Get your brain in motion
Stress makes our heart pound, our breathing quicken and our forehead sweat. But while stress has been made into a public health enemy, new research suggests that stress may only be bad for us if we believe that to be the case.
In this TED Talk, Psychologist Kelly McGonigal urges us to see stress as a positive, and introduces us to an unsung mechanism for stress reduction: reaching out to others.
In this manual based on the writings of professor Richard S. Lazarus, the authors present the development of the Emotional Stress Reaction Questionnaire (ESRQ). With this tool, psychological stress can be measured in less than one minute.
The first part of the book presents the development of the ESRQ, its theoretical foundation and psychometric properties. The second part illustrates how the instrument can be used in personal coaching focusing on stress management.
Working hard for something we don’t care about is called stress;
working hard for something we love is called passion.
Image source: Pixabay (CC0)
Happy events, such as a wedding, as well as unhappy events, such as overwork, can cause stress. When your stress level exceeds your ability to cope, you need to restore the balance by reducing the stressors or increasing your ability to cope or both.
In this article are described the following four A’s to cope or reduce stress:
1 Avoid
You can simply avoid a lot of stress. Plan ahead, rearrange your surroundings and reap the benefits of a lighter load. In particular, try to avoid people who bother you, learn to say no and clearly define your priorities
However, some problems can’t be avoided. For those situations, here are the other A’s.
2 Alter Take inventory and attempt to change the situation for the better. In particular you can respectfully ask others to change their behavior, communicate your feelings openly, manage your time in a more efficient way and state limits in advance.
3 Accept
Sometimes you may have no choice but to accept things the way they are. For those times try to talk with someone, forgive (it takes energy to be angry), practice positive self-talk and learn from your mistakes.
4 Adapt
Sometimes adapting can be the most helpful and only available solution. In particular in those situations stop gloomy thoughts and adopt a mantra, try to reframe the issue and recall all of the things that bring you joy in life.
In general, you should adjust your standards and stop striving for perfection and always try to look at the big picture.
Image: Flickr – Jesper Sehested (CC BY 2.0)
Stress: a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation. Actually stress has been made into a public health enemy. In her Ted Talk, Health Psychologist Kelly McGonigal proposes a new approach to see stress as a positive thing, ‘because changing mind about stress is changing body’s response to stress’.
While some workplace stress is normal, excessive stress can interfere with your productivity and impact your physical and emotional health. And your ability to deal with it can mean the difference between success or failure.
You can’t control everything in your work environment, but that doesn’t mean you’re powerless—even when you’re stuck in a difficult situation. Finding ways to manage workplace stress isn’t about making huge changes or rethinking career ambitions, but rather about focusing on the one thing that’s always within your control: you.
This article of Helpguide.org provides some useful tips:
http://www.helpguide.org/articles/stress/stress-at-work.htm
Image source: Flickr – bottled_void – (CC BY 2.0)
Laurie Barkman in her blog Passionate Performance has published an interesting article about everyday stress.
When we learn how to manage stress, when we control the stress instead of allowing it to control us, we enjoy richer, deeper, stronger relationships. We work better, we feel better … we live longer.
The question is how do we do that? What can we do to bring our minds, our lives back to a healthier place?
Barkman’s answer to this question is in her article at: http://goo.gl/7Opb6
Image source: http://goo.gl/IGNxB
The text, ‘Stress measurement in less than one minute’, free download at Bookboon.com, presents the development of a measurement tool called the Emotional Stress Reaction Questionnaire (ESRQ).
The first part of the book (chapters 1-9) is solely devoted to the ESRQ instrument and its theoretical foundation. The second part (chapters 10-14) provides an illustration of how the presented framework and tool can be practically used in personal coaching focusing on stress management.
Bookboon provides a collection of valuable free ebooks for professionals
Tony Schwartz is the president and CEO of The Energy Project and the author of Be Excellent at Anything. On his Blog he has recently published a post on Stress.
His starting line goes like this: “How often do you intentionally push yourself to discomfort?”
A very effective example he provides, explains his position on stress management: “This is easiest to see at the physical level. In the absence of regular cardiovascular exercise — a form of stress — the heart’s ability to efficiently pump blood drops an average of 1 percent a year between the ages of 30 and 70, and faster after that. Likewise, in the absence of strength training — literally pushing weight against resistance — we lose an average of 1 percent of lean muscle mass every year after age 30.” … “The principle is simple, but not entirely intuitive. The harder you push yourself, the more you signal your body to grow. It’s called supercompensation, and the growth actually occurs during recovery. The limiting factor is mostly your tolerance for discomfort.”
In fact research on dementia also says about the brain “use it or lose it”, which is directly related to the famous Latin quotation “mens sana in corpore sano”. However it should also be considered that persistent stress and over-exertion can push you to burnout.
The full text of Tony Schwartz’s post is available at http://www.theenergyproject.com/blog/stress-not-your-enemy
image from http://vistratess.com
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