Wednesday 11 April 2012

400,000 Reasons To Be Passionate About Relaxation


There are 400,000 reasons why we at Enable Potential are passionate about relaxation  and further 10.8 million reasons why we run Relaxation sessions for groups at work place.

The figure 400,000 relates to the number of cases of stress in 2010/11 out of a total of  1.15 million for all work-related illnesses. 10.8 million equals to the estimated working days lost due to work related stress for people working in the last 12 months in 2010/11.
These are the latest estimates from the Labour Force Survey in Great Britain.
What is stress and what causes it?
Stress is a word used to cover a large number of words which include fear, pressure, panic, conflict, anxiety, fatigue, burden, strain, discord, unhappiness, upset and tension. As well as there being different meanings for stress, there are also different types of stress such a physical, emotional and mental stress.
Stress is caused by any change, threat of a possibility of change in our environment, thoughts or our body.
The HSE (Health and Safety Executive) formally defines stress as ‘The adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them at work’.
There is a difference between pressure and stress. Pressure can be positive and a motivating factor, and it is often essential in a job as it can help us achieve goals and perform well.  When the pressure exceeds our ability to cope, this becomes stress. Stress is, in fact,  a natural reaction to too much pressure.  It is the reaction to the state of arousal the body manifests in response to a perceived threat.
Stress can also be a result from having too few demands resulting to feeling bored and undervalued.
There are number of different ways people are effected by stress and  what becomes stressful to one person can be a walk in the park for another!  The factors to consider include the person’s background and culture, personality, skills and experience, health, other demands in and outside of work. 
Stress is an individual experience, however if  a workplace has no systems in place to respond to individual concerns over work demands or to respond to concerns over control that an employee has over the way they do they work, this can result into development of a stressful workplace.  If this is topped up with  lack of support from colleagues and management, lack of healthy relationships at workplace with working anti-bullying policies, lack of understanding of individual roles and responsibilities and poorly managed changes, it would be surprising to find an employee that had not been impacted by or suffered from stress at some point.
The HSE introduced the management standards approach model to reducing stress in the workplace in 2005 and it is considered that take up by employers in GB will lead to reduction in total number of cases of work related stress over time. In fact, the estimated number of cases in 2010/11 is significantly lower than the total case number in 2001/02, but there is still a long way to go and more attention and care is required to remove the causes of stress at work place.
Stress can cause changes in those experiencing it.  In some cases there are clear signs that people are experiencing stress at work and if these can be identified early, action can be taken before the pressure becomes a problem. This may make it easier to reduce and eliminate the causes.
It is important that everyone looks out for changes in a person's or a group's behaviour. However, in many cases the changes may only be noticeable to the person subject to the stress and so it is also important to look at how you are feeling and try to identify any potential issues you may have as early as possible and take positive action to address them; this may be raising the matter with a line manager, talking to an occupational health professional or your own GP.
Stress can show itself in many different ways. The immediate physical reactions to stress may be sweating, breathlessness, increased blood pressure, insomnia, diarrhoea, palpitations. Mental chances can include anxious and negative thoughts, low levels of energy.  Over a long period these can develop into hypertension, heart disease, skin disorders such as eczema and psoriasis, metabolic issues, irritable bowel syndrome,  impaired capacity to repair ulcers, depression or even post traumatic stress disorder.  These are serious health issues. It is not therefore a surprise that on average each person suffering from workplace related stress condition in 2010/11 took 27 days off work.
The employer has a lot of responsibility for taking stress in the workplace seriously, even more so knowing that if they do not pay it due attention they may be sued for negligence. However, it is also an individual responsibility and this means we all need to pay attention on how we are feeling and look where the potential problems are. 
It also means that if your employer is taking all the right steps and is offering opportunities at your workplace to help you prevent or reduce stress, you should make most of these opportunities. These can include independent health advice, gym memberships, holistic services such as meditation and relaxation sessions.
This is where we at Enable Potential come in;
Our offering includes powerful relaxation sessions for groups and individuals using hypnosis. We believe in helping individuals and teams perform better in their professional and personal lives by relieving stress through deep relaxation of the body and mind and by teaching on subconscious level how to prevent stress, build stamina and how take care of oneself.


We believe in teaching people the skills to achieve instant relaxation and calm through self-hypnosis.  By doing our bit, we hope that that we can keep the number of people attending our sessions out of the statistics and  continue to have 400,00 alternative reasons to be passionate about relaxation at work place!


Contact us at info@enablepotential.com to find out more.