Hypertasking? I Haven’t Yet Mastered Multitasking!

A new word has been introduced into the contemporary American lexicon – hypertasking. At a time when 70 –80 % of American professional women admit being moderately or highly stressed on a frequent basis, the multitasking that leaves us frazzled and frenetic is now not enough. Now we need to learn to hypertask! If multitasking puts us into high stress, here comes “hyperstress!”

The damage done by high stress levels literally is killing us as it kills our joy. High stress levels are linked to (an incomplete list):
· Heart disease, hypertension, psychological and musculoskeletal disorders
· Workplace violence
· Use of 5 billion tranquilizers, five billion barbiturates, 3 billion amphetamines, and sixteen tons of aspirin every year.
· One million employee absences every day.
· A 300 BILLION annual business loss equal to $750 for each worker.

Another stress source is the horrific violence now part of our daily visual diet. Watching the evening news may keep us informed but it also keeps us anxious about events over which we have no control. Daily violence and constant threat have an enormous impact on us without our necessarily being conscious of it. Because the damages are long-term and subtle, it is difficult to recognize when one is being endangered.

The very ugly videos of the teenage girls methodically beating another teenager attests to the insanity of using violence as entertainment as we do on television and the internet every day? Why are we surprised when our children mimic what they see on television, thousands of times before they reach their teenage years.

There is no quick and easy way to reduce the stress threat, but certainly it is insane to allow electronic violence into our homes. Whether we want to admit it or not, violence for entertainment begets violence for real. Stress reduction, better phrased, peace induction is only achieved by disciplined self-management.

First, we need to recognize our constant exposure to stress-inducing stimuli and minimize our exposure to them. We also need to monitor our bodies for symptoms – often a challenge because people become so habituated to being in flight, fright, or fight states that they cannot recognize their tension. The remedy is to weave relaxation awareness and activities into the fabric of our day.

In this time-compressed, hyper-stressed environment, people resist activities such as yoga and meditation, thinking that they don’t have time. They are worth the time. All of us can find the time to take slow, deep breaths as we wait for the light to change. We can all smile at strangers. We can all stretch as we wait for the microwave to count down. We can all find ways to resist getting sucked into the vortex of stress and live more happily and peaceably.