MAKALE

 “GOOD HEALTH AND STRESS MANAGEMENT TIPS FOR PROFESSIONALS”

Emrah Altuntecim

Now it is the turn of an important piece of information that I conveyed also in my previous books. Now that our biggest capital is our brain, the both lobes of our brain are each a blessing for us. Now that the way of making good sales and business passes through a clear mind and strong perception, then why do thousands of business people who both studied in the best schools and have ripened in the market through trial and error in the market let their best sales and business slip in the last minute and go back to the beginning? This has a large variety of reasons. However, there is such a reason that when you solve it, the rest will follow. The biggest reason for you to let sales slip is that you have difficulty in capturing the micro signals in the body language and tone of voice of the other party, and that your intuitions and fine-tuning observation ability is inhibited. And the main reason of this is an issue known to all of us: “Excessive Stress.”

Now some brazenfaced professional friends would say “Come on! Isn’t stress part of the fun of sales?” Of course, if it were not for that business and pre-sales excitement that gives you pleasure, it would be too hard to do this job. However, when your stress exceeds a certain scale, and what is more, when the business and pre-sales stress is combined with other stresses that arise due to certain reasons and when you cannot differentiate these different types of stress and perceive all the stress the same, you would have difficulty in analysing the face, eyes, and words of the customer. Your business partners or your customers will notice this; however, most of the time they do not “notice that they have noticed it.” However, they feel uneasy. As a result, the business and the sales will bounce off the goal post. Just like it is essential for a professional to take a shower everyday, we should maintain our brain and nervous system as well on a regular basis. This cannot be achieved by eating a sack of walnuts at one sitting… This can be achieved by acquiring the discipline of eating a couple of walnuts on a daily basis. It can be achieved by doing 5-10 minutes of breathing exercises everyday, walking at least 30 minutes a day, nourishing oneself by good books, music, and films, and spending time with positive and intelligent people…

Stress is a normal reaction every individual develops in order to respond to the demand arising in the environment s/he lives, and all sorts of things expected from him/her. Indeed, we should ask ourselves whether we are using stress in the right way or the wrong way? What kind of an impact would stress result in when we use it in the right way or what are the negativities of using it in the wrong way? We should ask ourselves these questions.

Let us suppose we are face to face with a situation causing stress. We may immediately experience both physical and chemical changes at that moment. Stress may occasionally cause a disruption in speech and shaking hands. This contraction in our muscles reveals a physical change. As a result of these hormonal and muscular changes in our bodies, we start breathing faster, our heart starts hammering, the functioning of our digestive system slows down, and the chemicals secreted by the brain, namely, serotonin, noradrenaline, and dopamine reduce. When there is a reduction in the secretion of serotonin, which gives our sleep, noradrenaline, which gives us energy, dopamine, which gives us joy of living, and endorphin, which is named as “natural morphine”, while our bodies leave themselves wide open for diseases and sorrows, we lose our joy of living and energy. The chemical that concerns us closely among these chemicals is endorphin. Hormones play an essential role in the secretion of endorphin. And certain data confirm that endorphin, which is controlled by the nervous system related to the brain and spine, affects the hormonal system. The function of endorphin is giving a sense of happiness, and reducing sensitivity to pains. You can dream of pleasant things, do relaxation exercises, and have nice conversations with positive people for endorphin to be secreted. At the same time, endorphin is secreted as an equilibrant when one is doing physical exercise, during pregnancy, when exposed to excessive heat, and suffers from anxiety in order to enable the body to cope up with these situations.

We can deliberately secrete endorphin by means of relaxology techniques in stress management. We can ensure a deliberate secretion of endorphin in our brain through relaxation and imaging exercises. I have also stated below the simplest information and techniques that you can benefit from in your daily lives. If you wish you can implement these exercises in your own lives.

Get out of the bed smiling if possible, “making yourself” smile! While smiling, stretch and yawn delightfully. Make sure there is a glass of water at your bedside, drink the water slowly with pleasure. Air your room and bed out at length after you get out of bed by opening your window. Repeat this routine also in winter when it is cold, even if for a shorter time. When airing your room out, if you wish you can start contraction-relation and inhale-exhale exercises. Take a shower right after this exercises. While taking a shower, think all your negative thoughts and feelings are flowing out of your body with water. Water is a blessing that purifies one from dirt and soothes one spiritually. Hygiene is protecting health.

Change some of your nutrition habits as well. For instance;

• Fresh up your brain by cutting down on your alcohol consumption and also cut down on red meat. Unfortunately, alcohol both affects the central nervous system and transforms into fat by directly mixing with blood in the body.
• As for meat, it is disposed out of the body in approximately 24 hours; that is to say, it keeps our body busy disproportionately by being digested for a much longer time than normal foods.
• Let your bread preference be types of bread other than white bread
• As for spices; you can consume powdered or dried ginger, powdered turmeric, and cinnamon especially to increase body resistance and for detoxification purposes.
• We should remember that bowels are of importance for the secretion of serotonin, the indispensible hormone of our happiness, in a healthy way. We should occasionally consume more of fresh vegetables and fruit to maintain our body.

• Find a way of getting rid of smoking!

You can consume the foodstuffs that I have stated above plentifully unless you are allergic or have sensitivity to them.

Relaxation Exercise

You can practice it while standing, sitting or lying down. After this exercise, your aches will abate and you will relax.

Take a deep breath through your nose and stick your feet thoroughly on the ground. While holding your breath, try to grasp the floor with your toes. If you are lying down, open and stretch your toes as wide as possible.

When you can no longer hold your breath, relax your feet while exhaling through your nose. 

Breathe in. Contract your calves when holding your breath and relax them when exhaling.

Breathe in. Contract your thighs while holding your breath and relax them while exhaling.

Breathe in. Contract your hips while holding your breath on the one hand, and relax by exhaling, on the other hand.

Breathe in. While holding your breath, make your hands into a fist, bend hem inwards at the wrists, and contract your arms. While exhaling, relax the hands and arms.

Breath in. Raise your shoulders towards your ears when holding your breath; let your shoulders fall down when exhaling.

Breath in. Contract your whole face while holding breath; relax your face while exhaling.

Complete the exercise by contracting the feet, legs, hands, arms, stomach, and the hips, holding the shoulders towards the ears, contracting your face, and relaxing all of them at the same time.

Breathing Exercise.

-Take a long breath and give out a long breath.

-Take a short breath and give out a long breath.

-Take a long breath and give out a short breath.

-Take a short breath and give out a short breath.

(Repeat all these 3 times trying to breathe into your diaphragm.)

Note: Those who underwent an operation on their abdomen or chest area can do these exercises at least 1 year after the operation, after consulting with their doctor, and in a careful way.

If you practice these techniques on a regular basis, your brain and all your organs will rest, part of the unnecessary stress blocks in your brain will unfold, and you will feel relieved. Thus, the way you perceive the world will start to become more natural, clear, and joyous. And it will naturally reflect to your sales and to your business life...