time to meet our own needs (self-care, self-nurturing, etc.) and when that is neglected, trouble usually follows. Self directed activities can include exercise or recreation, relaxation, socializing, entertainment and hobbies. The word leisure is derived from the Latin word licere which means "permission." The main reason so many people do not have enough leisure is that they are not giving themselves permission to make the time to enjoy it.

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