21 Oct 2013

Taking care of one’s body both spiritually and physically results in productive work, a psychologist at Nyangabwe Referral Hospital, Mr Ponalo Gaamangwe has said.

Speaking at a wellness day for the Administration of Justice at the Francistown High Court on Friday, October 18, he said physical exercise relieved stress and brought about a healthy wellbeing. Mr Gaamangwe said those who were able to exercise, created for themselves an environment which assisted them to be disciplined, be physically fit and be enthusiastic at work.

He said another challenge that caused low performance in the work place was stress, which led to suppression of the whole body system and if it was not quickly dealt with, resulted in depression.

He explained that once a person was depressed, they lost interest in their daily activities and sometimes chose to committ suicide. Mr Gaamangwe encouraged workers not to always think stress as bad as it did play an important role, especially for those who were sick and did not want to visit health facilities. He said when these people are stressed, that is the time they will be forced to go and seek medical attention and the disease would be quickly attended to.

The psychologist said problems such as bullying supervisors, financial burdens, the break up of relationships and incurable diseases such as HIV and AIDS are some of the challenges that lead to stress among workers. He also noted that innovation at work had been considered to be one of the causes that could result in stress among workers. Giving an example, he said innovation such as reduction of paper work through introduction of computers does cause fear among those that are not computer literate, eventually leading to stress.

Furthermore, he said the way in which people handle things can result in stress; for instance, if a marriage breaks up, one may think it is the end of the world and this will affect their productivity at work, but another may seek counselling and move on with life.

He said the reason why most people fail to tackle stress is due to the fact that they respond to the negative thoughts their environment feeds them. To avoid negative thoughts, he encouraged workers to feed their minds with thoughts that would bring about a positive ending. He stated that for people to be able to bring about positive thoughts in their minds, the first thing they have to do is identify the root cause of stress.

“One cannot fight against what he or she does not know, surely he or she will be fighting a losing battle,” he affirmed. Mr Gaamangwe explained that when the root cause of stress has been identified, that is the time people can go and buy books that are spiritually enriching to help them overcome negative thoughts.

Furthermore, he warned workers to desist from being in isolation, which he noted makes a person think the world has turned against them. He said if one has a recurring headache, back pain, uncontrollable anger and lapse in concentration, they should immediately seek medical attention as these are some of the signs of stress. ENDS