Feeling stressed is a natural reaction by our brain and body when faced with a perceived threat and helps our survival. And, we’ve been wired to react this way for thousands of years when dangers were very different – meaning we have been, and continue to be, physically ready to ‘fight’ or ‘flight.’
When under stress, our body is hyper-alert. We experience heart racing, rapid breathing, sweating, mind racing, ‘butterflies’ in the stomach and a dry mouth. However, roll forwards a few thousand years, and the vast majority of situations at work or in our personal lives are not life-threatening. This hyper-alertness then actually harms our ability to function or be effective. It can lead to trouble sleeping, poor concentration, forgetting what you wanted to say, confusion, high blood pressure, sweating profusely, being easily angered, and being tearful. Stress is not a mental health condition, yet too much stress can cause problems with anxiety and depression.
In the workplace, too much stress can lead to poor performance, time off work, burnout, a lack of motivation or focus, or just feeling overwhelmed. The estimated cost of stress in the UK workplace is well documented, at £5bn per year. Numerous studies have shown that unstressed and productive people are the key to sustainable, profitable businesses. On a human level, stress can also affect your relationships, making you irritable, withdrawn from others, or subject to angry outbursts. If stress continues in the longer term, there can be serious physical consequences, potentially leading to problems such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes.
So, what causes stress?
Anything that causes stress is known as a ‘stressor.’ You can feel under stress from just one stressor, or it might be an accumulation of many smaller stressors, for example:
At work: A new job. Working remotely. Poor relationships. The threat of redundancy. Workload. Lack of control.
Life changes: Marriage. Divorce. Children. Illness. Coronavirus. Restrictions. Legal issues.
Emotional issues: Family. Social isolation. Bereavement. Loneliness. Relationship challenges.
How we live: Crowded living. Lack of suitable workspace at home. The pandemic.
Our bodies: Lack of sleep. Poor diet. Misuse of alcohol or drugs. Health concerns.
Positive things can also be stressful. It’s about our individual, personal reaction and interpretation of events. What one person finds stressful, someone else might not.
People often ask, how should we manage stressors when we experience them? The answer ultimately boils down to how we perceive the situation, and there are a few different ways of doing this:
Firstly, taking a positive mindset and focusing on the positive side of a situation rather than the negative can help. For example, one day, you find that the lift at work is out of order, but rather than let it become a stressor, you look on the positive side and that you can build your step count by taking the stairs.
Secondly, ‘let go’ of things you can’t do anything about that are causing you to feel stressed. For example, if someone was rude to you in the supermarket, make a conscious decision to let it go, rather than holding on to it.
Thirdly, ask yourself if you’ve fallen into what psychologists’ call ‘thinking traps’ – by this, I mean, are you blowing the situation out of proportion? Are you making negative assumptions about what others might be thinking about you that might not be true? Are you always thinking the worst possible outcome will happen? Do you always expect everything to be perfect?
Here are my top 3 tips when thinking about stress:
- Stress is not always bad in the right amounts. A bit of stress can be energising and motivating. Use this alertness to help you focus and increase your performance.
- List out your current stressors. You’ll be amazed at what you’re juggling right now. Take an active approach and see if there are any you can easily remove or reduce. It may be something you’ve been putting off for a while, but you’ll feel better once it is ticked off.
- We each have personal ways of reducing our stresses, but we may not have done them for a while. Remember what these are and give them a go. It may be exercising, meditating, speaking to a friend, listening to your favourite album, visiting a special place. Think about what reduces your stress.
If you are a business leader or a team manager, take time to talk to and understand your team members, so you can help understand what their stresses are and help reduce those that you can control – perhaps by encouraging your team to reflect on their stresses and what they do or don’t do to feel better.
