Stress

How do we define stress?  It can be defined as a demand on phsycial  and or mental energy.  There are different kinds of stress, some people work well under stress others find that they feel pressured under stress and it has a negative affect on their wellbeing.  We may be under short-term stress due to an important project at work or some other crisis that you know at some level is going to be short lived; that can be helpful knowing that it will be over and that there will be some resolution. Long-term stress may be more difficult to deal with.  However everybody copes differently with stress, stress can be healthy or unheatlhy if you are suffering because of unheatlhy stress there are a few important questions to ask yourself:
Do you have a well balanced lifestyle?
what is causing your stress?
how it is impacting on you?
how do you deal with stress?

When considering a healthy lifestyle balance it might be helpful to use the diagram below - there are a few suggested areas that you might like to think about - if the titles don't fit feel free to choose different ones, it's your wheel!  The idea is to have a well balanced wheel, see can you identify areas of your life that need addressing.

The next area to look at is how unheatlhy stress is impacting on you; Trevor Powell (2000) in the Mental Health Handbook identifies 6 areas of our lives that can be impacted by stress these are; Emotional, Mental, Health, Physical, Behavioural and Organisational.  We can start to suffer mood swings, over-react to situations, have difficulty in concentrating, be negative towards ourselves, start suffering from headaches, Irritable bowel syndrome, back pain, fatigue, may find it difficult to relax, excessive drinking and smoking, job dissatisfaction, absenteesism, the list goes on.

So how do you deal with stress?  Powell (2000) talks about one of the first ways of dealing with stress is to understand it, know your limits and plan if possible if you are facing a stressful period, what do you need to put in place for yourself.? Building a good support network is crucial, know who you can talk to, family, friends, and don't be afraid to seek professional advice if you need it.  Developing a healthy lifestyle is also a good idea, take time to exercise make sure to eat a well balanced diet.  What do you do to relax, plan breaks, and maybe think about taking up a hobby for enjoyment.  Planning and putting a good structure to your day can be helpful when dealing with a heavy stressload.  Our interpretation of stress is also important, are we thinking about it in a realistic way, or could we be mis-interpreting something.  Next blog will look at how we break the Negative Stress Cycle.

References:  Powelll Trevor, 2000,  The Mental Health Handbook revised Edition, Published by Speechmark Publishing Ltd., (p 103 - 129)

Recommended reading:  Flagging Stress, Toxic Stress and how to avoid it by Dr. Harry Barry