Vitality and cheerfulness in life from Emma Seppala’s point of view
In her studies, a psychologist named Emma Seppala has developed three simple methods for reducing the stress and anxiety caused by daily activities.
Many articles were published about freshness in 2016, and it seems that this will be the case in 2017 as well. According to studies by prominent psychologists, having a positive mindset increases our creativity and useful efficiency, which can help our business.
Of course, we should know that each of our features is connected to each other, like the scales of a scale. A high level of creativity means more work and less entertainment. But the main question is, is too much creativity a good thing?
In her new book, psychologist Emma Seppala says that people who work too much and try to increase their creativity not only face problems at work, and their risk of depression and anxiety doubles; Rather, their creativity will also decrease, and they will face a decrease in the useful efficiency of their performance.
Remember that these statements are only a small part of the main problem under the microscope. To get a more comprehensive understanding of what Emma Seppala said, let’s assume a work environment where employees struggle with problems such as work pressure and stress, anxiety, and depression.
In such a situation, the company will face risks caused by events related to stress, low creativity, and employee absenteeism. The increase in the cost of treatment and the increase in employee resignations are other damages that can cause financial damage to the company.
It should be understood that these problems are beyond work challenges. Suppose we have incorrect management in our business. In that case, they will turn into a wrong work culture: a culture of anxiety and stress that cultivates employees with a low level of useful performance and creativity.
Seppala says that the source of these problems originates from the thinking that one must work hard to build a good future. This is exactly like keeping ourselves thirsty to drink water in the future, the time of which is unknown. On the one hand, we are working hard to have a bright future; on the other hand, we are harming the freshness of youth. These mental and physical conditions will be transferred to our future.
In the end, this path that we have chosen for ourselves only leads to a lifestyle full of stress, insomnia, anxiety, and lack of vitality, and we must know that the situation will not change at the end of this path. After her research, Emma Seppala has made recommendations for those who live a stressful life to achieve freshness by following these recommendations and making small changes in their lifestyle.
1- Take a break from our work
Researchers have reached this conclusion in recent studies: People who take a break from their work in their free time can reduce their stress in less time and help increase their creativity. For people who cannot take time off from their work, researchers have suggested activities such as exercise, walking in a green environment, and useful entertainment that is not related to their work.
There are also suitable solutions for people who find it difficult to distance themselves from their work environment. These people can increase their cheerfulness by thinking about the positive events that have happened at their workplace.
2- Reduce caffeine consumption
While drinking coffee can help increase alertness and creativity, its routine consumption will harm the body. In his studies, Seppala noticed the damages caused by excessive coffee consumption. In the following, we will take a look at these damages:
Caffeine can increase blood cholesterol levels.
Consuming too much caffeine increases our stress levels.
A person who has consumed a lot of caffeine cannot sleep after the end of the working day. For this reason, he turns to sleeping pills or anti-anxiety drugs to achieve balance.
Repeated exposure to situations such as tension caused by anxiety and sleepiness caused by depression causes new challenges to be added to the nervous system, which is dealing with the problem of excessive fatigue.
To better cope with such conditions, Seppala recommends reducing stress levels with activities such as yoga and walking in green spaces.
Keep in mind that we don’t need coffee or energy drinks every day, which inject a lot of sugar and caffeine into our bodies. If we have started a good day, Drink juice instead of coffee. We must keep in mind that if we cannot start a day without drinking coffee, it is not because our body needs coffee but because we have taught ourselves the need to drink coffee.
3- Breathing
One of the movements taught in yoga is conscious breathing, which is a part of breathing therapy. Seppala has researched the effects of conscious breathing on soldiers who have returned from war and found that this method can help reduce stress and anxiety.
Another study has said that deep breathing and long exhalations make us relax and have more energy throughout the day. The reason for this is very simple: We only think about doing them in deep breaths and long exhalations, and by continuing these activities, we get away from what was causing us stress for a few minutes. This makes us relax.
When we do not think about the causes of stress, our body examines new information, such as controlling the time of breathing and exhalation. When we stop doing this after a while, it will seek to find the answer to the question of what caused stress and whether our next thought or activity has anything to do with it.
Because most of our work has nothing to do with what causes stress, the next activity we do after taking deep breaths and long exhalations makes our thoughts go away from the causes of stress and reduces the amount of stress.
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