Family Matters

Stress is considered the number one killer in our society. Whereas in the past, a healthy lifestyle included eating well, sleeping well and exercising enough as the main characteristics, today, being stress-free is another important one.

As a parent, I am sure that you feel stressed many times a day. Juggling home tasks, quality time with your partner, work and attending to all your kids' needs can be demanding. Stress becomes part of everyday life. Stress is a feeling of tension or pressure because of something that happened in the past, something that is happening now or fear of something that might only happen in the future.

Stress and constant pressure can make you unhappy and unhealthy. The most common problems associated with stress are insomnia, migraine, indigestion and depression.

Firstly, to move into a stress-free zone, you need to examine the things you are stressed about. Sometimes, the feeling is there and yet there is no clear understanding of what it is. PMS produces such a feeling: the body is tight, and if you do not have a good record of your last period, you may not even know that this is the cause of your stress (PMS is a source of stress for women and for men…). Finding the cause is important.

Whenever you feel tense, ask yourself these questions:

1. Am I worried about something that happened in the past?
2. Am I worried about something that is happening to me now?
3. Am I worried about something that I believe is about to happen in the future?

Not all stress is bad. When we talk about basic needs (food, warmth and safety), stress can function as a motivator to ensure that these basic needs are preserved. However, being under stress for too long gradually wears you down and negatively affects your performance and your health.

If your kids are stressed, use the questions below to understand your own level of stress and the areas in which you need to help your kids, to teach them how to be stress free.

Remember, for kids, Mom and Dad are role models. If Mom and Dad live in stress, the kids adopt the same lifestyle because they do not know any better way. Many times, when they finally grow up and understand this, they are already set in their ways so much that it is hard for them to change without professional help.

• Does your kid find it hard to express their feelings?
• Is your kid running late and short of time most of the time?
• Does your kid find it hard to relax?
• Does your kid seem to be unhappy?
• Is your kid afraid of new things?
• Is your kid terrified of change?
• Is your kid grumpy in the morning for no apparent reason?
• Is your kid preoccupied with what he or she eats?
• Is your kid irritated by others?
• Does your kid have problems sleeping?
• Does your kid lose his or her temper often?

Things you need to know about Stress

1. No one is totally free from stress. We all experience periods in our life when we are stressed, tired and tense. It is not the end of the world.
2. The difference between people and their levels of stress is not to do with what happens to them throughout the course of their lives, but with how they react to what happens to them.
3. Each person has a different resistance to stress. You can gradually increase your resistance.

Join us next week for the post "60 Tips to a Stress-Free Lifestyle".

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Be happy,
Ronit

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