What is Stress & How do I Manage it?

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Article Title: What is Stress & How do I Manage it?

Article Author: Tanja Gardner

Article Copyright: 2005

Author Contact Email: mailto:tanja@...

Formatted to 65 Characters per Line

Word Count: 755 words

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" WHAT IS STRESS AND HOW DO I MANAGE IT? "

By Tanja Gardner, Optimum Life Ltd

WHAT IS STRESS?

I read a wonderful definition of stress recently - `the result

of suppressing the body's natural desire to choke the life out

of some idiot who desperately deserves it'. Not the most

scientific definition, perhaps, and certainly not all-

inclusive; but not too far away from a number of accepted

definitions either.

While the way we define stress could be considered just

semantics, it's actually quite important. Stress is an

extremely subjective experience, and that's part of what makes

it so difficult to both recognise in ourselves, and help others

with. When I ran a survey about stress a couple of years ago,

I asked respondents how they'd define `stress'. Answers ranged

from `an inescapable disease of modern life' to `nothing but an

excuse for poor performance', and everything in between.

Some people talked about stress as an illness in itself,

pointing to colleagues they had known who'd been `signed off

work sick with stress'. Others described various physical

symptoms, then casually waved them off as `just stress' as

though that made them somehow less real. Some talked about

emotional reactions, some about behavioural difficulties like

reduced performance at work or inability to concentrate, and

some pointed to long-term health effects.

These are all aspects of stress, but very few definitions seem

to take all of them into consideration. The definition offered

by International Stress Management Association (ISMA) is one of

the most comprehensive, if a little complex and unwieldy. The

definition we use at Optimum Life when we're working with clients

is therefore adapted from ISMA's. We define stress as " the

physical, mental and emotional reactions triggered (and their

long-term results) when we encounter a situation that we believe

requires us to adapt further than we can currently cope with. "

THE 3-PART STRESS PROCESS

We believe this definition is helpful because it covers all the

abovementioned aspects of stress. Under this definition, we're

envisaging stress as a three-part process. Put simply, someone

experiencing stress:

- Becomes aware of an actual situation (past, present or future),

- Believes the situation is beyond their current ability to cope

with, and then

- Their belief triggers a host of physical, mental and emotional

responses *

For example, let's say I'm feeling nervous, nauseous and unable

to sleep because I know I have to give a presentation at work

tomorrow. What are the three parts to my stress?

- The fact that I need to give a presentation (the actual

situation)

- My beliefs about the presentation and my ability to give

it (if I genuinely believed I could do it easily, I wouldn't

feel stressed about it)

- The nausea, nerves & insomnia my belief has triggered (the

physical and emotional responses)

MULTPLE-ANGLE STRESS MANAGEMENT

This 3-part breakdown becomes invaluable when we're trying to

manage stress, because it gives us three possible areas to target

in any experience of stress – the situation itself, our beliefs

about it, or the specific reactions that are triggered. Being

able to approach from multiple angles is useful because sometimes

just eliminating the most obvious part of the process (in this

case, avoiding the presentation) can bring unacceptable

consequences. Other times, targeting a combination of the three

will give far better results than just zoning in on one area

in isolation.

All of the stress management coaching we offer at Optimum Life

is based around helping clients identify each part of their

particular stress response, and then establish the most

appropriate strategies to help them manage it. Not everyone

needs such one-to-one personal assistance, however, and over

the next few articles, we'll explore how you can identify

techniques for each point in the 3-part process.

* If you're interested in the specifics of how and why beliefs

trigger physical responses, you may be interested in our article

" What Happens when we get Stressed?

<http://http://optimumlife.co.nz/Stress%20Management%20Articles/

What%20Happens%20when%20we%20get%20Stressed.htm> " .

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RESOURCE INFORMATION:

Optimum Life Ltd's Tanja Gardner is a Stress Management Coach

and Personal Trainer whose articles on holistic health, relaxation

and spirituality have appeared in various media since 1999. For

more information on stress and how to deal with it, check out the

Optimum Life website - http://optimumlife.co.nz. Optimum Life is a

company dedicated to providing fitness and stress management services

that help clients all over the world achieve their optimum lives.

If you'd like to discuss anything in this article with Tanja, you

can contact her on mailto:tanja@...

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