Executive Ship News Bulletin

WAYS TO COMBAT STRESS AT WORK

Breathing
Taking slow breaths from the diaphragm is one of the most effective ways to mange stress. It releases tension in any difficult situations. First, take 12 deep, slow breaths. Then return to normal breathing, then repeat until you feel at ease.

Drinking and diet
Instead of coffee, sip herbal teas and most implortantly, drink lots of water -- at least eight glasses a day. Additionally, certain herbs can be helpful. Take for example basil, bergamot, cedarwood, geranium, juniper, lavender, rose, sage, sandalwood and ylang-ylang. You can use them alone or combine two or three to attain a more effective result.

Exercising
Exercise helps dispel stress hormones from the bloodstream and stimulates the release of endorphins, opiate hormones that give a feeling of well-being. Set for 30 minutes of moderate activity most days, 15 to 60 minutes of aerobic activity three to five times a week.

Meditation
The aim is to release all thoughts, be relaxed but at the same time aware of the surrounding environment. Get yourself seated comfortably upright, close your eyes and relax. Focus your mind on an object or looking at an image. Then start breathing out and in to the count of four for 15 to 20 minutes.

Visualization
Imagine that you are in a calm, beautiful scene. Smell the scents, hear the sounds. Repeat positive phrases such as "I feel at peace." Before dealing with any high-pressure situation, picture that scene again. Then review what will happen in your mind, watching yourself deal confidently with the problem.

Mindfulness or active meditation
Focus all your attention to whatever you're doing, be it doing work or eating dinner. Observe shapes, colors, textures, the movement of your body. Focus on the moment you're experiencing without worrying about the past or the future. Be focus on the present.

Ease tension
15 minutes is all it takes to do this activity. Lie on your back on a firm bed or mat. Let your feet flop outward and your hands rest by your sides. Close your eyes and sigh to release tension. Breathe slowly, pausing about 4 seconds after each exhalation. Imagine the stress in your toes , feet and legs. Release all that tension when you sigh.
Then do the same with your fingertips, arms and neck. Ease tension in your shoulders by lowering them. Mentally "tell' your muscles on your face to relax. Be aware of the relaxation in your muscles. When you're ready, slowly open your eyes and stretch. Bend your knees and roll on your side before slowly getting up.

- complied from the internet

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" Drink water at least eight glasses a day "
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HEALTHY GALLEY TIPS

Most of nutrition is knowing which foods are good for you, which foods are bad, which supplements will improve your health, and which supplements won't. Knowing these nutrition basics will help you stay healthy but how about learning the basics of food service sanitation for the protection of your health?

Food can be easily contaminated. To prevent contamination, food must be protected from the time it is received onboard until it is consumed. It should be prepared in sanitary surroundings and served in clean, well-maintained mess rooms.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind for a healthy galley

•	Store foods properly in clean, tidy and insect-free storage spaces.
•	Always wash hands, food preparation surfaces and utensils thoroughly before and after handling raw foods to prevent recontamination of cooked foods.
•	Keep all utensils and galley equipment clean and in good working order.
•	Keep the ventilating hoods clean as grease and dirt could drop in the food.
•	Buy only the amounts of fresh produce you can use in just a couple of days so they don't lose their freshness. Raw meats should be used promptly or frozen.
•	Never smoke in or around food preparation areas.
•	Keep areas where garbage is accumulated spotless and insect-free.
•	Never store cleaning compounds and insecticides near foods.

This last newsletter of the year 2005 brings you all some pictorial moments of celebrations and fun that we shared as a fruit of success of the entire year. We have ended the year with a very satisfied note on the achievements made with our sweat and hard work. We had a great team work in achieving the milestones – be it crossing the 50 ships marks, launching the in-house cadets programme at the Lonavala pre-sea campus and qualifying for the first manning license from the government of India.

The New Year definitely looks bringing us more excitement and challenges as we

restructure and re-emphasize our priorities for the organization as a whole and even working at micro level tinkering on the system to suit the challenges ahead.

What make ESM always stand out are the performance and our commitment to quality in every sphere of our business. The year-end appraisal that we received from our clients speaks and upheld that value which is the core of our existence. In this respect, we are proud to share with all our colleagues and staff the comment from BP shipping on our performance for the year 2005.

Vessel performance in 2005 continues to be first class. It is always a pleasure to work with the personnel in ESM both on board and ashore in Singapore, Mumbai and Houston. Attention to detail in high and delivering high standards of HSE performance is clearly an important goal

Well done folks, we are indeed proud of you all and no doubt the coming year will be another bumper year of success for all of us! Happy New Year and safe sailing!