What is stress?

Stress happens whenever your mind and your body react to some real or imagined situation. Stress is neutral : it becomes good or badeustress or distress,from your reactions to it. You were not born with undesirable reactions to stressors; you learnt from both your pleasing and painful experiences, and by watching others. This develops a pattern in you. Most folks are as stressed as they choose to be.

Work Life Balancing

Advice of Bryan Dyson, former CEO of Coca Cola: Life is a game in which you are juggling five balls Work, Family, Health, Friends and Spirit. Work is a rubber ball. If you drop, itll bounce back.

Work Life Balancing

Family, Health, Friends & Sprit are made of glass. If you drop, they will be irrevocably damaged or even shattered. Work efficiently during office hours and leave on time. Give the required time to your family, friends & have proper rest. Value has a value only if its value is valued.

Work Life Balancing

But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads? Albert Camus. He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe Marcus Aurelius.

Stressors
Stressors - situations that cause stress reactions. Common stressors a deadline, making a presentation, meeting a new client, late for work, sickness at home, tending to an elderly, fear of failure, job-dissatisfaction, helplessness, anxiety of not living upto the expectation of others, unhappiness at home & work, social pressures. It is not so much a stressor itself or the intensity of the stressor that makes stress beneficial or detrimental, but your personal reaction to the event or condition.

Mind Body Connection

When a stressor is encountered, you respond both physically & psychologically: it begins with a mental reaction that involves your beliefs about yourself & life. Your beliefs will determine how your body reacts and ultimately how well you will respond to the constant day to day stresses. Biological reaction includes your muscles, gastrointestinal system, brain, cardio-vascular system, skin and immune system.

Mind Body Connection

It begins with your thought process which triggers a chain reaction in the body, causing a radical and quick change in the normal chemical balance of your body, which affects every cell in your body. The brain quickly, automatically and unconsciously send an electrical signal to stimulate the pituitary gland, which secretes a hormone into the blood stream; this hormone flows to the adrenals and increases the secretion of adrenaline and other hormones causing the body to be highly aroused ready for action fight or flight.

Mind Body Connection the first 8 seconds

This whole electrical and chemical process takes only about 8 seconds !!! During the same time other electrical messages in the nerves cause changes in your heart, lungs and muscles, raising your blood pressure to supply the muscles with rich supply of blood, thereby increasing the muscle tone for a quick and strong action fight or flight. During the same 8 seconds the liver begins to quickly produce glucose which is the needed energy source for the brain and muscles.

Mind Body Connection - the first 8 seconds

The senses become more focused, the hearing become more acute, the pupils of the eyes dilate sharpening the vision, the level of clotting agent increases in the blood to prevent blood loss in the event of injuries. This has been designed by Nature as a survival instinct. But if this happens frequently due to day to day stressors, what would happen to the poor body?!

Psycho Neuro Immunology (PNI)

PNI how thoughts, beliefs or perceptions can affect the bodys health. The mind is capable of adjusting the bio-chemistry of the body. The nerves connect the brain with organs such as the thymus and the spleen which influence the immune system. Your mind (psycho), through your nerves system (neuro), is capable of affecting your immune system (immunology), which determines the existence and course of disease in the body.

Psycho Neuro Immunology (PNI)

In a normal state, the immune system seeks out and destroys harmful viruses and bacteria. Under distress, the chemical changes in the body can alter the healthy functioning of the immune system, resulting susceptibility to viruses and bacteria. Pessimism, helplessness, hopelessness, depression, loneliness can negatively influence your body through your immune system.

Psycho Neuro Immunology (PNI)

Cultivating an optimistic, positive outlook, humour, laughter, social ties, physical & mental work, hobbies & interests, wholesome diet,etc., enhance the health producing connections between the brain and the body. Healthy mind in healthy body involves -10% what happens to you and 90% how you think and react to it. In short, you can think your way to health.

Symptoms of distress
Physical: Light headedness, sweating, tightness of throat, stiff neck, pounding heart, fast & shallow breathing, queasy stomach, weak knees, cold hands. Psychological : Apathy, anxiety, anger, forgetfulness, irritability, poor concentration, nightmares, dissatisfaction, accidental proneness, urge to cry, easily startled, nervous laughter, edgy, withdrawal.

Distress related diseases/ conditions

Ulcers, heart attacks, strokes, hyper-tension, head-aches, sleep disturbances, colitis, loss or excessive appetite, infections, asthma, back-ache, muscle ache, arthritis, cancer, constipation or diarrhea, chronic fatigue, fainting spells, rashes, stuttering,and, of late diabetes, sexual disorders and infertility.

Burn out
When distress is left untreated, it results in burn out. It is not the job itself which cause burn out, but your personal negative reaction. With a good fit between you and your work, enthusiasm, satisfaction, productivity, achievement and personal growth results. When a poor fit exists or develop over time, it results in frustrations, disappointments, unresolved problems and irritations leading to impatience, intolerance and apathy.

Burn out
The distress on the job spills over into the other areas of life. You also bring stresses to the job which affect the work atmosphere. Your reaction to both sets of stresses, those from the job and those you bring to the job inter act to fuel the burn out process. This total physical and emotional exhaustion leads to burn out.

De-stress Evolutionary basis

Our emotions guide us in facing predicaments like danger, painful loss, bonding with a mate, building a family. As these eternal situations were repeated over our evolutionary history the survival value of our emotions got imprinted on the nerves as innate and automatic tendencies of the human heart.

Physical basis
Limbic system of the brain- does most of the learning and remembering. Amygdala of the brain- acts as a store-house of emotional memory and functions like central security alarm, which sends out, at the first sign of trouble, emergency calls to fire dept, police, hospitals, etc. Prefrontal lobes- of the brain- keeps the emotional balance weighing the reactions before acting.

Present scenario
Anxiety is often out of proportion and out of place no longer the evolutionary tool to serve us in danger. Distress comes in the face of situations that we must live with or is conjured by the mind and are not real dangers. Endangerment can be signaled, not just by a physical threat but more often by a symbolic threat to self-esteem or dignity- being treated rudely or unjustly, being insulted or demeaned, being frustrated.

Chemical reaction to emotion

All these perceptions act as triggers for the surge of catecholamines (e.g.,adrenalin) which lasts for minutes. Another wave of emotion releases adrenocortical hormones, that creates a general tonic background of action readiness, which lasts for hours and even days; this makes a person easily susceptible to anger, and he can be easily provoked.

Mind-set and Stress

Mind-set( fixed ideas and rigid beliefs) makes you resist change, thus setting off a chain reaction of anger, disgust, hate, scorn,etc, and the same hormone causing fight or flight gets activated. A pine which resists strong winds falls when weakened; while a palm accepts and sways with the wind and comes out strong and tall. Since change is the only constant, adaptability and flexibility and being receptive is the protective shield against stress.

Dont take it to heart

Dont take it to heart. Heart takes the brunt of all body reactions! It listens to your brain commands, Heart rate & Blood pressure work overtime; It thickens, enlarges & eventually fails!

Weight of Stress
A young lady confidently walked around the room while leading and explaining stress management to an audience with a raised glass of water. Everyone knew she was going to ask the ultimate question, 'half empty or half full?'... She fooled them all ... "How heavy is this glass of water?" she inquired with a smile. Answers ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.

Weight of Stress
She replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes." She continued, "and that's the way it is with stress.