How to improve Productivity and Performance in 5 Easy Steps!

1) Get at least 7 hours sleep! Mrs Thatcher famously only needed 4 hours sleep but she power-napped during the day to make up the time her brain needed to recuperate and rejuvenate. If you do not get enough sleep you cannot function at the highest level.

2) Spend at least 20-60 minutes every day in meditation/trance/prayer mode, with your brain waves  down to theta level. At this level, stress hormone release is significantly reduced. When you go back up to beta, you then have control of your subconscious mind and can act consciously instead of automatically.

3) Take at least 30 minutes exercise during the day. Go for a walk or cycle ride. People who walk or cycle have trimmer waistlines than people who don't! And their blood sugar levels are more likely to be normal.

4) Think positive thoughts. People who turn everything to the positive are much less stressed than people who just accept the situation for what it is or see it as a positive.

5) Eat more vegetables and plant-based protein than animal protein and refined foods to improve your energy levels and protect your future health.

Noah's Ark and the Art of Building a Business

The majority of people in this country don't profess to have a religious belief, but that doesn't mean we can't learn from the Holy Bible or other Holy books.  A few year's ago I found an inspirational article on the web from Woodstock Baptist Church entitled 'Everything I need to know about life, I learnt from Noah's Ark'. I would like to update it and call it 'Almost everything you need to know about  business is contained in the story of Noah's Ark'. because the words hold true for the business community. I hope Woodstock Baptist Church will approve!


1.  There is often only one chance in life to do something and if that moment has passed then catching up is impossible, so don't miss the boat.
2.  There is only one earth and whatever we do to it has consequences. Similarly, whatever we say or do has consequences. So whichever boat we find ourselves in, we need to look after it.
3. People laughed at Noah for spending so much time and effort in building his boat, but those that did ended up dead in the water. Closed minds lead to stagnation.
4. Noah was 600 years old when he built the Ark. He had kept himself fit and healthy and was up for the challenge. Do you look after your body by giving it good food and exercising regularly?
5. If you are going to do a job, do it well. Make sure you have a strong platform on which to build.
6. Don't listen to negative criticism,  Open-minded people will support you with positive suggestions - the last thing you want is negativity and nay-sayers around you.
7. For safety, get at least one other person on-side so you have a mutual support network. If at least one other person likes your idea, then surely more than one will.
8. Speed isn't always necessary. The Ark carried snails as well as cheetahs. Sometimes slow progress is more stable than fast growth. Look what happened to all those dotcom companies!
9. Remember to just float and enjoy the scenery. Stress is a negative emotion which leads to illness whereas relaxation and mindfulness allow the brain to make inciteful, appropriate decisions.
10. The Ark was built by amateurs who learnt as they went along. No-one is an expert in anything when they first start out - that doesn't mean to say that the project wont be successful.  The Titanic was built by professionals......
11. Be happy and stay positive. No matter how bad the storm, there will be a rainbow over the horizon.

Teacher Stress - how bad is it?

A recent post about stress and the teaching profession in the Linked-In Group Teacher's Lounge has, to date, had over 60 responses. All responses have commented that the job is so stressful that it is making people ill and causing teachers to leave in droves. Teachers feel they are undervalued by pupils, parents, their managers and the state; they feel they are overworked and under-paid; they feel they spend too many hours working; they feel demotivated; they feel they don't get enough down-time during the day; they feel they have too much paperwork; they feel they are governed too tightly and inspected too frequently; they feel that only they can understand what they are going through; they feel unique.

There is one word which links all these complaints - the word 'feel'. Their emotional response is one of negativity and negative thinking leads to stress hormone release. Stress hormones are protective hormones which make us want to run away, stand and fight or freeze like a rabbit in a car's headlights - in teacher's case it is making them want to resign, crawl away and hide. The very word 'teacher' is creating negative associations in the brain which instantly releases stress hormones, making them feel anxious. Stress is something which can be controlled because it is down to the way we think.

Teachers are not unique in the world of stressful jobs! It's not true that every pupil, parent, manager and member of the Government disrespects teachers; other professions work just as hard as teachers - and don't get the holidays, pay and other perks which teachers get (carers, the self-employed trying to get a new business off the ground and sales people with challenging targets and salaries paid as a percentage of sales spring to mind); other jobs have lots of paperwork (the police, for example); other professions are governed and inspected frequently (the pharmaceutical industry). However, what is true in the world of teachers is that they are unique in two ways. The profession tends to attract individuals who have been in no other environment than schools or colleges - they have little experience of anything other than a learning environment, whether being taught as a pupil or student and then teaching others - and the way the profession is organised is that there is little team-work as teachers work as individuals in the classroom unlike, say, a football team or a factory-worker. On top of this, teachers tend not to be reflective; their insight is into their pupils, not themselves and can therefore find it difficult to internalise changes which will help them rather than their pupils.

But there is hope! I am currently working with teachers to help them understand stress and how subtle changes to thinking can help them control it. We are developing team-working through mutual understanding of self and others in a supportive environment. We are improving diets and motivation to exercise - finding ways of incorporating these into the school day. And we are learning ways to create new neural pathways in the brain so stressful situations can be handled appropriately such as mindfulness and NLP. Teachers and lecturers benefit through the calmer atmosphere created in their minds which has a knock-on effect with the children. Some teachers have taught the children some of these methods, which can help with unruliness and their own stress at, for example, exam time.

If you would like to know more, please do not hesitate to contact me. Enquiries@releaseyourbusiness.com    +44 7585 802035

Recent research by AXA PPP Healthcare published in HR Review in the first week of April 2015 suggests that 2/3rds of managers do not think that stress, anxiety or depression warrant time off work. Other research has suggested that 88% of managers do not think that stress, anxiety or depression affects their place of work. This demonstrates there is a massive skills training gap in management education.
It is very worrying that managers are taught how to get the maximum return on investment from their staff without looking after their mental well-being. There is legislation to cover physical well-being, which is very necessary, but I would suggest mental well-being is just as important if not more so.
The reason for this is that anxiety, stress and depression affect thinking, decision-making and communication. Mental impairment probably affects a company's bottom line more than physical impairment; it is easier to train someone to carry out a physical task but not as easy to teach inherent thinking skills.

It was reported by the FT that the prolonged downturn was contributed to by  bankers being unable to take the necessary risks associated with wealth-creation due to their high stress levels. This was pooh-poohed by many, but the facts are there for all to see; stress creates a natural default system in the mind which causes the body to go into 'auto-pilot' to escape from whatever is causing the stress.
Fortunately, because we are intelligent beings, there are ways of actively overcoming this response. But they have to be taught and practiced! That's because 90% of what we do is automatic; we don't think about how we move, how our food is digested, the mechanism for breathing etc. However 10% of our activity is consciously motivated so in order to overcome our natural, inbred stress response, we need to harness the power of that 10%.
So as well as training and coaching management and staff to achieve more for the company using traditional sales, management, marketing and leadership courses, which are all important, I teach mind management techniques to prevent or over-come stress and anxiety. In this day and age, resilience development is a necessity  for companies wishing to get the best from their staff - it's a MUST have, not a nice to have. As an Anxiety UK therapist and a member of the International Stress Management Association, I work with individuals and teams, managers and staff, to improve their team-working and emotional intelligence which increases overall performance. Give me a call to find out how!

The Last Taboo - it's not Cancer, it's Stress!

Once upon a time, it was taboo to mention cancer. It was thought that you could catch cancer. Not so many years ago, it was seen as a weakness to admit you had cancer because there was little understanding of the mechanism of growth and how it could be controlled and treated. Until relatively recently, colo-rectal cancer was something that was unmentionable. Today, cancer is not the killer it once was; it is not 'the big C'. It is discussed openly, researched widely and patients are supported with a whole range of treatments and therapies, both medical and complimentary. Some cancers are considered curable and many have long remission times. Cancer is not surrounded by the wall of silence which it once was - that wall of fear has been broken down.

Today's cancer is stress. Stress is the last taboo.  It must be contagious because the cost to British business is increasing year-on-year. More and more people are admitting they are unable to think clearly enough to do their work, are exhibiting signs of presenteeism, are developing coping strategies or suffering from sleeplessness, negative thinking and becoming depressed. Yet when questioned about work, few members of staff (and that includes management as well as staff) will admit they are feeling stressed. Why is this? Because they think it makes them look weak, will reflect badly on them and might even cause them to lose their job.

So what's to be done about it? First, people MUST be able to admit they are stressed without fear of reprisal or ridicule. Second, it should be incumbent on employers to train all staff in techniques which will help them become resilient to the stress of the job in the same way as they are trained to actually do the job. Third, any member of staff who is signed off with stress should be encouraged to see a therapist as well as their GP to ensure they can pick up their work-load effectively when they return - there has to be a willingness on the part of the employee to develop resilience and return to full performance. Fourth, incorporating wellness into health and safety policies will reduce the number of staff going off sick and reduce the huge costs to the company and the exchequer.

As a Member of the International Stress Management Association and an Anxiety UK-endorsed therapist, life and business coach I have worked with several companies and organisations to help them understand why people can become stressed and how to handle it and/or change to reduce it. Interrupting the release of stress hormones involves creating new neural pathways in the brain by changing thought-processes, active relaxation and emotional intelligence development.

Stress is a normal biological event designed to keep us safe from danger but constant stress where the body is constantly on edge can be life-threatening - I personally know people who have had heart attacks, strokes and full mental breakdowns due to stress. Stress might be the last taboo - but, like cancer, it can be a killer.

If you would like to know more about reducing stress and improving performance in your company, please do not hesitate to give me a call.

Linda Jane Johnson - 07585 802035 - enquiries@releaseyourbusiness.com

ReleaseYourBusiness: Stress in the NHS is costing us all money!

ReleaseYourBusiness: Stress in the NHS is costing us all money!: Staff in the NHS are stressed, exhausted and burnt out according to an article written by journalist, editor and lecturer Emma Wilkinson wh...

Stress in the NHS is costing us all money!

Staff in the NHS are stressed, exhausted and burnt out according to an article written by journalist, editor and lecturer Emma Wilkinson which was published in The Lancet on March 7th, 2015. This is nothing new - almost everyone who I know who works in the NHS tells me that they are stressed; the NHS it isn't what it used to be; there's too much work with too little time to do it; patient expectations are higher and they are more demanding; managers control the services which are offered without really understanding what is involved; standards of care are dropping etc etc. And what's more, they all tell me they would leave if they could but they have bills to pay and they would be letting their work colleagues down if they did leave. However, they tell me this in private; as the article says - few are willing to admit their fears publicly in case they 'will lose their job or are deemed incompetent'.
                                                               

Ms Wilkinson says there is a culture of fear in the NHS as a result of constant rounds of reorganisation, insufficient funding and negative  reporting in the press which has lead to managers bullying their staff rather than caring for them. Resources which the NHS have put in place to help stressed or anxious staff  are 'closing or being down-graded' even though they are oversubscribed. On the whole, people go into medicine or clinical professions because they want to help people get better and, as Dr Mark Porter says in the article, they would rather take extra work on themselves than not treat their patients.

Staff who are suffering excess stress and anxiety cannot function and have to take time off. The NHS bill for private 'agency' staff is higher than ever (£2.5bn according to The Daily Mail, March 12th 2015, up fom 303m in 1997) yet little seems to be done across the board about the situation. Private providers who have the expertise to teach staff anti-stress techniques, who can help to change the culture and the way in which management, staff and patients interact, who can identify where stress-points are and offer suggestions for minimising them are seen as alien because they aren't part of the NHS.

And that seems to be the problem. The NHS is so insular that it finds it difficult to see or admit its own failings in a positive light, It trains people to work as 'wellness' interventionists but concentrates on diet (rather than nutrition), stopping smoking (rather than making positive lifestyle choices) and exercise (rather than increasing calorie expenditure and muscle tone by incorporating it into daily activities).

Constant stress can cause weight gain; high blood pressure; heart attacks; type 2 diabetes; strokes and more. Our bodies are not meant to be in a constant state of stress yet the NHS is actually causing the people who work for it to become unwell. It's great that some of its overweight staff have been sent on 'slimming' courses but losing weight in itself does not affect stress levels. NHS staff need to be sent on Resilience-building courses which include nutrition, exercise, lifestyle and, most importantly, relaxation/meditation techniques. And the NHS needs to look at its culture to turn it into the caring organisation it purports to be.

                                                             

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)60470-6/fulltext