Stress is an inevitable part of our lives today and it is not always a bad thing to be motivated and energised by a little pressure. However, if you feel that you are beginning to feel overloaded by too many stressors, Frances can help you reorganise the way you react to and deal with stressful situations.
Stress can be defined as the way you feel when you’re under too much pressure and you don’t have the resources to meet demands. Pressure can be caused from work, home or our personal lives, and each individual will cope differently with these levels of stress. What one person may regard as highly stressful, another person may only regard as mildly stressful or not stressful at all. Problems occur when individuals perceive themselves as unable to cope with the level of stress they face, and feel they are not capable to combat their stress.
The power of stress
Contrary to popular belief, stress can be both positive and negative. As a positive influence it can motivate individuals to perform at their optimum level and boost energy, but as a negative influence, stress can lead to adverse physical affects and be detrimental to health. Stress is caused by the body’s natural reaction to defend itself against a threat, so in a perceived emergency, stress will force us to exert maximum effort to protect ourselves the ‘fight, flight or freeze’ mechanism.
Stress levels
Different occupations will have higher stress levels than others, and stress is recognised to be one of the main causes of sick absence from work. Research suggests that about half a million people in the UK experience work-related stress that they believe is making them ill. Changes in personal lives, such as the death of a loved one, a new relationship, a job promotion or the birth of a child can also cause stress.
We can never eliminate stress from our lives completely, but we can find effective ways of acknowledging it and using it to our advantage.
Tips for managing stress:
- prepare to the best of your ability for stressful events
- try to look at change as a positive thing, not as a threat
- try not to worry about things you have no control over
- exercise
- eat a well-balanced diet
- try to get at least 8 hours sleep per night
- set realistic goals
- learn relaxation techniques
- ask for help from family, friends and professionals.
Causes of stress
As each individual deals with stress differently, it is hard to identify its exact cause. However, common causes include loss, change, an uncertain future, conflicts with your belief system or life cycle transitions. The brain does not distinguish between real or imagined stress and stress is often created by what we think rather than what has actually happened.
Treatment for stress
Counselling and psychotherapy can be effective treatments for stress, and cognitive behavioural therapy can help individuals to understand why they think the way they do and how these thoughts can be positively changed to manage stress.
As it is not the situation itself that causes stress (otherwise everyone would be stressed by the same situation), but our reaction to the situation, hypnotherapy and EFT can be effective for managing stress. By altering our reaction to a particular situation during hypnosis or EFT to a more positive one, the feelings about that situation can also become more positive. When an individual then experiences that situation in real life, their reaction will often be very different.
Content source www.hypnotherapy-directory.org.uk
