Jul
11
2013
Stress - Let’s not make a drama out of a crisis
By Gill Dandy.
What is it about stress … just uttering the word is stressful for some, it’s like the sound of fingernails scraping on a board or the irritating squeaky chair your colleague insists is ‘fine’.
And there in lies the rub; the problem with stress is that it’s relative. What stresses me out might not bother you – and what gives me a ‘buzz’ might give you sleepless nights.
The key to not letting stress stress you out lies in our understanding of it.
How mindful are we of stress - do we know what causes us or our colleagues to get stressed? How do we handle our own stress – and theirs? What is the impact of our stress on our work – our life? How do we combat it?
How do we make sure we do not let stress turn a little drama into a full-blown crisis?
To start with it’s important to appreciate that there is a difference between stress and pressure. Pressure is good. A little pressure is healthy, it challenges us, it makes us thrive. But, when the pressure is unrelenting and makes us feel unable to cope it can quickly morph into stress and then, we really can struggle to survive.
Everyone experiences stress but not everyone handles it well. If you want to thrive and survive the stresses here are four ways that can help:
- Develop your own personal understanding of stress and its causes - watch out for signs of pressure.
- Identify what you can change and change it – learn to cope with what you can’t change and stop worrying about it.
- Set priorities and realistic goals – be sensible about saying ‘No’.
- Take time out. Learn to unwind and have some fun. Enjoy life; it’s the only one you will get.
But, if are still not convinced, or you are looking for some good reasons why you should bother to manage your stress levels, here are a few sobering facts courtesy of the Health and Safety Executive, the Chartered Institute of Personal Development and Google:
- about 1 in 6 people find their work very or extremely stressful (http://preventingstress.cipd.co.uk/)
- more than 60 percent of employees find their immediate manager the most stressful aspect of their job
- stress is the ‘Health epidemic of the 21st Century’ (WHO - World Health Organisation)
- stress might actually shrink the brain
But, for me, the best reason in the world for managing stress is that a stressful life is not a happy life – and it’s not a life I want to live.
So, if you want to get a life – say no to stress.
The Centre has a number of courses to help with stress including Mindfulness, Emotional intelligence and Personal effectiveness: be more confident at work.
Gill Dandy is a communications professional with 25 years consultancy and in-house experience in the public relations industry. Gill is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of the Arts and non-executive director of Shared Interest, a not-for-profit social investment fund.