4 basic facts about stress

Stress is on the rise – all the research tells us that. We may have less hardship and disease than our predecessors, but the pressure on us seems greater than ever. We all know what it feels like, but what is stress exactly? As nature’s ‘fight or flight’ response, stress is very effective if we need to fight for our lives or make a hasty retreat, but not so appropriate when faced with a tight deadline or the need to make a public speech! There are lots of different definitions of the word.

A simple definition is ‘stress is the response by the mind and body to pressure we feel we can’t cope with”.  And the key word here is ‘feel’ – in other words it’s about how we think and feel about the pressures on us.  As the 1^st century philosopher Epictetus, said ‘People are disturbed not by things, but the views they take of them.’

The Stress Response

In the same way that the antelope will experience a surge of neurochemicals and hormones at the moment he realises he is in danger (principally adrenalin, noradrenalin and cortisol), so do we.  Our body switches into survival mode and the basic fear instinct takes over.  Our blood supply is redirected to the heart and major muscles; heart rate and respiration increase; blood pressure increases; fats and sugars are released; digestion slows right down; pupils dilate; sweating increases…….and so on. Once the danger is over the antelope returns to eating grass – his body switches back to its normal functioning mode and all is well.

The problem comes when this is happening so often that we become over-sensitised to it.  This heightened state of awareness or hyper-stimulation creates a kind of chronic stress, where our bodies take much longer to return to normal and it is that which can lead to all kinds of physical and mental problems. In order to slow us down our body gives us the ‘gift’ of illness – it is estimated that at least 75% of visits to the family doctor are in some way stress-related.  Stress affects our work, our relationships and our ability to enjoy life.

The Symptoms of Stress

Stress affects each of us differently, depending on our personality, background and experiences in life, and because we are all unique individuals the symptoms will vary – some will have more physical signs (e.g. headaches, back ache), others more emotional signs (e.g. easily upset, anxious)  and others may have a predominance of behavioural symptoms (e.g. shouting, drinking too much).

Stress and Performance

We seem to think that if we just work harder, faster, smarter, longer…that our performance will get better and better.  There’s just one problem with that idea – we are not machines.  When we reach a certain point, our bodies begin to tell us “slow down”.  If we don’t listen to those initial messages then our bodies speak louder, this time saying “no more” and if we still don’t listen we find our physical and mental health becomes compromised.  We can only keep going for so long before that happens.  Think of it like this – we start with ‘I want to….’, then it becomes ‘I have to….’ and when we hit that brick wall – ‘I can’t’

All of us have this one point at which we feel at our best – our so called ‘Point X’.  At this point we’re motivated, firing on all cylinders and doing a great job.  But this is a tricky balancing act – it’s hard to maintain and the temptation is to drive ourselves even harder.  We can tolerate this increased pressure for a while, ignoring the warning signs, but before long our stress levels rise, our performance suffers and we risk illness.   Take it from me – you might think you can continue to push yourself relentlessly – but you can’t.

Solution: Stand back and observe yourself

It’s amazing how easily we can upset ourselves through the thoughts and images in our heads.  In fact the primitive part of our mind can’t distinguish between what is real and what is imagined, so our body responds accordingly, releasing stress hormones just as if it is really happening now. Of course the more vividly we imagine these things, the more tense we become and the worse we feel.  The more aware you are of how your thoughts are feeding your worrying habit, the better – it’s important to develop the ability to stand back and observe your ‘thinking’ self.

Whenever you notice yourself worrying, try ‘tuning’ into your thoughts.  Are you thinking negatively?  What images are you playing?

Good luck!

Interested in more stress related facts? Then read the free downloadable eBook “Overcoming Perfectionism” written by Jenny Gould.

Download “Overcoming Perfectionism” right here