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Physical Affection Can Help You Manage Work Stress

Physical Affection Can Help You Manage Work Stress

Although Christine had every reason to be pleased with her recent promotion to a corner office you most certainly couldn't tell by the way she stormed her way into her office this morning. Work colleagues turned to gesture a greeting to her but quickly withdrew in response to her bristling disposition. One colleague who hadn't seen Christine's arrival casually sauntered to the doorway of Christine's office loaded with an armful of documents. She knocked as she began to enter.

"What now?" blurted Christine in frustration to her unsuspecting workmate.

"Sorry, but here's the documents you asked for," replied her visibly shaken coworker as she made for a hasty retreat. Realizing what she had done, Christine offered a gesture of an apology but her compatriot had already left leaving an uneasy tension in the air. She clasped her hands over her mouth and nose and let out a muffled a cry of exasperation as other workers deliberately put their face down to work not wanting to draw any enemy fire. You could cut the air with a knife.

Many businesses place great emphasis on trying to deal with workplace stress. The challenge is that like Christine, many employees and bosses sometimes have trouble in leaving their outside problems at the door when they arrive at work. It is often these outside stresses and frustrations that end up creating stress at work. It is also true that things you do outside of work can also help you better manage work stress.

One such study reported in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine  measured the levels of stress hormone (cortisol) in 51working couples who were living together, most of whom were married. Over 1 week, participants kept detailed records of their daily activities, including instances of physical affection with their partner, and collected saliva samples so that the researchers could measure the daily fluctuations in cortisol levels.

In general, the researchers found that the more physical affection that the couples reported in a given day, the lower the levels of stress hormone.

Interestingly though, the study's lead researcher, Dr. Beate Ditzen of the University of Zurich in Switzerland, refused to recommend that people express more physical affection and intimacy per se but "to find activities that creates positive feelings for both partners". But according to her own research that activity that creates positive feelings for both partners and lowers stress hormones is physical affection!

To me the researcher's failure to encourage physical affection despite her own research results highlights how hard it is for some to show physical affection for the partners. In a society where  images of violence is freely displayed yet zealots object to displays of love and affection it is no wonder everyone seems stressed.

I say it is time for everyone to lighten up. Before you go to work be physically affectionate to your partner. If that means you end up having sex, well good luck to you. If not, you can still give your partner a beautiful warm, loving affectionate embrace. Not just a momentary obligatory squeeze. Embrace with meaning. Put some emotion into it.

While you are at it, give your kids a great big loving hug. Give the dog a hug as well. The lower stress hormones occur because it feels nice going off to work knowing that someone loves you no matter what happens today at work.  It's having that little skip or bounce in your step that can be that intangible factor that is the difference between a sale or not.

Give someone you care about a hug today.





Physical Affection Can Help You Manage Work Stress - To learn more about this author, visit Dr. Paul Lanthois's Website.

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Joe Dager
Joe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website

Stephanie Robey
Stephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals.

She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com   Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences.  Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University.

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Dr. Paul Lanthois
(Visit Dr. Paul's Website) Dr. Paul Lanthois is a chiropractor, speaker and work life balance expert. He is the director of The Work Life Balance Foundation which provides health, stress management and work-life balance lifestyle programs specifically for businesses and their employees. Dr. Lanthois has been a successful Australian chiropractor for nearly 20 years. He has spoken to many business and community groups such as Optus Telecommunications, St. George Bank and the SA Police Force. For two years Dr. Lanthois was the coordinator of health management at Action Coach (formerly Action International) Billionaire in Trainingï¿ Entrepreneur seminars. His academic background consists of: - A Masters of Chiropractic at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. - A Post Graduate Diploma of Chiropractic Sport Science, Macquarie University. - A Bachelor Science (majoring in Anatomy and Physiology), University of Adelaide. He is a member of the American College of Sports Medicine and the International Foundation For Nutrition and Health. Perhaps his most important qualification is that he successfully overcame his own energy burnout while managing two companies and raising a family and has developed a step-by-step proprietary process to recharge the weary and re-ignite the burned-out. Dr. Lanthois new book : From Burnout To Balance In 4 Weeks: The Business Health Program To Boost Morale and Productivity is due to be released in November, 2009.

Dr. Paul Lanthois is a Platinum author on EvanCarmichael.com
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