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Handling stress in a business environment
What exactly is stress?
Stress is the term used to describe the symptoms and feelings produced by your body in response to external pressures. Stress is, of itself, neither good nor bad. However, the way you re-act to pressure can mean you experience either a positive or a negative stress response.
Negative stress
Here your mind and body react to situations that you feel unable to cope with, like work overload, financial pressures, difficult family situations. You’re tense, anxious, tired, unhappy, lacking in confidence and vitality. Usually, there’s some conflict involved, like not doing something you really love doing or not acknowledging the truth about a certain situation in your life.
Positive stress
Here your mind and body are stimulated, even excited, at something like the prospect of a wedding, a new relationship, a holiday or new house. You feel joyful, full of energy, alive, physically strong and confident.
What happens when stress overtakes you?
High levels of adrenaline are released into your bloodstream. This gives you that ‘get up and go’ feeling, the surge of energy you need to complete the job, run the race or meet the deadline. In pre-historic times, this would have resulted in cavemen fighting off an attacker or fleeing from a predator and is known as the ‘fight or flight’ response. However, in the 21st century, human beings don’t find themselves in these situations very often and so high levels of adrenaline have a tendency to build up in the body. It’s rather like steam building up in a pressure cooker – sooner or later it’s got to be released! So what can you do about it?
Do something different
Plan all your activities well ahead. Make a schedule, including meetings with friends and family. Take a holiday in a new location. Keep a diary. Join a club, gym or leisure centre. Make a list of things you love doing, plus the things you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t yet done. Change your routine from time to time, so that you’re not doing the same old thing over and over just through habit. Find a hobby or pastime that you really enjoy. Positive stimulation of the mind and body is what’s really important. Never allow yourself to be bored.
Decide to be happy
Have you noticed that happy people don’t appear to be stressed? If circumstances put pressure on them, they choose, if at all possible, to change the circumstances. When this isn’t possible, they choose to change their attitude to the way they respond to that particular pressure. They manage to maintain a balanced state even in, or in spite of, extremely challenging circumstances.
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