Stress: background problemsIncompatible workmates “It is just that we are different. Not really one of them. And it makes things difficult. It's there all the time. Ill at ease with them, when there is really no need to be.” Cultural differences may make it hard. The individual from a disadvantaged home background may feel out of it with the others. Even differences of interest can have the same effect. If the talk is all horses, or football or golf, and those are not our interests, we are not at home in that milieu, and that feeling of fellowship, which binds workmates, one to the other, eludes us. Our brain is crowded with trivial but disturbing thoughts which form a background on which any major problem, at home or elsewhere, can easily produce stress. The individual who, by the advent of circumstance or by active endeavour on his own part, has learned something of inner security does not suffer in this way. And this same inner security of the individual allows his companions to be more at ease and more friendly towards him. The difficult boss “It's not that I don't like him. He is decent enough in his way. But he drives me mad. He has no idea, no idea at all, that I feel like this. He would be terribly shocked to know it. Supervises everything I do. Checks over the simplest things. Feel I could tell him to get on with his business, and leave me to mine. Bottle it up. Then some small thing upsets me at home and I blow up.” This story is common enough. Maybe you are personally familiar with it. He only needs some real problem in any field of life, and the additional input to his brain will bring him properly under stress. Some people tolerate discipline and unnecessary supervision without the situation adding in any way to the inflow of disturbing impulses to their brain. Others are psychologically intolerant of such a situation. This occurred in its simplest form among recruits in the armed forces during World War II. Some adjusted easily, some did not. Those who have had little discipline or supervision in their early home life are likely to find it difficult. So also are those who have been brought up strictly in a highly disciplined household. They reach adult life and have the feeling they have left all that behind. The strict boss reactivates their memories of childhood. They feel they are being treated like children, and they have to contain the aggression which the situation arouses. Unfortunately, the individual's knowledge of the cause of his reaction is little help in coping with the circumstances in which he is placed. The cloak that protects us from the chill wind of stress must be tailored to our own individual needs. The first step is to get rid of the tension. And this is not as difficult as you might think. Five or ten minutes effective meditation in the morning will make an extraordinary difference. *4/98/5* ANTI-DEPRESSANTS «Cheap Cialis Online» |