Originally published June 29 2005
Re-examining job and career stress could change your life
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Lisa Barker is just one example of someone who changed her life by simply paying attention to the way her body reacted to stress levels associated with her job. A growing number of stressed-out, antidepressant-popping 30-somethings are taking mental health into their own hands. They're quitting over-taxing jobs and working for themselves, re-imagining their lives, and re-inventing their priorities.
Three years ago, Barker had what she calls "an Ebenezer Scrooge moment" --- an epiphany during which she clearly saw her past, present and future.
She realized that she was too wrapped up in her career, that she wasn't happy.
Now her own boss and considerably less stressed, Barker, 38, buys rundown homes in Palm Beach and Broward counties, fixes them up and resells them.
Barker is part of a small but growing cadre of Americans who are taking time out from their fast-paced lives to examine their jobs and their goals --- and concluding that it's time to leave the rat race.
After the go-go years of the dot-com boom, when it was cool to work endlessly and sleep under your desk, some of us suddenly are imposing limits on our office hours.
The work-life balance movement has its own ever-growing canon of books (with titles such as Leave the Office Earlier and Living Your Best Life) and its own glossy magazine (Worthwhile, launched last year by two former Wall Street Journal reporters).
New York author Mary Lou Quinlan stepped off the fast track a few years ago and found the experience so freeing that she wrote Time Off for Good Behavior: How Hardworking Women Can Take a Break and Change Their Lives, which includes the story of Barker's life change.
Garden of Life, a natural foods company based in West Palm Beach, likewise offers flexible hours and perks such as "Stress-Free Fridays," when workers are treated to smoothies.
"People are realizing that it's important to both work hard and to play hard," Garden of Life founder Jordan Rubin says.
Now that her 6-year-old son is out of school for the summer, Price arrives after 9 a.m. and leaves before 4 p.m. so the boy can attend a basketball camp.
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