Arianna Huffington wrote on Republica.it of today emphasizing the need to reduce daily stress derived from the work as the need to improve the quality of life and maintain a health condition. At this regard, it is worth remembering what are the attitudes and behaviors that put at risk the people health and welfare:
- excessive competitiveness,
- accentuation of key words in everyday language, without it needs for this and tend to eat the last words of a sentence,
- concern not to respect the terms of work delivery,
- intolerance towards others and delay,
- eager to receive reinforcements from others and tangible rewards,
- constant state of physical and psychological alert that may lead to aggressive behavior,
- be usually impatient with people and situations,
- sufficiently attuned to the identification of specific targets, because more action-oriented ,
- feeling of guilt while relaxing or resting,
- overly critical toward themselves and others.
They are individuals who usually live their life always with the foot on the accelerator and they do not ever hold back. Although with a lot of energy, always in a hurry, go to the floor and never stop. This is their problem: consider every opportunity to slow down as a waste of time, since they have always focused on the next obstacle. The acceleration of the communication that we are living thanks to the diffusion of the mobile phone, e-mail and social networks, it made them even more prisoners of thisway of life.
Specifically, what are the aspects that most disrupt their health? The ambition, impatience or hostility? Longitudinal studies have found that individuals with high hostility scores, after 20 years from this evaluation had a higher frequency of deaths due to cardiovascular problems than those who had received low scores of hostility.
In addition, it is the association between hostility and cynicism that seems to produce such negative effects on personal wellbeing. The cynicism is explained in terms of mistrust in human nature, in ideals and social conventions.
In confirmation of this interpretation it has been shown that it is possible to work in a highly stressful environment, showing behaviors such as those described but maintaing a good health. This positive condition can be achieved if the people:
- are committed not only to work but also to themselves, family and other values , thus avoiding falling into cynical attitudes,
- believe to exert control over their professional and private life,
- have a tendency to consider the changes in life as a challenge to manage, and not just as problems and concerns.
