Why Anxiety About Work is Even More Dangerous Than Overworking
by www.Sedona.com
Working excessively -- to the point where you don’t know when to stop working and start living -- is a well-known way to harm your health. One study, published in Occupational and Environmental Medicine, even found that it can increase your risk of death.
The researchers analyzed over 100,000 job records from close to 11,000 workers. The evidence was fairly clear-cut; those who routinely put in long days or worked overtime had an increased risk of:
- High blood pressure
- Heart disease
- Depression
- Diabetes
- Chronic infections
- General health complaints
- Death
But while overworking is clearly a health risk, what you may not know is that feeling anxiety about work may be just as dangerous, and in some cases even more so.
More and more, Americans are blurring the line between work and home. In fact, according to CareerBuilder.com’s “Vacation 2006” survey, not only did close to 25 percent of Americans bring work with them on vacation, but another 16 percent felt guilty they were missing work while on vacation -- and still another 7 percent worried they wouldn’t have a job to go back to.
So while it’s bad enough to make work a routine part of your home life, when that work is coupled with worry, you are heading for an emotional and physical disaster.
“When you feel anxious about work it tends to make you perform less effectively, which breeds more anxiousness,” says Hale Dwoskin, CEO and director of training of Sedona Training Associates.
“When you are anxious at work you also tend to bring your concerns about work home with you, which simply breeds even more anxiousness,” he continues.
And anxiety is not a feeling that anyone wants to live with. In fact, it is a form of serious stress that can manifest into physical symptoms such as:
- Insomnia
- Feeling on edge and irritable
- Trouble concentrating or impatience
- Muscle tension
- Excessive sweating
- Headaches
- Feeling a “lump in your throat”
- Shortness of breath
- Fatigue
- Teeth grinding (bruxism)
How to Feel Calm, Not Anxious, About Your Work
At its heart, anxiety -- about any concern -- is just a feeling, and that feeling can be released. Right now, this notion may sound hard to believe, but thousands of people have freed themselves of anxiety by doing just that, using a tool called The Sedona Method.
The Method teaches you how to release worry, fear and anxiety on the spot, leaving you free to feel relaxed and at ease -- at work, at home and everywhere in between.
“As you let go of the feeling of anxiousness,” Dwoskin says, “your body and mind naturally relax. This promotes emotional health and well-being as well as uncovers the happiness that you are.”
Source
Occupational and Environmental Medicine September 2005;62:588-597
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