Stress Management

UNDERSTANDING STRESS

Much research has been conducted into stress over the last hundred years. Some of the theories behind it are now settled and accepted; others are still being researched and debated. During this time, there seems to have been something approaching open warfare between competing theories and definitions: Views have been passionately held and aggressively defended.

What complicates this is that intuitively we all feel that we know what stress is, as it is something we have all experienced. A definition should therefore be obvious…except that it is not.

Definitions
Hans Selye was one of the founding fathers of stress research. His view in 1956 was that “stress is not necessarily something bad - it all depends on how you take it. The stress of exhilarating, creative successful work is beneficial, while that of failure, humiliation or infection is detrimental.” Selye believed that the biochemical effects of stress would be experienced, irrespective of whether the situation was positive or negative.

Since then, a great deal of further research has been conducted, and ideas have moved on. Stress is now viewed as a "bad thing", with a range of harmful biochemical and long-term effects. These effects have rarely been observed in positive situations.

The most commonly accepted definition of stress is that stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that “demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilise.”

We also recognise that there is an intertwined instinctive stress response to unexpected events. The stress response inside us is therefore part instinct and part to do with the way we think.

Fight or flight
Some of the early research on stress (conducted by Walter Cannon in 1932) established the existence of the well-known “fight-or-flight” response. His work showed that when an organism experiences a shock or perceives a threat, it quickly releases hormones that help it to survive.

In humans, as in other animals, these hormones help us to run faster and fight harder. They increase heart rate and blood pressure, delivering more oxygen and blood sugar to power important muscles. They increase sweating in an effort to cool these muscles, and help them stay efficient. They divert blood away from the skin to the core of our bodies, reducing blood loss if we are damaged. As well as this, these hormones focus our attention on the threat, to the exclusion of everything else. All of this significantly improves our ability to survive life-threatening events.

Life-threatening events are not the only ones to trigger this reaction. We experience it almost any time we come across something unexpected or something that frustrates our goals. When the threat is small, our response is small and we often do not notice it among the many other distractions of a stressful situation.
Unfortunately, this mobilisation of the body for survival also has negative consequences. In this state, we are excitable, anxious, jumpy and irritable. This actually reduces our ability to work effectively with other people. With trembling and a pounding heart, we can find it difficult to execute precise, controlled skills. The intensity of our focus on survival interferes with our ability to make fine judgments by drawing information from many sources. We find ourselves more accident-prone and less able to make good decisions.

There are very few situations in modern working life where this response is useful. Most situations benefit from a calm, rational, controlled and socially sensitive approach.

In the short term, we need to keep this fight-or-flight response under control to be effective in our jobs. In the long term we need to keep it under control to avoid problems of poor health and burnout.

WHAT IS STRESS?

To really understand this, ask yourself: what causes stress?

We cannot specify what external conditions cause stress as the stress reaction is based on our interpretation of a stressful condition. There is not a specific cause of stress - only a person’s reaction to a condition, situation or an event.

How we react to a stressful situation is based on our individual appraisal and interpretation; although some situations are considerably more stressful than others - such as going to the dentist, having surgery, moving job/school/house, exams, weddings, divorces etc.

We cannot avoid stress. Situations arise on a day to day basis which make physical mental and emotional demands on us. There may be decisions that need to be made, deadlines that need to be met, lessons to be learned. It doesn’t matter whether we are at work or at play. Stress is the driving force that keeps us on our toes and ensures that we push to be the best we can be. However that is only valid up to a certain point. If we have too much stress and endless wear and tear, it can drive us into physical, mental and emotional exhaustion.

Having too little stress can also be a problem. If we are not exposed to the driving forces that push us and we are not stretched or committed, we can become bored, sluggish and lethargic. Therefore it is imperative to strike a balance between not enough stress and too much stress.

As individuals, we must take stock of all aspects of our life and situations. We must change our attitudes and behaviours - it is not so much the things which stress us that cause the problems, but rather the way in which we react to them. If treated early, the prospects are good. If left, there is a risk that ‘burnout’ may become a permanent state of affairs.

How do we feel when we become stressed?
When a stressful situation is interpreted as dangerous or threatening, people experience feelings of tension, apprehension and worry. They also undergo a range of physiological and behavioural changes. These feelings of tension, apprehension, nervousness and worry may also be accompanied with behavioural and physiological changes such as trembling; palpitations; dizziness; tremors and so on. These are also very often, the symptoms of anxiety. Therefore anxiety is something that is felt.

We encounter sources of stress every day of our lives and at every stage of human development.

Think about the kind of stresses we go through:

At birthAs a toddler
At schoolAs a teenager
At workAt home
At middle ageAt retirement/old age

Change causes stress - environmental and technological in particular - as well as life events. The key factor that causes stress is SIGNIFICANT CHANGE THAT REQUIRES ADAPTATION - if only we could learn to adapt more easily…

Internal stress causing factors combine with external ones. There can be many kinds of internal conflicts that cause stress. The most common one is conflict between some emotion or desire and prohibitive internal voice eg, ‘I want to’ versus ‘I mustn’t’ or between a reluctance to do something and an internalised sense of duty - an ‘I don’t want to’ versus ‘I should’.

What happens in our bodies when we get stressed?

Fight/flight mode - stress
Heart rate increases
Mouth dries up
Forehead tenses
Breathing becomes shallow and fast
Eyes strain
Jaws and teeth are clenched
Distresses facial complexion
Anger/hostility
Perspiration increases
Blood vessels close
Skin tightens
Increased white blood cells
Blood sugar increases
Blood pressure increases
Stomach butterflies/digestive system suspended
Bladder relaxes

If you stay in this state for a prolonged period it will lead to exhaustion and then depression.

Rest and digest - relaxed
Heart rates decreases
Breathing deepens and slows
Blood vessels return to normal
Salivation returns to normal
Facial muscles relax
Pupils return to normal
Production of white blood cells inhibited
Muscles relax
Blood pressure reduces
Blood sugar reduces
Sweat glands close
Digestion returns to normal
Bladder contracts
Restful and calm feelings

Chronic stress can lead to - BACK PROBLEMS, HEART PROBLEMS, MIGRAINE, ASTHMA, DIGESTIVE PROBLEMS, SKIN CONDITIONS AND ALLERGIES.

Remember it is physically impossible to be ANXIOUS and RELAXED at the same time.

Stress and anxiety both require energy, once the energy is used up, then the person is de-pressed, there is no energy left to feed the anxieties, which are not being resolved. Another way of looking at it is, the person de-pressed themselves to escape dealing with reality.

How to beat stress in the workplace.

The more exciting the workplace the more likely it is we will need to deal with stress. It will also be true that time is of the essence. Having researched many different approaches to stress available today, it has occurred to me that there are no simple solutions offered by most so called stress management organisations. For the average person with a busy schedule too many stress management courses are so involved that they can actually be stressful themselves. So the question is how do we simplify stress management itself?

One of the reasons that stress management can be so taxing is that it is based on eastern philosophy, which in itself is fascinating. The problem is that it is taught by people from the West, who only have a modicum of understanding of these subtle techniques. It becomes a case of Chinese whispers. People are left with little real understanding of what it is they are supposed to be doing. We simply do not have the right cultural history to take on board, in our busy working environment a multitude of eastern techniques of yoga and relaxation. Further more we do not want to spend hours and hours trying to work out how to deal with stress.

Fortunately it is not only eastern philosophers who have studied the human condition and developed techniques for the relief of everyday stress in our lives.

F.M Alexander was born in 1869 and was a victim of stress himself. He had a career reciting verse, which went wrong when stress led to him losing his voice. When the doctors around him could do nothing to help, he decided to help himself. It was not to eastern philosophy that he turned. He did not turn to any outside source of knowledge. Firmly routed in Western society, he decided to observe himself, to seek out what it was he was doing wrong and based on his findings he developed the Alexander Technique. He went on to have a flourishing career and finally decided to share his findings with others realising that it wasn’t only just performers who suffered the kind of stress related problems he had cured.

In my own research I have been able to see many correlations between various Yoga techniques and the Alexander Technique. The difference is that for most of us here in the West, Alexander Technique is very easy for us to grasp. This is because it is firmly rooted in our own culture. Simple understanding of what it is we do to ourselves to create stress and allow it to develop inside of us is enough to combat the kind of stress we experience today. Using the Alexander Technique we can become alert, balanced, relaxed, focused and confident.