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Think of what situations cause you the most stress. Why do those situations trigger your stress reaction? Could you handle those same situations without feeling stress?
After giving this some thought, read on below.
Somewhat surprisingly, stress can come from both negative and positive situations. These situations usually contain a degree of novelty and unpredictability. They threaten your sense of competency as a person and your ability to control the outcome. This is why the joyous experience of having a baby or acquiring a new pet is also highly stressful.
There are two types of stressors which cause your body to release stress hormones.
Physiological or physical stressors put a strain on your body from pain, injury, illness or environmental factors such as very hot or cold temperatures.
Psychological stressors come in two categories.
Absolute stressors affect everyone. They include life-threatening situations such as earthquakes, pandemics, or even witnessing a horrible accident.
Relative stressors are personal and subjective. You will likely find some of these stressful and others not so much. They include:
Relative stress is, quite frankly, what you make of it. You can learn to control and minimize it with the right skills and training. With the right mindset and preparation, all of these activities can be handled without triggering your stress reaction. Before we get to that, you should be aware of the physical symptoms of stress.
Stress and tension can impact your body, your mood and your behavior. People interpret and respond to situations differently.
Your body may experience:
You may feel more emotional:
You may seek coping mechanisms:
None of these are good for you. Frequent stress can lead to major health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, diabetes and an impaired immune system; which then reduce your happiness, healthspan and longevity.
Of note, drinking more than one glass of alcohol followed by consuming a bag of chips and a pint of ice cream is not on this list. Tip #11: A balanced, nutritious, healthy diet is a much better way to avoid feeling stressed, but it can be very difficult to do make that good decision unless you follow tip #1 and get enough sleep.
Dr. Michael Roizen serves as the Chief Wellness Officer at the Cleveland Clinic. He leads the Clinic’s work in preventing illness and helping people live longer, healthier lives. As he notes, “We give people more time. Keeping people well, and enabling them to live their best lives, is not just my professional goal, it is my passion, my life’s work, and the passion of the Cleveland Clinic.”
Dr. Roizen notes that 84 percent of all healthcare costs are due to chronic disease and 75 percent of chronic diseases are driven by six measurable factors. In 2008, the Cleveland Clinic surveyed their 100,000 employees and dependents to see how they were doing on the six most important health factors;
Less than 5% of their employees and their families were doing well. In response, they instituted a voluntary healthy choice program with financial incentives to encourage positive behaviors on the six factors, plus seeing a primary care provider annually and staying up-to-date on immunizations. In under 10 years, after adjusting for the incentive payments, they saved $250 million dollars in healthcare costs and dramatically improved the lives of many employees and dependents. As an added bonus, the 62 percent of Clinic employees who voluntarily participate in the program have seen their healthcare costs and premiums decrease by $600 for individuals and $2,000 annually for families hitting these targets. Further, their improved health led to substantial reductions in unscheduled sick leave.
Thanks for reading. At the beginning of this article, we asked you to think through some situations which cause you stress. Can you now train yourself to think differently about them and avoid the tension? In new, unpredictable and uncontrollable situations, especially those which threaten your competency as a person, will you now recognize the increase in your stress level and flash your biggest smile? Then, laugh a bit with your understanding of why it might be a wee bit stressful before applying your favorite stress reduction techniques.
As your reward for focusing on your health and once you are safely vaccinated from COVID-19, treat yourself to a relaxing therapeutic massage.
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Great article! Really liked technique #4 “Understand Your Stress.” It’s hard to care about an outcome without being stressed about it. One idea I use to reduce stress during presentations/public speaking is to change my focus from being evaluated by the audience to trying to help the audience. Strategies that can be used to implement #4 could be a follow up article.