Stress
A Word on Stress
Stress and pressure
There is sometimes confusion between the terms pressure and stress. It is healthy and essential that people experience challenges in their lives that cause some degree of pressure. And, to a certain point, an increase in pressure can improve performance and quality of life. However, if pressure becomes excessive, it loses its beneficial effect and becomes harmful and destructive to health.
In the workplace
Stress is a major factor in employee under-performance and absenteeism, increasingly so during a recession. In today’s economic climate, redundancies are common, and departed employees are often not replaced, increasing the workload of the remaining staff and creating tension and a sense of de-motivation. The more, therefore, a company can do to help their employees deal with pressure, the stronger their overall performance as an organisation.
Perception and awareness
When thinking about the effects of increased pressure, it’s interesting to note that research into who stays healthy while under stress reveals that it isn't the amount of stress that we are exposed to that matters most, but rather our ability to view increased pressure as a positive challenge to be overcome, rather than an insurmountable obstacle or threat. Building awareness of the point at which a positive pressure becomes unhealthy and stressful is essential in functioning well at home and work and maintaining a sense of happiness and wellbeing.
Take action
Dealing with stress requires an action-oriented approach. As said by the 20th century novelist, Phyllis Bottome, “There are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties or you alter yourself to meet them.” The more that people feel in control of their destiny, the greater their resilience to stress and the adverse health effects that can arise. Whilst we may not always be in control of what life throws at us, we can choose how we react. No one can ever take away our reaction to our experiences in life.
There are many ways to become more stress-resilient, one of which is coaching. Coaching helps people re-frame how they think and feel about stressful situations and provides them with the tools and options to tackle challenges calmly and effectively.
Further Resources