What is stress?

Stress is the buzzword of the 21st century yet it has been around for as long as we have. In 2005 there were over half a million instances of absence due to Work-Related Stress costing UK employers £3.7 Billion. The Health and Safety Executive cite "work related stress" costing 13 million days each year, as the biggest cause of working days lost through occupational injury and ill health.

Stress is a difficult term to define or quantify. It refers to the feeling of being overwhelmed. Stress is a natural reaction to life and a safety mechanism to keep us alive. We need stress to keep us stimulated. Too little and we find life dull; too much and our performance abilities are hampered, and life can spiral out of control. Stress originates from external sources yet causes a physical/emotional or mental reaction. Stress has many different levels ranging from natural short-lived reaction/life-saving stress, to long term accumulative unreleased stress.

Quick Reaction/Short Lived Stress is associated with survival fight or flight. This reflex dates back to when our ancestors were faced with life/death situations on a daily basis. Back then a trigger/stressor could have been a wild beast. This fight or flight reaction triggers a chemical reaction in the Hypothalmic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) system, which through physiological changes ensures humans perform at peak levels when faced with a dangerous situation. This reaction recognizes stress as danger and releases nor-adrenaline and adrenaline. This nor-adrenalin and adrenalin rise is coupled with:

Increased breathing rate
Increased heart rate
Increased sweating
Dry mouth
Increased muscle tension
Butterflies/nausea

At the same time the body produces another hormone, called Cortisol. This can raise blood pressure and blood sugar levels. Increased unreleased stress leading to a surge in the release of Stress hormones over a prolonged period of time can have long term adverse health effects.

Prehistoric man released the stress reaction through reacting to and dealing with the trigger, such as running or fighting .This released the tension and neutralised the hormones wiping any negative long term effects.

However, in modern society the trigger could be a deadline or a traffic jam, which does not neutralize the chemical reaction in quite the same way leaving the stress unreleased. If it continues unreleased over an increased period of time it will have many far reaching negative symptoms including:

Exhaustion
Changes in appetite
Reduced manual dexterity
Poor concentration
Low self esteem
Poor sleeping patterns
Increased anxiety
Negative frame of mind
Reduced immune system, leading to increased illnesses, leading to time off work, leading to increased anxiety and stress
Problematic digestion, skin, joint pains
Behavioural difficulties including:

Clumsiness
Mood swings
Reduced interest in appearance

Unreleased Stress tends to go hand in hand with a rushed approach to life. This person never does anything slowly, for example walking, eating/drinking, and talking. They will claim to thrive on the stress of their lives, and may actually be addicted to the nor-adrenalin rise experienced during stress.

Stress comes from the Latin word "stringere" to draw tight/taut, and when we feel uptight our muscles are tense and our tempers/patience can be short. Positively Be-friend your Stress by Re-defining it as:

Signal

Transformation

Realization

Evaluation

Simplify

Stop

One of the key steps to befriending stress and making it work for us is Balance (See Flower of Balance) and Calmness Breathing©. You breathe in and out over 20,000 times each day, and it has a marked impact upon how you are feeling and performing. Calmness Breathing has many benefits including increasing energy, improving sleep, calming anxiety and boosting our immune system. The Calmness Breathing© Technique is outlined in the "Breathe your Way to Calmness range". Click here for more information.