If stress is intruding on you at work it can:

• Reduce your productivity (which can cause more stress as your boss and co-workers recognize you are not holding up your end of the job)
• Impact your health in both the short-term (colds, flu, headaches, stomach aches etc.)  and long-term if you don’t resolve the stress (cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal problems, psychological disorders, etc.)
• Cause you to be less satisfied with your job
• Affect your relationship with your co-workers
• Affect your relationships with your family

The first step toward dealing with workplace stress is to identify what is causing the stress.  Once know what is causing the stress, you can then work on finding a way to resolve it. For me, one thing that causes stress is when I don’t know how to do something.  Usually it involves technology in some way, shape or form.  One trick I’ve learned is to step away from the task that is stressing me.  The simple act of walking away for a few minutes calms me down and helps me to reframe my mind.  Sometimes I have to leave it overnight.

Another trick I’ve learned is to check my “self talk.”  Usually when I’m frustrated and stressed, I have this unhealthy self ‘talk going on.  “I don’t know why this has to be so hard.”  “How come everyone else gets this and I don’t.”  “I just don’t get it.”  Recognizing the limiting self-talk and changing it to:  “I can figure this out.”  “I just know I can do this.” or “This is easy and fun.  I can find the information I need to figure it out.”  has proven over and over that I can control my emotions and my stress.

What causes you stress in your workplace?  What tips or tricks have you used to reduce the stress and strengthen the harmony in your life, family and work?

In my life, I wear the hat of spouse, mother, grandmother (of eight and it is the absolute blast), daughter, sister, business owner, friend, gardener, Great Dane and cat caregiver, bird feeder, volunteer and perpetual learner.  Trying to fill the role of each of these can be a daunting task.  Maintaining balance across all of them is difficult if not impossible.

The Juggling Act

If I try to balance all of them, I find myself becoming mediocre at some.  Mediocrity across all the roles does not work for me.   It only causes more stress.  What I’ve learned is there is an ebb and flow to the level of my involvement in all these roles.  When I have to focus on certain roles, I  remind myself it is OK to put others “hats” on the shelf for a bit.  (Obviously, you cannot do this with your children, although you may like to.)  I’ve also learned that there are ways that I can incorporate just a bit of time in my day for certain roles like life-long learner.  I’ve learned to make use of drive time to listen to audio tapes of things that interest me.  My car has a traveling library of audio tapes that I have to move when I put on my “grandma hat” and trade car seats for audio tapes.  I fill my iPod with educational programs, subliminal tapes and meditation programs and listen at night while falling asleep or while I’m traveling on a airplane, or walking the dog.

What “hats” do you wear?.  How do you manage your “hats?’  What tips or tricks have you learned that could help others?  Please share your thoughts so we all can learn.

The  purpose  of this blog (StrengthenTheHarmonyBlog.com) is to

provide articles, resources and of course comments from the readers about topics and ideas that strengthen the harmony in your life, family and work.

We all have many things that can cause stress in our lives.  It could be our kids, aging parents, workloads that are increasing, finances, relationships with our spouse, personal goals that seem to always be out of reach or put on the back burner.

Strengthen the Harmony Workbook

It could be trying to revamp our lifestyle to be healthier or trying to learn a new skill (like blogging) or settling into or out of a job.

Any one of these things can add stress to our life.  Any one of these things can cause us to lose focus. Any one of these things can be the last straw that sends us over the edge. That’s why I finally took the leap.  I finally decided it was time that I put this idea out there.

So what you will find on this blog are articles, ideas, tips and even humor to help you strengthen the harmony in your life, family and work. I don’t have the answers.  But I do believe that as we share our thoughts, ideas and support one another, we will discover and uncover answers that will help us strengthen the harmony in our lives.

I know I sure need more harmony — especially in the financial area.  Developing StrengthenTheHarmony.com, ShopliftingIsStealing.com, Whalen.com and ItStartsWithUs.com has definitely drained my resources.

I  am certain that by providing quality information and serving others, it will be replenished.  I’m still looking forward to the adventure.