Putting Stress in its Place
What is stress?
Stress: emotional and physical response to pressure.
Stress: an organism's total response to environmental
demands or pressures
Stress: interactions between persons and the
environment that are perceived as straining or exceeding
adaptive capacities or threatening well-being.
Who has stress in America?
• One million absences per day due to stress
• Nearly half have burnout impeding function
• Stress increasing for Millenials (18-33) – also
depression and anxiety
• One fourth of all the drugs prescribed in the United
States go to the treatment of stress.
We need some stress???
Causes of stress
• Survival Stress - "fight, fright or flight“
• Internal Stress - worrying
• Perfection syndrome
• Responsibility syndrome
• Environmental Stress - noise, crowding, work or family.
• Fatigue and Overwork - working too much or too hard
• Workload (46%), People issues (28%), Work/Life Balance (20%) Lack of Job Security (6%)
• Time management
• Arm disease Collect what
applies to you
People have different responses to stress
• We do not all interpret each situation in the same
way.
• Because of this, we do not all call on the same
resources for each situation
• We do not all have the same resources and skills.
Responses to stress differ by
Personality
Physical strength
General health
Self concept
Knowledge
Self awareness
Discuss with a few people near you:
“What gives me stress?”
Starting with self-awareness
Noticing stress
Stress doesn’t always look stressful
Psychologist Connie Lillas describes the three most common ways people respond when they’re overwhelmed by stress:
• Foot on the gas – An angry or agitated stress response.
• Foot on the brake – A withdrawn or depressed stress response.
• Foot on both – A tense and frozen stress response.
Collect what
applies to you
Hans Selye (1907-1982)
• Published 1,700 research papers, 15 monographs and
7 popular books.
• Stressors are stressful whether good or bad
news, whether the impulse is positive or negative.
• “Distress” and “eustress”
Listening to your body language
Physical
• Heart rate and blood pressure increase
• Perspiration increases
• Hearing and vision become more acute
• Hands and feet get cold, because blood is directed
away from the extremities to the large muscles in
order to prepare for fighting or fleeing
• Breathing is fast and shallow Collect what
applies to you
Listening to your body language
Mental
• Being aware of internal “self-talk”
• Being honest about the situation
• Changing focused, negative thinking and self-
defeating thoughts to open, positive thinking and
intuitive creativity
Collect what
applies to you
Listening to your body language
Emotional
• Negative feelings
• Feeling abandoned or persecuted
• Displaced anger
Spiritual
• Losing heart
• Losing contact with beliefs and valuesCollect what
applies to you
• A tendency to sweat
• Back pain
• Chest pain
• Childhood obesity
Cramps or muscle spasms
• Erectile dysfunction
• Fainting spells
• Headache
• Heart disease
• Hypertension (high blood pressure)
• Loss of libido
• Lower immunity against diseases
• Muscular aches
• Nail biting
• Nervous twitches
• Pins and needles
• Sleeping difficulties
• Stomach upset
Effects on your body
Collect what
applies to you
• Anger
• Anxiety
• Burnout
• Depression
• Feeling of insecurity
• Forgetfulness
• Irritability
• Problem concentrating
• Restlessness
• Sadness
• Fatigue
Effects on your thoughts and feelings
Collect what
applies to you
• Eating too much
• Eating too little
• Food cravings
• Sudden angry outbursts
• Drug abuse
• Alcohol abuse
• Higher tobacco
consumption
• Social withdrawal
• Frequent crying
• Relationship problems
Effects on your behavior
Collect what
applies to you
Influences on your stress tolerance level
• Your support network
• Your sense of control.
• Your attitude and outlook
• Your ability to deal with your emotions
• Your knowledge and preparation
Collect what
applies to you
Who’s in Charge?
• Awareness
• Mind, body and spirit work
together
• How you see yourself
What happens in times of stress?
• You don’t breathe
• You don’t think
The secret weapon
• Breathing
• Relaxing tongue and jaw
• Through your toes
• Other ways
• Counting
• Consciously measuringCollect
what you
will do
• Black out
• Talk to self – and to
others
• Order vs. Chaos
• Exercise, walking
• Fantasy
• Laughing
• Meditation
• Arts, Music
Other weapons
Collect
what you
will do
What will you do differently?
Discuss with others
Have a stress free day!
Thank you for listening
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