STRESS MANAGEMENT


We are all familiar with the word ‘stress’. Stress is when you are worried about
getting laid off your job, or worried about having enough money to pay your bills, or
worried about your mother when the doctor says she may need an operation. In fact,
to most of us, stress is synonymous with worry. If it is something that makes you
worry, then it is stress.
Stress is common to everyone. Our bodies are designed to feel stress and react to it. It
keeps us alert and ready to avoid danger. It is not always possible to avoid or change
events that may cause stress. We can feel trapped and unable to cope. When stress
persists, the body begins to break down and illnesses can occur. The key to coping
with stress is identifying stressors in your life and learning ways to direct and reduce
stress.
Dr. Hans Selye, the father of stress theory, defined stress as "the nonspecific response
of the body to any demand made upon it." The "demand" can be a threat, a challenge
or any kind of change which requires the body to adapt. The response is automatic
and immediate. Stress can be good (called "eustress") when it helps us perform
better, or it can be bad ("distress") when it causes upset or makes us sick.
Another commonly accepted definition of stress (mainly attributed to Richard S
Lazarus) is that stress is a condition or a feeling that is experienced when a person
perceives that “demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is
able to mobilise.”

What Causes Stress?
Stress can be caused by anything that requires you to adjust to a change in your
environment. Your body reacts to these changes with physical, mental and emotional
responses. We all have our own ways of coping with change, so the causes of stress
can be different for each person. There are external and internal causes of stress.

External stressors include:
• Physical environment: noise, bright lights, heat, confined spaces.
• Social (interaction with people): rudeness, bossiness or aggressiveness on the
part of someone else.
• Organisational: rules, regulations, "red tape," deadlines.
• Major life events: death of a relative, lost job, promotion, new baby.
• Daily hassles: commuting, misplacing keys, mechanical breakdowns.


STRESS MANAGEMENT

Internal stressors include:
• Lifestyle choices: caffeine, not enough sleep, overloaded schedule.
• Negative self-talk: pessimistic thinking, self-criticism, over-analysing.
• Mind traps: unrealistic expectations, taking things personally, all-or-nothing
thinking, exaggerating, rigid thinking.
• Stressful personality traits: Type A, perfectionist, workaholic, pleaser.

Occupational Stress

One of the main areas that can cause a great deal of stress in a individual’s life is
occupational stress. Among the intense stressors at work are the following:

• Having no participation in decisions that affect one's responsibilities.
• Unrelenting and unreasonable demands for performance.
• Lack of effective communication and conflict-resolution methods among
workers and employers.
• Lack of job security.
• Long hours.
• Excessive time spent away from home and family.
• Office politics and conflicts between workers.
• Wages not commensurate with levels of responsibility.

What Are Common Symptoms of Stress?
Manifestations of stress are numerous and varied but they generally fall into four
categories (this is only a partial list of most common symptoms):
Physical: fatigue, headache, insomnia, muscle aches/stiffness (especially neck,
shoulders and low back), heart palpitations, chest pains, abdominal cramps, nausea,
trembling, cold extremities, flushing or sweating and frequent colds.
Mental Processes: decrease in concentration and memory, indecisiveness, mind
racing or going blank, confusion, loss of sense of humour.
Emotional (Feelings): anxiety, nervousness, depression, anger, frustration, worry,
fear, irritability, impatience, short temper.
Behavioural: pacing, fidgeting, nervous habits (nail-biting, foot-tapping), increased
eating, smoking, drinking, crying, yelling, swearing, blaming and even throwing
things or hitting.
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STRESS MANAGEMENT

OVERSTRESS makes people feel terrible. People complain of being tired, unable to
fall asleep or to obtain a restful night's sleep. They have plagues of aches and pains,
lack of energy, lack of enjoyment of life. They feel depressed, anxious, or just unable
to cope with life.

What can you do to reduce stress in your life?

• Accept that there are events that you cannot control.
• Be assertive instead of aggressive. "Assert" your feelings, opinions or beliefs
instead of becoming angry, combative or passive.
• Learn to relax.
• Eat well-balanced meals.
• Rest and sleep. Your body needs time to recover from stressful events.
• Don't rely on alcohol or drugs to reduce stress.
• Decrease caffeine (coffee, tea, colas, chocolate).
• Regular exercise (at least 30 minutes, three times per week).
• Leisure time (do something for yourself everyday).
• Diversion and distraction. Take time-out (anything from a short walk to a
vacation) to get away from the things that are bothering you. This will not
resolve the problem, but it will give you a break and a chance for your stress
levels to decrease. Then, you can return to deal with issues feeling more rested
and in a better frame of mind.
• Relaxation exercises (e.g., mind relaxation, deep breathing relaxation).

RELAXATION EXERCISES
2-Minute Relaxation
Switch your thoughts to yourself and your breathing. Take a few deep breaths,
exhaling slowly. Mentally scan your body. Notice areas that feel tense or cramped.
Quickly loosen up these areas. Let go of as much tension as you can.
Move your head to your right shoulder, then to the left shoulder, move your head
forward from your chin to your chest and move your head backwards. Roll your
shoulders forward and backward several times. Let all of your muscles completely
relax. Recall a pleasant thought for a few seconds. Take another deep breath and
exhale slowly. You should feel more relaxed.

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STRESS MANAGEMENT

Mind Relaxation
Close your eyes. Breathe normally through your nose. As you exhale, silently say to
yourself the word "one," a short word such as "peaceful" or a short phrase such as "I
feel quiet" or "I'm safe". Continue for ten minutes. If your mind wanders, gently
remind yourself to think about your breathing and your chosen word or phrase. Let
your breathing become slow and steady.

Deep Breathing Relaxation
Many individuals under stress breathe shallowly and rapidly from the upper chest as if
preparing for flight or reacting to fear. This type of breathing intensifies anxiety. To
reduce stress, take several deep breaths and practice slow, abdominal breathing every
chance you can. Imagine a spot just below your navel.
Breath into that spot and fill your abdomen with air. Let the air fill you from the
abdomen up, then let it out, like deflating a balloon. With every long, slow breath out,
you should feel more relaxed.
During a break or after lunch, try this relaxing posture. Sit somewhere quiet.
Comfortably round your shoulders so they feel relaxed. Drop your arms to the sides.
With the palms up, rest your hands on top of your thighs. Bend your knees
comfortably while extending your legs. Allow your feet to fall outward, supported by
your heels. Next, let your jaw drop, close your eyes and practice your deep breathing
for several minutes.

Progressive Muscular Relaxation (PMR)

Experiment with PMR by forming a fist, and clenching your hand as tight as you can
for a few seconds. Relax your hand to its previous tension, and then consciously relax
it again so that it is as loose as possible. You should feel deep relaxation in your hand
muscles.
Alternately contract and relax each muscle group. Start at the head and work to the
toes or vice versa. Do the head, face, neck and shoulders and then each arm, hand and
finger. Move to the chest, back, abdomen and pelvis, then each leg, foot and toe.
Imagine the tension draining from your fingertips and toes. Notice how different you
feel once you have contracted then relaxed a muscle group. This exercise helps you to
recognise the difference between being tense and relaxed. Eventually it will be easier
to conjure up this relaxed feeling under stress or to remain relaxed.

Visualisation

Sometimes we are not able to change our environment to manage stress – this may be
the case where we do not have the power to change a situation, or where we are about
to give an important performance. Visualisation is a useful skill for relaxing in these
situations. Imagery is a potent method of stress reduction, especially when combined
with physical relaxation methods such as deep breathing.
One common use of visualisation in relaxation is to imagine a scene, place or event
that you remember as safe, peaceful, restful, beautiful and happy.
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STRESS MANAGEMENT

You can bring all your senses into the image with, for example, sounds of running
water and birds, listening to rain on a tin roof while snuggled in bed. Use the
imagined place as a retreat from stress and pressure.

Scenes can involve complex images such as lying on a beach in a deserted cove. You
may “see” cliffs, sea and sand around you, “hear” the waves crashing against rocks,
“smell” the salt in the air, and “feel” the warmth of the sun and a gentle breeze on
your body. Other images might include looking at a mountain view, swimming in a
tropical pool, or whatever you want. You will be able to come up with the most
effective images for yourself.

Other uses of imagery in relaxation involve creating mental pictures of stress flowing
out of your body, or of stress, distractions and everyday concerns being folded away
and locked into a padlocked chest.
With visualisation, you substitute actual experience with scenes from your
imagination. Your body reacts to these imagined scenes almost as if they were real,
calming you down.

THOUGHT AWARENESS,
RATIONAL THINKING AND POSITIVE THINKING

Thought Awareness

Quite often, our experience of stress comes from our perception of the situation.
Perception is the key to this, as situations are not stressful in their own right. Rather it
is our interpretation of the situation that drives the level of stress that we feel.
Often that perception is right, but sometimes it is not. Often we are unreasonably
harsh with ourselves or instinctively jump to wrong conclusions about people’s
motives. This can send us into a downward spiral of negative thinking that can be
hard to break.
Quite obviously, sometimes we are right in what we say to ourselves. Some situations
may actually be dangerous, may threaten us physically, socially or in our career. Here,
stress and emotion are part of the early warning system that alerts us to the threat from
these situations. Very often, however, we are overly harsh and unjust to ourselves in a
way that we would never be with friends or co-workers. This, along with other
negative thinking, can cause intense stress and unhappiness and can severely
undermine self-confidence.
A major problem with this is that negative thoughts tend to flit into our consciousness,
do their damage and flit back out again with their significance, having barely been
noticed. Since we do not challenge them, they can be completely incorrect and wrong.
Yet, this does not diminish their harmful affect.
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STRESS MANAGEMENT

One of the ways to monitor our thoughts is through the use of a stress diary. One of
the benefits of using the Stress Diary is that you log all of the unpleasant things in
your life that cause you stress for one or two weeks. This would include negative
thoughts and anxieties, and can also include difficult or unpleasant memories and
situations that you perceive as negative. By logging your negative thoughts for a
reasonable period of time, you will quickly see patterns in your negative thinking.
When you analyse your diary at the end of the period, you should be able to see the
most common and the most damaging thoughts. Tackle these as a priority.

Rational thinking

The next step in dealing with negative thinking is to challenge the negative thoughts
that you identified using the Thought Awareness technique. Look at every thought
you wrote down and rationally challenge it. Ask yourself whether the thought is
reasonable: Does it stand up to fair scrutiny?

As an example, by analysing your Stress Diary you might identify that you have
frequently had the following negative thoughts:

• Feelings of inadequacy
• Worries that your performance in your job will not be good enough
• An anxiety that things outside your control will undermine your efforts
• Worries about other people’s reactions to your work

Starting with these, you might challenge these negative thoughts in the ways shown:

• Feelings of inadequacy: Have you trained and educated yourself as well as
you reasonably should to do the job? Do you have the experience and
resources you need to do it? Have you planned, prepared and rehearsed
appropriately? If you have done all of these, are you setting yourself
unattainably high standards for doing the job?

• Worries about performance: Do you have the training that a reasonable
person would think is needed to do a good job? Have you planned
appropriately? Do you have the information and resources you need? Have
you cleared the time you need and cued up your support team appropriately?
Have you prepared appropriately? If you have not, then you need to do these
things quickly. If you have, then you are well positioned to give the best
performance that you can.

• Problems with issues outside your control: Have you conducted appropriate
contingency planning?
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STRESS MANAGEMENT


• Worry about other people’s reactions: If you have put in good preparation,
and you do the best you can, then that is all that you need to know. If you
perform as well as you reasonably can, then fair people are likely to respond
well. If people are not fair, then this is something outside your control.

Positive Thinking

Where you have used Rational Thinking to identify incorrect negative thinking, it can
often be useful to prepare rational positive thoughts and affirmations to counter them.

Continuing the examples above, positive affirmations might be:
• Feelings of inadequacy: “I am well trained for this. I have the experience, the
tools and the resources I need. I have thought through and prepared for all
possible issues. I can do a superb job.”
• Worries about performance: “I have researched and planned well for this,
and I thoroughly understand the problem. I have the time, resources and help I
need. I am well prepared to do an excellent job.”
• Problems issues outside your control: “We have thought through everything
that might reasonably happen and have planned how we can handle all likely
contingencies. Everyone is ready to help where necessary. We are very well
placed to react flexibly and effectively to unusual events.”
• Worry about other people’s reaction: “I am well-prepared and am doing the
best I can. Fair people will respect this. I will rise above any unfair criticism in
a mature and professional way.”

Summary

This set of tools helps you to manage and counter the stress of negative thinking.
Thought Awareness helps you to understand the negative thinking, unpleasant
memories and misinterpretation of situations that may interfere with your
performance and damage your self-confidence.
Rational Thinking is the technique that helps you to challenge these negative thoughts
and either learn from them or refute them as incorrect.
Positive thinking is then used to create positive affirmations that you can use to
counter negative thoughts. These affirmations neutralise negative thoughts and build
your self-confidence. It is also used to find the opportunities that are almost always
present to some degree in a difficult situation.




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STRESS MANAGEMENT

WHAT OTHER CONDITIONS HAVE THE SAME SYMPTOMS AS STRESS?
Anxiety Disorders
The physical symptoms of anxiety disorders mirror many of those of stress, including
a fast heart rate; rapid, shallow breathing; and increased muscle tension. Anxiety is an
emotional disorder. It is characterised by feelings of apprehension, uncertainty, fear,
or panic.

Anxiety or Panic attacks are the best example. Seemingly out of nowhere, a person
experiences a racing heart beat, tightness in the chest, dizziness, sweaty hands and dry
mouth, and a feeling of disorientation. People who suffer panic attacks will quickly
tell you that they don't know what is happening to their bodies and they think they are
having a heart attack or some other terrible illness. Stress is that powerful.

Unlike stress, the triggers for anxiety are not necessarily or even usually associated
with specific stressful or threatening conditions. Some individuals with anxiety
disorders have numerous physical complaints, such as headaches, gastrointestinal
disturbances, dizziness, and chest pain. Severe cases of anxiety disorders are
debilitating, and interfere with career, family, and social interaction. Anxiety
disorders can, in, turn progress to an individual suffering specific phobias such as:
agoraphobia, social phobia or obsessive compulsive disorder.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a reaction to a very traumatic event: it is
actually classified as an anxiety disorder. The event that precipitates PTSD is usually
outside the norm of human experience, such as intense combat or sexual assault.
The patient struggles to forget the traumatic event and frequently develops emotional
numbness and event-related amnesia. Often, however, there is a mental flashback, and
the patient re-experiences the painful circumstance in the form of intrusive dreams
and disturbing thoughts and memories, which resemble or recall the trauma.
Other symptoms may include lack of pleasure in formerly enjoyed activities,
hopelessness, irritability, mood swings, sleep problems, inability to concentrate, and
an excessive startle-response to noise.
Depression
Depression can be a disabling condition, and, like anxiety disorders, may result from
untreated chronic stress. Depression also mimics some of the symptoms of stress,
including changes in appetite, sleep patterns, and concentration. Serious depression,
however, is distinguished from stress by feelings of sadness, hopelessness, loss of
interest in life, and, sometimes, thoughts of suicide. Acute depression is also
accompanied by significant changes in the patient's functioning.

Professional therapy may be needed in order to determine if depression is caused by
stress or if it is the primary problem.
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STRESS MANAGEMENT

Cognitive-Behavioural Techniques (CBT)
Cognitive-behavioural methods are the most effective ways to reduce stress which has
resulted in an anxiety related disorder or a depressive disorder. They include
identifying sources of stress, restructuring priorities, changing one's response to stress,
and finding methods for managing and reducing stress. Individuals who are suffering
from these disorders will be most often be treated by psychologists or doctors.
Some of the CBT techniques that are prescribed for anxiety and depression include:
relaxation training, goal setting, problem solving, flooding, systematic desensitisation
and cognitive restructuring.
Sometimes CBT techniques are not effective enough on their own to treat the
depressive or anxiety disorder. That is when an individual may require antidepressant
medications. The use of medication is then combined with psychological treatment
methods such as CBT and prove more efficacious than the use of either treatments on
their own.
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