By Dr. Jo Anne White

Do you feel like you’re on a tightrope at times and don’t know where your relief is?
You can really get more life satisfaction and still be a loving and attentive partner, mother and career woman when you know how to de-stress. Stress mounts when we don’t have any technique or solution to counter its harmful effects. Fortunately, there are many at your disposal.

While the pressures of parenting, partnership, work and life grow alarmingly, where do you turn to get some relief? Don’t despair, help is on the way.

Do you want to feel more satisfied with your life and with you? What is satisfaction really about anyway? Creating and feeling more pleasure, happiness, joy or whatever you call it, with your family, your life, career, business and with where you’re headed – all contribute to your personal satisfaction.

Experiencing true meaning in our relationships and contributing in some way, large or small to our community if only to spread joy among our friends are what matter most to us. As business women, it can also be mentoring others, experiencing the success of a team effort and launching a new product or service that benefits others.

Current research into women’s brains suggests that there really is a difference between the sexes in their response to stress. When a female is stressed out, the hormone, oxytocin is released and influences her desire to form bonds and get together with her female friends. Even more oxytocin flows when that happens and is calming to her and can overturn feelings of stress.

So how is this relevant to your life and your business? We need to understand and respect the differences between men and women in combating stress and in the arena of friendship.
For females, it’s recognizing that the flight or fight response isn’t the only behavior available to us. Cultivating and maximizing female friendships have an impact on your health and well-being. It’s part of our female wiring so when you’re low, make plans with a friend and just talk things over. Or, have a creative brainstorming meeting with your team whereby you share ideas, support each other and strengthen the work community. Not only does this relieve stress, it can stimulate business growth. I also find mentoring rewarding and satisfying for the person being mentored and myself.

If you can’t get together with friends or close colleagues because of life’s demands, even a phone call will do the trick to help you feel less stressed. Better than alcohol and valium, shared laughter and warm dialogue with a friend eases the pressure and helps you get ready to do it all over again.

For more information, you can visit http://www.drjoannewhite.com/