Stress has been called the invisible disease, and rightly so. It may affect you, your family, your organization. It is vital to know what is stress, job stress, its symptoms, and how to handle it effectively.

Managers often find themselves in isolated positions. They are caught between trying to satisfy the needs of their staff on the one hand, and fulfilling the wishes of their superiors on the other. A feeling that you lack proper skills is stressful, as is an inability to delegate, and the inability to say 'no'.

Job stress is a chronic state of disease caused by conditions at the workplace that negatively impact an individual's performance. The signs of job stress vary from person to person, depending on specific situations. Typical symptoms of job stress include insomnia, loss of concentration, anxiety, depression, substance abuse, extreme anger and frustration, family conflict, and physical illnesses such as heart disease, migraine, stomach and back problems.

Most organizations have no idea just how much employee stress costs them each year. With research suggesting stress behind 60 per cent to 90 per cent of medical problems, companies cannot afford to ignore the huge healthcare costs. Besides, it has other costs as well, like, to mention a few, absenteeism, workplace accidents, errors of judgment, resistance to change, and loss of intellectual capital.

There are a number of elements that can be quantified and used as approximate measures of stress levels. These elements vary depending on whether stress is being remeasured in an individual, in an organization, or in society itself.

HANDLING STRESS: When you are under stress, your entire body becomes tense, and your posture changes. Make a conscious effort to relax your body while at work so that you can reduce tension and alleviate the damaging effects of your physical response to stress. The following exercises can help:

* With hands on your chest and abdomen, breathe in and out through the nose, letting your abdomen expand and sink.

* Loosen your collar and place your hands over your shoulders. Exhale, let your head fall backwards, and slowly draw your fingers over your collarbones. Repeat several times.

* Place your left hand on your right shoulder and squeeze gently. Hold for several seconds, then release. Repeat along the shoulder and arm. Do the same on the opposite side.

* Place the fingers at the base of your skull. Apply slow, circular pressure, working gradually down your neck and then out across the shoulders.

* Support your left elbow on your right hand, and drum the fingers of your left hand on your right shoulder blade. Repeat with your right elbow on your left hand.

* Place your hands on your head. Allow your hands to pull your head gently down, and hold the position. Feel the slight stretch in the back of the neck.

* Lift your right shoulder and slowly rotate it backwards. Repeat the Exercise with your left shoulder, then rotate both shoulders together while keeping your arms loose and relaxed.

Many managers spend large amounts of time in front of computer screens. This is especially tiring for the eyes and the surrounding muscles. Take a short break from computer work every hour or so. Perform the following exercises at regular intervals to reduce tension:

* Close your eyes, relax the facial muscles, and unclench your jaw. Keeping your fingers together, place the fingertips against your forehead, and gently move them in circles around your eyes. Repeat several times in one direction, and then repeat in the opposite direction.

* Place your fingertips on your forehead, and gently massage the temples with your thumbs.

Stress felt at work is guaranteed to affect home life. Taking stress home from the office has a destructive effect on home life, and vice versa. The two can combine to form a vicious cycle with no escape. The first step towards reducing stress at home is to allow enough time for family matters. At the same time, make sure that people at work are aware of your commitments to your family.

The world is changing faster than ever, and the speed of these changes is putting us all under unprecedented pressure. It is important that we regularly visit the stability zones - dependable activities such as walking the dog, bicycle ride, reading, gardening, washing the car, or watching a television soap full of familiar, predictable characters - that make us feel comfortable with ourselves and convince us that all is well with the world. There is nothing better for recharging flat batteries than a well-planned anti-stress day.

Finding a balanced lifestyle is essential to our overall well-being. Physical activities such as aerobics or tennis help focus the mind, and, thus, to reduce the outward symptoms of stress, while hobbies such as painting can provide emotional calm. A hobby also helps boost self-esteem after a day at the office when nothing seemed to go right. Some people's hobbies have even become their livelihoods, like, for instance, accountants have become keen bookkeepers; and lawyers have turned to furniture restoration.Besides, we are what we eat. Eating well must be a part of any serious programme to reduce stress levels. Monitoring what you consume and when, may reveal bad habits that have crept into your diet. Try to adopt a well thought-out and balanced diet, replacing convenience foods with healthier alternatives.

RELIEVING JOB STRESS: Make sure you get and keep mental and physical activities in your life that you enjoy. Make these pastimes separate and apart from work. The sheer childlike pleasure that a person gets from contact with close friends or relatives, a runner's high, athletic competition, volunteering in areas that help others or in areas of special interest balance life. It reminds us to keep work in its important but proper place.

MAKE SILLY MISTAKES: Make an intentional, silly, harmless mistake every day. Sounds crazy, but in a fast-paced, pressurized world, such a thing reminds yourself that you are imperfect. The world can survive your mistakes, and, more importantly, you can as well. Make imperfection an art form in your daily mistakes. Challenge your creativity. and set your imagination free. Most of all, enjoy it.

SHARE THE LOAD: It is easy to get lost in your job. Many people work in isolation. They encounter real problems that someone else may have solved already. You don't have to re-invent the wheel. Don't work in a vacuum. Get together formally in groups, or informally with colleagues. You can identify problems and exchange solutions and strategies. Share the load, and you will find that you have lightened the burden.

HOME & WORK: Is your job stress really being caused by the job, or are you merely taking stresses from home to work? Know the difference, so you can know where to spend your problem-solving energy.

A special word here for the CEOs look appropriate. They are the people on the go, moving and working faster than a speeding bullet! Don't worry, your job stress will wait for you. Keep a small pad and pen with you at all times. Whenever you encounter something that causes you job stress, write it down (keywords are enough if they will jog your memory), but defer your reaction. Later, in a quiet place, meditate for a few minutes on your accumulated job stresses for that day. Intensify your thoughts and reactions, especially your feelings. This is a once-a-day assignment. The goal is to concentrate your job stress of an entire day into an intense period of time.

You begin learning to confine job stress into periods of time in which you can give it your full attention. Keep a log if you like and write down your reactions to your particular job stress. You will have a record to see how you stress ebbs and flows over time.To conclude, job stress is real and can be dangerous. The best medicine is to take care of yourself. Don't let problems control you. If you cannot come up with a strategy to effectively deal with your job stress or problem, get professional help.