Are you stressed? According to this new study, The New Male Mystique, it’s likely you are. In accordance with this study, American men now experience more work-life conflict than women.
I’d guess most women would not agree that men are more stressed about balancing work and family. But it’s interesting that men today are admitting to experiencing work-life conflict at all. Can you imagine our fathers losing sleep over putting work ahead of spending times with their kids?
As men we know the pressure of be it all, and do it all, in order to have it all. We are working at being the father and husband we want to be, to make a difference and have a life of purpose, and now we are just trying to stay afloat. The study points out that fathers work an average three hours more per week than their non-father colleagues.
Does this fit with your life? Are you working more, and feeling more stressed?
Male stress
As a guy myself, and as a guy who works with other men, I know how difficult it is for us to admit that we are affected by anything—and no way we’ll admit that something as ubiquitous as stress is beating the hell out of us.
Face it guys—we die before women because of stress. From 30+ years of Rolfing, running a holistic medical clinic, and teaching Mindfulness Stress Reduction Programs, I can say without a doubt that men are tenser than women.
We can’t do the guy thing with this kind of stress—we can’t deny, power through, or beat it to win. The only way to turn around stress is to develop a new relationship with it. You need to learn that stress is actually more in your body than in your head. It’s a survival response that won’t shut off. Read some of the other posts on stress on this site and read about stress on my other blog, www.stressedout.org.
Lifestyle is the biggest determiner of health, and stress is the biggest part of lifestyle. You master stress, you transform your life. We had top-level executives, physicians and attorneys transforming their life and health from our stress course because they taught their bodies to relax. Yes, you can teach your body to relax. Here is a bonus – I guarantee you will perform better and be happier… and live longer.
How is stress affecting you? Do you do what most of us do – deny stress? Or have you developed not coping mechanisms, but actual ways to release it or not pick it up?
photo by h.koppdelaney
[…] also write about how men are experiencing a new kind of stress in the post Work-Life Balance Hard for Men, Too. Now that we have research to support that it is tough, it’s OK to admit to it. In my post Is […]