Stress can work for you
WORK related stress depression and anxiety continue to represent a significant ill health condition in the workforce of modern societies. Work related stress accounts for approximately one-third of work related ill health and almost half of days lost in 2014/15.
The reasons cited as causes of work related stress are also consistent over time with workload, lack of managerial support and organisational change cited as the primary contributors. The total number of working days lost equated to an average of 23 days lost per individual case.
Public service industries such as health, teaching, business, media and public service professionals report the highest levels of stress. The main factors causing work related stress, depression or anxiety are workload pressures, including tight deadlines and too much responsibility as well as a lack of managerial support.
In an effort to focus companies and employees on the importance of stress and the accompanying hazards, consultants, coaches and trainers continue to push research that shows stress as the number one threat to sustainable good health and that 70-90% of doctor visits are due to stress-related issue; Consider that focusing on the negative impact of stress only makes it worse.
What would happen if we reframed the way we thought about stress? Think about it: how did you feel after reading the statistics above on stress and health? If you weren’t already stressed, information like this could cause you to react in a ‘fight, flight or freeze’ mentality on a sub-conscious level.
Stress is usually depicted as a threat, over-activating our metal and emotional responses. If you are already feeling stressed, now you have greater reason to feel distressed as you know your stress is literally killing you.
However, when an individual thinks about stress as enhancing, instead of incapacitating, they can embrace the reality of their current stress level and use it to their advantage. The negative effects of stress begin to diminish, because the “fight, flight or freeze” response is not activated, and individuals feel more productive and energetic, as well as exhibiting many fewer physical symptoms such as headaches, physical pain and fatigue. Life satisfaction also increases, which is known to be one of the most accurate predictors of happiness and productivity in the workplace.
Three steps
The process involves three steps: become aware of the stress, determine the meaning behind the feeling of stress, and most significantly, redirect the stress response as your method of improving productivity behind that meaning.
The intention is not to promote a narrative that stress is primarily enhancing, neither to invalidate the fact stress contributes negatively to our experience. The purpose is to provide balance and to emphasise one’s mindset can determine which response will be produced. When stress happens, thinking of it as enriching instead of exhausting can lessen the risk to our health and improve performance and productivity.
Reaction to stress can be a useful tool helping us maintain focus and preserve our ability to navigate through times of uncertainty. A sense of control is invaluable when we sense a real lack of control.
Ches Moulton is an author, speaker, psychotherapist and executive life coach, who has written the self-help book ‘Choice & Change; How to have a healthy relationship with ourself and others’. An engaging public speaker he has been featured in the media including BBC, Essentials Magazine and at highlevel presentations in Canada, throughout the Caribbean and UK as well as the Middle East.