Stress Control

 

You Can Increase Effectiveness, Avoid Burnout

From primitive times the human animal has possessed a protective escape mechanism that even today, under severely threatening condition, can cause regression to primitive behaviour. This is also called the fight/ flight response, which was a productive means of dealing with fears, threats, and attacks through the evolutionary process. When faced with physical danger, this certainly made sense. In the fight mode, the body prepares -- the heart pumps harder, blood pressure rises, super-strength can be generated. In flight mode, alternatives for escape are processed at high speed.

 

How does this translate into today’s world? Many of the areas we are ‘fighting’ against or ‘flighting’ from are things we can’t overcome or from which we have no escape. We can't fight a job, urban noise, an accident, a relationship breakdown, a bad decision - What now?

Imagine a group of musicians playing together. Imagine the trumpet player getting ahead, which the guitarist drops a little behind. Meanwhile the drummer, misses the cue and the whole group gets off beat. The conductor, trying to coordinate all the instruments just seems to be waving arms around with no effect. The music falls apart and the players just end up giving up, after being frustrated by the failure of the whole endeavour.

A person experiencing continuing stress may well become subject to such frenzy, in the process developing any or several forms of stress-related illness.

I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.  ~Jennifer Yane

While certain types of stress are even desirable (romantic stress, job promotions, winning a lottery), stresses that produce debilitation, depression, excessive “distractions” such as smoking or overeating, anger, grief, and similar reactions need attention.

The problem with stress is that, while it can help us to work more efficiently and effectively, over a certain threshold for each of us it can make us less and less capable of dealing with stress in the future.

Stress may be a reaction to people, places, events, or things. The threats may be real or imagined. They may be external or internal. However, there are several basic causes of stress which can be recognized, defined and often eliminated. There are ways to shift perceptions and reactions to help you take control of your mind, your feelings and your life.

Who or What is Stressing You?

External Stress

The ‘outside stuff’ that gets under the skin, raises your blood pressure, and bogs you down so you feel you can’t function. It can be divided into three categories:

  • Data/Information: Too much information. We can feel like there’s always a communication overload.

  • Things: Including our environment like a chic but non-functional work space, long commute, or urban noise can all provide stressing irritants.

  • People: Your boss/subordinate, your colleagues, suppliers, clients or customers who may be loud, trying, unreliable, sneaky, or generally not very nice! They demand too much, expect things to be done yesterday, fail to communicate – it’s enough to make one go over the edge.

Internal Stress

You can also divide the ‘inside stuff’ into three areas:

  • Habits/Patterns: When we keep doing something that we know isn’t working for us or our job, it becomes a frustrating rut. Sometimes we learn stress from parents, teachers, and others in our early experiences, so stress becomes ‘normal’. Sometimes we don’t learn to say ‘no’ when we need to, or create a perfectionist vision that doesn’t ever seem to be reached.

  • Beliefs: Our beliefs about what can and cannot be done tend to be realised. When we label ourselves (good or bad), we live up – or live down – to those expectations. Sometimes we even take on the belief that we need to be stressed to do our job at a high level of functioning.

  • Health: Medical or organic conditions can lead to stress – our bodies and mind work in tangent. Sometimes our emotions or thoughts can lead to conditions in the body and then these conditions can add to our negative viewpoints or feelings, including stress.

  • Feelings: Holding negative feelings in (anger, fears etc) creates big stress. It’s hard to keep up appearances on the outside when we feel a battle going on inside.

Good News, Bad News

The great (or horrible) thing about the secret to taking control of your stress levels at work, is that whether the stress is external or internal, and even if it many not be your fault to begin with, it is now your responsibility.

 “Oh no,” you may be saying, “another thing to take responsibility for!” However, this is a wonderful power you’ve been given. No longer do you have to be a victim or react to others actions; you can now take back control of your life and your work.

How? Grey Matter Network helps many people break through the destructive down cycle using the deeper programming subconscious mind, where all our feelings, behaviours and beliefs are stored. When we work with this part of the mind we can clear our emotions that may be keeping us as a continued casualty, reorient misperceptions, and shift beliefs that may be holding us back. When we start aligning ourselves on the inside, even the stresses of life on the outside seem to affect us less – so we can take back control from the inside out.

 

 

Call us at 65 6325 4739 to start yourself on a virtuous cycle for good. You can also find out some simple tips in our free article “Stress Savers - Executive Control By Talking To The Mind".