What the Stress?

Stress, it’s that one little word that we all detest. When I hear someone mention stress it gives me a little shudder. Other times, I’ll overhear someone discussing their stresses and I’ll think, wow that is their stress? If only I could switch my stress for theirs. I even remember an old boss of mine tell me that I don’t have a clue about “real” stress. But who determines what “real” stress is? What is stress besides the sore spot I get between my neck and shoulders? And most importantly, how the heck can I deal with stress?

I was lucky enough to get sent to a breakfast speaker series where the keynote speaker was Dr. Gina Di Giulio, Director of Psychology, at Medcan Clinic. If you ever get the chance to hear Dr. Di Giulio speak, make sure you are there. She was very quick to answer that stress really isn’t a problem. The problem is how we react to stress.

There are 3 stages of responses when dealing with stress that we all go through:

1. Alarm – This is the fight or flight response. Your body will prepare to give a boost to all of your major organs, blood flow and oxygen will increase. This is not a bad stage as long as it is infrequently used.
2. Resistance – This is when stresses have been continuing against you for 2 -4 weeks. Your body simply cannot keep up with the demands of your stress. The continued feed of cortisol to your body leads to migraines, feelings of depression and fatigue, yet you fight insomnia. You have an increased chance of mental illness during this stage. It is also common for people to resort to some type of self-medication whether it be alcohol, legal or illegal drugs.
3. Exhaustion – The body is shutting down. It is complete mental and physical exhaustion. The exhaustion stage can go as far as death.

All this stress leads to missed work each day. and significant productivity is lost each year due to stress-related absences.

So what can you do?

The first thing you need to do is to identify and organize your stress. For each stress that you identify, ask yourself, do I control this stress or not? Then ask yourself, is this important, or not important? If the stress is not important, let it go. It’s not important. If it is important, and you control it, you need to address this stress and problem-solve how you can end it or fix it.

If the stress is important and you do not control it, it is best to use a Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) technique. The MBSR technique allows anyone to increase their resiliency to moving through the stages of stress, and returning to a normal function. The good news is anyone can show improvement. Dr. Di Giulio is working on a team that has proven success with the MBSR technique, working with soldiers prior to leaving for combat missions.

The MBSR technique focuses on a lot of different types of meditation, breathing and focus. Simple things like being non-judgemental of your moment-to-moment movements and thoughts. Get rid of those “what ifs” like what if this person doesn’t like me, or what if my boss isn’t happy with my work. Eliminate your anxious thoughts. You need to increase your self-awareness and physical perceptions on the here and now, not what could happen or what already did happen. This is much easier to type and say than it is to actually complete. It will take time and do not get frustrated with yourself. Remember the goal is to increase your ability each time. Dr. Di Giulio pointed out that the average person’s mind will wander nearly 50% of the day, going through nearly 10,000 different thoughts.

Once you are able to relax your thoughts, the next step is to increase your meditation. This can be done through a body scan meditation. You get into a calm state and then scan your body for how you feel. Go through each body part.

Another similar technique is progressive muscle relaxation. You relax your thoughts, then start at your toes, and think about relaxing your toes. Then think about relaxing your ankle, your foot, etc., working your way up your body. Take time to remember all parts and go in small areas. Finally you end with relaxing your brain.

These steps are important to help you reduce the time spent in stage 2 and stage 3 of the stress cycle. They will take some time. Remember to be easy on yourself while learning them.

In summary, Dr. Di Giulio reminded us to take time and focus on yourself; make you the first priority. Develop goals for yourself and ask for help when needed. I have started trying these stress relieving techniques and have found success with relaxation of each body part. I also have really been trying to follow Dr. Di Giulio’s words of advice: “Focus on the here and now”.

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