Pounding The Punch-Bag

Staff at the UK's Department of Revenue and Customs (the equivalent of the IRS - the tax people) are reportedly stressed-out.

This isn't only because their work doesn't make them popular with the public. It isn't even just because they believe they're overworked and underpaid - although they do, and they very likely are.

It's because they're being blamed for personal information on 25.4 million people in the UK going missing.

The Government has blamed the junior member of staff who sent the CDs with the information to another Government Department, which insists it never got them.

Others claim the transfer was sanctioned by senior officers, who allegedly refused to take out sensitive information that didn't need be sent, or even to encrypt it, because doing so would cost too much.

Either way, the missing information includes things like names addresses, dates of birth, and full bank details - an ID thief's version of Aladdin's Cave.

What's more, it also has the name and date of birth of every child under 16 in the entire country - surely a paedophile's idea of Paradise.

One Government Minister has written to the parents of those children, reassuring them that the information is probably just misplaced somewhere in the offices of one or other of the Government Departments involved.

Granted, that would be far better that it being in the hands of criminals - but what does it tell you about the way that Government Departments are run if something that important to so many people can just drop out of sight?

Even so, that's not the only reason Revenue and Customs staff are stressed.

They've been blamed for not spotting fraudulent Tax Credit claims.

They've been blamed for backlogs of work they say they haven't got the staff to deal with.

They've been blamed for paying too much to some Tax Credits claimants, and wrongly stopping payment for those who are entitled.

They've been blamed for relying on call centers, and not letting the public speak to anyone who has the knowledge and experience to help them deal with difficulties - and a couple of years ago their website was hacked into, and the staff's own personal information stolen.

It's not surprising if they aren't very happy in their work.

According to a news report, they've decided to take action. They've used a Revenue and Customs community website to "demand" (the news report's description, not my own) to be given punch-bags, squeeze balls and aromatherapy to help reduce their stress levels (I gladly would have checked the source, but the report went on to say the website's now off-line).

Well, if the news report's correct, all credit to the staff for realizing the importance of doing something about the situation. Being under stress isn't just a miserable experience. It undermines your concentration, and it wrecks relationships. It's damaging to health, and it can kill.

I'm not convinced that pounding a punch-bag is the answer, though. Releasing stress through violence can all too easily become a habit, and it brings with it the risk that someday the punch-bag won't be readily available... and someone else will. Many abusive relationships become that way because one of the partners just can't handle stress.

If you want a high-energy way of releasing pent-up feelings, a more constructive way is taking exercise that doesn't involve violence. A good fast walk is great for that, and so are dancing, jogging, aerobics, or a work-out at the gym.

The problem is that although high-energy exercise is great for working off a blaze of anger, many forms of stress don't actually respond to it at all.

That's because continued stress leaves you exhausted. It's debilitating. You can't take exercise because you haven't got the energy... and you can't recharge your energy because you can't switch off your anxieties enough to get some proper, restful sleep.

That means you need to learn how to release that stress and tension, and relax your mind and body - not just occasionally, but every day, and any time you want to.

For the easiest way that you can free your life from stress, click here.

The New Buzz-Word In Dieting

I've come across a new word to do with diet, eating, and I suppose you'd have to say to do with exercise, health and fitness (or the lack of them), as well. Obesogenic, apparently, is Government-committee-speak for British society, which allegedly takes less exercise than at any time in known history, and is obsessively focused on eating all the wrong kinds and quantities of food.

According to a new report, the majority of British people will by 2050 be seriously overweight - obese, in fact. The risk to health and fitness of such a level of obesity has been described as a potential catastrophe second only to global warming.

I don't know quite how true that is - statistics can be interpreted and projected to back up almost anything you want - but I do know that it doesn't have to be that way.

Unless it's caused by a medical condition or a disability, obesity isn't something that just happens, without anything that you can do about it. Becoming overweight is the result of regularly taking in more calories than you can use, and those extra calories being stored as fat.

It isn't pleasant being overweight. It isn't comfortable, either physically or emotionally. It isn't good for you... and it's seriously bad for how you feel about yourself.

You don't have to put up with it, though. Just make yourself a promise that you'll eat a little less, and exercise a little more... and keep it.

Eat a salad once a day, instead of junk food. Walk to work, or to the shops, instead of using transport. To tone your muscles with as little physical demand on you as possible, try the gentle exercise of yoga, qi gong, or t'ai chi.

A regular, committed effort will do far more lasting good than a crash diet or exhausting fitness schedule that you'll struggle through for a week or so and then give up on.

If you need some help to change your diet or your eating habits, you could visit Achieve Your Perfect Weight - And Stay There, and for encouragement to take more exericse and to improve your health and fitness, you might want to click on Teach Your Mind To Train Your Body.

Whatever kind of fancy name it's given, obsessing about people being overweight won't put the situation right.

Focusing on the outcome that you want, not one you don't want, can.