Job change and the stress that goes with it

I have an announcement. I have accepted a new position as an instructor at Eastern Kentucky University. I'll be leaving the daily newspaper environment soon to teach journalism classes at a great state university.

"Wow!" people are telling me. "That's great! How exciting!"

Yes, it is exciting, and I am happy as can be about this opportunity.

However, I have a feeling that soon, the stress is going to set in. All change -- even good change -- brings stress.

Stress is not always a bad thing, though. Stress is simply the body's response to changes that create taxing demands. When people talk about being "stressed out," we usually think about negative stress, or distress. But there is a positive term for stress, and it's called eustress.

According to Wikipedia, distress is the most commonly-referred to type of stress, having negative implications, whereas eustress is a positive form of stress, usually related to desirable events in a person's life. Both can be equally taxing on the body, and are cumulative in nature, depending on a person's way of adapting to a change that has caused it.

Why does change cause such stress? According to this Web site,change challenges you to let go of the past, especially the comfortable, old ways of doing things, to accept new challenges and opportunities for growth.

This site recommends that you maintain the calm of an open mind, encourage flexibility in the face of rigidity and be willing to abandon former perceptions and security blankets. Change, like stress, can be beneficial when harnessed.

I'll have to remember that in the coming months.

So, how do you cope with the stress of adjusting to a new job?

This Web site has some good tips. A few typos and incomplete thoughts (Sorry, I have been a copy editor, after all. Just getting in practice for teaching my class!), but good tips nonetheless.

According to the site, the main key to adjusting to a new job is preparation. You also need to set new habits quickly, familiarize yourself with your new environment, find a friend and establish rapport and make the new environment as "homey" as possible.

Luckily, I have taught the very class I'll be teaching for EKU on a part-time basis. Thus, I am familiar with some of the people I'll be working with, and I have a taste of what teaching will be like. But as full-time faculty, I'll have many other responsibilities as well, like advising the yearbook staff.

I am preparing for the new job now by setting up meetings with some of my new colleagues -- especially those who have done parts of my job before me -- and getting as much information and advice as I can. I am also giving myself some time between the last day at my current job and the start my new job to relax at home for a few days and begin preparing for my classes. I hope all of this will help me be ready once classes actually start in the fall.

Many of the personal items on my desk at my current work will go straight to my new office. I have three beautiful plants that will keep some green around me, as well as some items at home that were once part of an office I had before. All of this will help me surround myself with familiar things, and with a little luck, make me feel right at home.

In the midst of the changes ahead, I will keep a few habits constant in my life. My once-a-week yoga class will be a wonderful relief, as will my twice-weekly gym workouts. And my blog will be a nice, personal outlet, as it has been for the past couple of months.

With all of these resources at hand, I hope I weather the positive stress this exciting new change will bring me.

Are you going through a major change in your life? Good or bad? How are you coping with it?

How hobbies keep you healthy

What do you do in your spare time? Do you sit around and watch TV or stare into space? Or do you do something that keeps your mind or body active in some way?

In other words, do you have a hobby?

I hope so, because hobbies are good for. They engage you in different ways that your typical work or other obligations. A hobby often teaches you something new. Hobbies can also relieve stress and help you cope with other less-than-satisfactory areas of your life.

What is a hobby, exactly?

According to Wikipedia, a hobby is a spare-time recreational pursuit. Hobbies are practiced for interest and enjoyment, rather than financial reward.

How does a hobby help your health?

I found a Web site that addresses this very question. According to the article, hobbies can engage you physically and mentally, and people who have a hobby are generally healthier. Hobbies that require expertise are more satisfying because developing an expertise in something requires commitment, and commitment results in a higher level of engagement.

The ideal hobby engages us on three levels: first as a diversion that helps pass the time, second as a passion where we become truly engaged in doing something we love, and third as something that creates a sense of purpose.

Who doesn’t need that?

You may be wondering if I have a hobby. Yes, I do. I have several.

I love to read. Every night before I go to bed, I wind down with a good book. I do some gardening. I have a project underway in my backyard, for which I have drawn up a diagram and made specific plans. As I’ve mentioned before, I like to exercise. I go to the gym twice a week and take a yoga class once a week. I also enjoy writing and blogging, hence the reason I started Healthy Life. I also enjoy roleplaying. I have a couple of imaginary characters that I play in fantasy settings.

My husband also likes to read, and he goes to the gym with me. He runs the roleplaying game in which I play. In addition, he is learning Latin.

What does all this mean? We are keeping ourselves active and engaged. Reading and roleplaying keep our minds active and spark our imaginations. Exercise keeps our bodies strong and in shape. Gardening makes me feel good to cultivate something living outside of myself. There’s something about digging around in the dirt, connecting with the earth and making something beautiful out of my backyard space.

When I’ve had a bad day at work, or when I just need something to do, these hobbies fill in the gap. You might or might not enjoy your career, but it takes more than that to have a healthy, fulfilling life. Hobbies give me that, and they can give you that, too.

So, what are your hobbies? I’d like to know!

Take a vacation! It's good for your health

My husband and I really enjoy traveling. We like seeing new places and experiencing new things. In the years we've been together, we've managed to take at least one vacation almost every year.

So far, our travels have taken us to Washington, D.C., Boston, St. Louis, Chicago, Niagara Falls — and we were fortunate enough to be able to take a cruise to the Bahamas for our honeymoon.

We are going back to D.C. this week with another couple, and we hope to take a couple of short trips later in the year.

However, many people don't take an annual vacation. Many people don't even take all of their paid time off from work.

According to the 2008 International Vacation Deprivation Survey results from Expedia.com, about one-third of employed U.S. adults usually do not take all of the vacation days they receive each year. They lose an average of three vacation days per year.

This adds up to a total of 460 million vacation days and an estimated value of $65.52 billion, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

That's a lot of time — and money — to give up to your company. Why would you want to let your company have time that you've rightfully earned?

One reason, according to Expedia.com's survey, is that 38 percent of women and 28 percent of men feel guilty about taking time off from work.

Many people also worry they will lose their job if they take a vacation, according to the Families and Work Institute, a nonprofit center for research on the American work force. Their surveys show that in 1977, 45 percent of people felt truly secure in their jobs while only 36 percent have felt that way in recent years.

I have to admit that as a journalist, I'm one of those who is not totally secure about my job, or my industry. But I am not going to let that scare me away from taking my time — time that is guaranteed to me by the employee handbook.

Other people don't take vacations for reasons that have little to do with job security. They consider themselves indispensable or are too competitive to take the time off. Ambition and self-imposed getaway guilt all help explain why workers don't use all of their vacation days, according to a New York Times article.

Research also shows that even when American workers go away, they don't really get away. About one in five people do some work during vacation, according to the Families and Work Institute study.

Ken Siegel, president of Impact Group, a Los Angeles-based consortium of psychotherapists who counsel CEOs and other executives, rebuts this argument far better than I could. "There is no executive who is so indispensable that the enterprise will collapse in his absence. We're all going to die, and our companies will go on without us."

Agreed. This company was here before I got here; it will be here long after I leave.

Vacation time is important because it allows you to refresh, recharge and reconnect with your family. A true vacation - not just away from home, but away from the e-mail and the PDA - can help your health.

The Families and Work Institute study found that overworked employees are more likely to make mistakes and be angry at their employers and at colleagues who do not work as hard. These employees are also more likely to have higher stress levels, experience symptoms of clinical depression, report poorer health and neglect themselves.

However, the good news is former NASA scientists found that vacationers experienced an 82 percent increase in job performance after they came back from a trip, according to a Business Week article.

In order to get the full benefits of a vacation, you need to take at least a week off. Micro-vacations — taking two or three days off — do not deliver the same stress-reduction benefits as vacations that last one and two weeks, according to the Business Week article.

In 2007, 39 percent of American workers anticipated taking a full week off, then using their remaining time here and there, and only 14 percent plan to take a full two-week vacation in 2008, according to the Expedia.com study.

I fall into the one-week category. We'll return from D.C. with a couple days to spare, giving us a nice long weekend to rejuvenate at home before we go back to work. Then, I'll have a couple of vacation days to use for the rest of the year.

You won't find me letting my company have what I've earned. I plan to take every vacation hour alloted to me.

The way I see it, there's too much at stake for me not to take my vacation days, not just in terms of my health and stress levels, but in connecting with my husband. We enjoy new experiences together and the time away to just be with each other in a different environment. It encourages us to dream about changes we'd like to make, and we almost always come back relaxed and with a fresh perspective.

With such obvious benefits, why would you not want to take a vacation? You could do yourself - and your family - a world of good by going away.