What Is Stress?
Do you ever find yourself in a situation where you have too much to do and your heart starts racing? Maybe your boss just shortened a deadline, and you feel panicked? You have a disagreement with a colleague or family member, and you feel anxious? All these feelings contribute to stress.
April is Stress Awareness Month. My posts this month will be focused on understanding stress and how to manage it in the moment and on an ongoing basis.
So, what is stress? Stress is not what happens to you. It is how you handle what happens to you. It is primarily a physical response. When threatened the body releases the hormones adrenaline, cortisol, and norepinephrine to prepare the body for physical action. This causes several reactions, from blood being diverted to muscles like the heart and legs, to shutting down unnecessary bodily functions such as digestion.
This helped our ancestors survive predator attacks and it comes in handy if we need to survive real threats to our lives like escaping a burning house, avoiding a car accident, etc….
The challenge is when our body goes into a state of stress in inappropriate situations, which it often does. A fast-approaching deadline, a red light, a troubling news story, or an uncooperative child is not a threat to our lives. However, out primitive brains do not realize this, and it triggers the flight-flight-freeze response due to the hormones flooding our bodies. When we are in one of these modes, blood flow is only going to the most important muscles needed to survive. This causes brain function to be minimized which can lead to an inability to think clearly. The ripple effect can result in negative consequences to our jobs, our families, and our lives.
Here is how these reactions may play themselves out:
Fight – We may feel agitated and aggressive towards others. In unnecessary situations, it can negatively affect relationships and ruin reputations.
Flight - Some of us avoid our stressors, removing ourselves from the situation instead of tackling it. This ends up ultimately increasing our stress levels when we realize the stressor isn’t going away and we need to face it.
Freeze – This happens when the energy mobilized by the perceived threat gets locked into the nervous system and we feel paralyzed. This can result from holding our breath or very shallow breathing.
In the weeks ahead, you will learn more about what stress does to you and how to better control stress in your life. In the meantime, one of the best first strategies is to pause and intentionally breathe like I teach you in these videos. While you pause and breathe, it is also helpful to move your body in a constructive way like walking or stretching. Breathing and moving your body will give your brain time to process what is happening so you can make better decisions.
This week’s Express Desk Stretch is specifically focused on releasing stress so you can think more clearly and act more purposefully.
Click here for this week’s video
Inquiry Question: What can you learn from a stressful situation you are in right now to better manage it in the future?
Click here to sign up to receive these emails in your IN box every Monday