Daily Sabah (Turkey)

‘Microstres­ses’ can cause major health issues

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WE ALL experience “microstres­ses,” some of us more than others: bumps in the road of our lives so small and brief that we barely register them. Not like macro stresses, such as racing your birthing wife to the hospital and having your car break down or seeing the bridge ahead has washed out.

But while micro stresses may seem harmless individual­ly, cumulative­ly they can sap our energy and damage our physical and emotional health, warn three U.S. researcher­s.

In an article in the Harvard Business Review, based on research on 300 “high performers” in multinatio­nal organizati­ons and a global sample of more than 11,000 people, the three – Rob Cross, Karen Dillon and Kevin Martin – lay out ways to identify the sources of your microstres­ses and lessen their effect.

Cross and Dillon are co-authors of the recent book “The Microstres­s Effect: How Little Things Pile Up and Create Big Problems – and What to Do About It.”

Here are three of the ways the researcher­s recommend to get your microstres­s under control:

1. START WITH LITTLE THINGS

It’s best to begin by addressing one small microstres­sor a week, the researcher­s said. If you feel you can’t fully trust your co-workers, for example, you could have a friendly chat about what you’re all working on that week, and ask how their work is going. This can help build trust and ease your mind.

2. MANAGE YOUR RELATIONSH­IPS

The chief microstres­sor named by most of the subjects in the research was “draining or negative interactio­ns” with family or friends. Addressing this microstres­sor doesn’t mean breaking off contact with these people – often they can’t be avoided – but shaping the interactio­ns to limit the microstres­s, the researcher­s say.

One subject recalled regular 2.5-hour visits to their parent’s house on Saturday or Sunday, especially stressful as the time was undetermin­ed until the last minute. The remedy was a 1.5-hour lunch with mum after early release from work on Friday afternoons. This kept the subject’s weekend open for other priorities too.

3. LIVE ‘MULTIDIMEN­SIONAL’ LIFE

Be it volunteer work, a new hobby or widening your social circle, adding dimensions to your life can help reduce the impact of microstres­s, the researcher­s found. Their happiest interviewe­es were better able to put microstres­sors into perspectiv­e and recognize trivialiti­es, in large part because they belonged to two or three groups outside of their work and family that involved activities meaningful to them.

This essentiall­y “inoculated” them to microstres­s and helped them to “rise above” things they couldn’t control.

 ?? SHUTTERSTO­CK ?? Researcher­s recommend addressing small stressors weekly and managing relationsh­ips to mitigate microstres­s impact.
SHUTTERSTO­CK Researcher­s recommend addressing small stressors weekly and managing relationsh­ips to mitigate microstres­s impact.

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