RESEARCH carried out by the Korn Ferry Institute quoted in Forbes Magazine this year showed that workplace stress continues to rise. Disturbingly 80 per cent of employees cited the biggest cause of stress in life as their boss!
In defence of us business owners and entrepreneurs, if we are indeed guilty of causing a lot of stress, it’s because we feel a lot of it too. Until you have experienced running a company yourself, no one quite understands the pressures it can present. Tasks like sales generation, finances, staff welfare, leases, tax, debt chasing – ultimately come with the territory. However, day after day, these responsibilities can become overwhelming.
For our own health, and the welfare of our business, it’s important to help manage our own feelings of stress. Why? Because your stress levels are highly contagious to every aspect of your company and as a boss you set the culture, so its easy for your negative feelings to ripple through. Worryingly, for your body, sustained stress levels have been linked to a myriad of diseases ranging from cardiac arrests, diabetes, cancer, hypertension and chronic fatigue.
So whats the answer? Warren Buffet (once the richest man in the world) hit the nail when he stated ‘Balance is Everything’. Basically, if you ‘work hard, you need to ‘relax hard.’
The fact is there is no magic bullet out there when it comes to handling stress. ‘Managing it’ is the key to ‘handling it’ and it’s something that you need to dedicate time to every day.
Our strategy at Homefield to help stressed professionals is to begin with identifying the driver of the stressors. What are the triggers, where are the areas that overwhelm? Next, recharging is vital. Burnout is real and very common, so it’s vital for all of us to practise releasing the pressure cooker of business demands. Simple habits like being in nature, a lunchtime walk or watching something funny is a start.
A regular massage is scientifically proven to lower our levels of cortisol and a highly effective way of balancing our mind and body. At Homefield Grange, our Out Of This World therapy has been created to meet the needs of professionals who need to take some private time out and truly relax. It’s popular because it delivers instant results for stress reduction.
Whilst the body is suspended over gently heated quartz sand, trained therapists work to loosen muscles (which is where the body stores stress hormones). The therapy bed also tilts like an inversion board to allow your spinal column to release any blocked energy. Sound vibrational techniques are used simultaneously to free the mind of worry and anxiety. Needless to say clients always rebook.*
Stress may be on the rise, but that doesn’t mean it has to control you. Gaining perspective is vital for survival and summed up beautifully by the great Steve Jobs: ‘No matter how much money you make, even the richest man cannot buy time’.
*Out Of This World is an 80 minute massage. Cost is £129. Call 01536 712219 or email for bookings.