When discussing the effects of stress with personal clients or business managers alike, the most important starting point always involves what I like to term as Stress Perceptions. This term refers to your personal stress triggers and forms the foundation of any stress management plan that I recommend. Furthermore, it is crucial to understand that stress is highly individualized and consequently undertaking a “one size fits all” approach to stress management is completely flawed.
Here’s why …
What you perceive is your reality. Your perceptions shape your existence and how you see the world and these perceptions can be either positive or negative. Yes, just like everything else we manifest in our lives, stress is no different. In fact, to put it simply, stress is based on one of our two base emotions, in this case – fear. We have two base emotions (energy), which is love and fear and guess what? Stress thrives on fear!
To help manage your stress perceptions, you must firstly understand what triggers your fears. This is why stress is highly individualized, as everyone has their own unique life journey experience. For me to say all the things that I find stressful would be the same for you, would be ignorant and naive. Yes there may be general themes, but personal stress perceptions are based upon life experiences and it is these perceptions that are responsible for a very high percentage of the stress you feel.
In the Corporate world the landscape is constantly changing and any modern day Manager needs to regularly ask themselves this question, “Do I have employees that are ‘stress heads’ and don’t cope well under pressure?”
If you answered YES to this question, then the health and wellbeing of those employees should be your number one priority. You need to seek clarity on what are their perceptions of stress, both personally and professionally. What are their stress triggers?
Why you may ask? Well stress is a worldwide phenomenon and the statistics are alarming!
Medical researchers estimate that stress is responsible for 90% of illness and disease and is being projected to be the health epidemic of the 21st Century. Stress is linked to many of the major leading causes of death: heart disease, stroke, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver and suicide.
On further analysis, I also breakdown personal stress perceptions into two sub-categories: Reactive Stress and Proactive Stress. For the purpose of this article (I will discuss both in depth in future articles), I will quickly cover Reactive Stress.
As many of you may already understand, anything in life that is “reactive” in nature is generally viewed as a negative response that can often cause less than desirable behavior. Stress is no different. Reactive Stress is very much based on our emotional memories and is formed from behavior and actions as a result of an external situation that you perceive as stressful, or in other words – based on fear.
A previous negative experience in a similar situation will undoubtedly cause you to react emotionally with feelings like anxiety and panic for example, that will ultimately result in your stress levels sky rocketing! We’ve all been there. This response can be due to unresolved emotional blockages that result in negative perceptions of stressful situations. Emotional memories are feelings that attach to experiences and if that previous feeling was one of stress, then any subsequent experiences of a similar nature will trigger those same feelings.
5 STEPS TO DEALING WITH EMOTIONAL BLOCKAGES LEADING TO STRESS
1. AWARENESS
2. ACKNOWLEDGE
3. PROCESS
4. VERBALISE
5. ACTION
In next month’s article I will delve more deeply into each of these 5 STEPS and give you insight into how you can apply them to instantly start clearing emotional blockages. This will enable you to gain back control of your stress perceptions and become more proactive in creating positive thought patterns.
If you would like my FREE CHECKLIST for 5 STEPS to a Positive Mindset just send a quick email to info@workease.com.au with subject title “5SPM”, and I will happily send it through to you.
Keep Smiling 🙂
