Psychologist Helen Gibbons shares the best ways to bring your stress levels down a notch or three.
You would be hard-pressed to find a busy broker who hasn’t experienced stress at some point in their career.
The bad news: Stress can have serious implications for your health. The good news: There’s something simple you can do about it.
Psychologist Helen Gibbons says there a few simple warning signs to look out for in order to gauge your stress levels.
“In business, it's important to take action when you start to see those signs. Are you feeling disorganised? Are you finding it difficult to make decisions? Are you suffering from short term memory problems? Are you more irritable than normal? Do you feel more fatigued than normal? All these things will help you identify if you’re in a high stress zone and whether something should be done about it.
“Workplace stress is very real, and in the mortgage broking industry clearly the demands of the job are going to cause elevated stress levels, which impacts on your physical and mental health; it affects your immune system, your cognitive ability, the ability to make decisions and so much more.”
Gibbons suggests regularly practicing short, 5-15 minute mental exercises that have been proven to not only reduce stress levels and improve health, but also boost management perofrmance.
“For the mortgage broker, it helps to consciously control the nervous system and teaches you to tune into signals that your body is giving you… It really appeals to the thinking person because it is so methodical.”
The technique is called Autogenics, and has been used by the police force, NASA and top athletes to achieve the highest possible levels of performance.
By practicing the technique in the mornings and evenings business owners usually see a marked difference in well-being after three to six weeks, says Gibbons.
“It dramatically lowers stress hormones in the body and moves the blood to the centres of the brain that are needed for peak performance. When we’re stressed the organs in our bodies are overworked and we can have problems not only with thinking and decision-making but with digestion and the performance of our organs in general.”
Gibbons offers a short Autogenics taster to try twice a day:
- Sit quietly with your feet flat on the floor. Place your hands on your thighs, palms up, and close your eyes.
- Take a moment to notice how your body is feeling.
- Repeat in your mind the phrase “Body: Peaceful and calm” three times.
- Consider how your arms and hands are feeling.
- Repeat “Arms and hands: Heavy and warm” three times.
- Repeat steps three and four.
- Notice how your legs feel.
- Repeat “Legs and feet: Heavy and warm” three times.
- Repeat step three four.
In your own time, open your eyes again. You mind should feel more relaxed and clear, and your body warmer and calmer.
Helen Gibbons is the founder of The Autogenics Institute and pioneer of Autogenics in Australia. For more information see autogenictherapy.com.au
