Picture credit - pxhere
Day 10 - Coping with stress
What is stress?
When you perceive a threat or a major challenge, chemicals and hormones surge throughout your body. This is called stress. It is basically a survival mechanism of our body.
There is good stress (eustress), bad stress (acute stress) and chronic stress
Eustress is the type of stress when we feel excited e.g. when riding a roller coaster or when competing for a promotion etc.
Acute stress is a short term stress because of some stressors e.g. stuck in a traffic jam when we are late for a meeting, an argument with your spouse, an unkind criticism from your boss etc.
Chronic stress is a long term stress brought on by continual acute stresses when we repeatedly face stressors. This condition gives a feeling of helplessness and a feeling of being put in inescapable state. Chronic stress causes many physical and mental health related issues e.g. heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents, cirrhosis of the liver and suicide.
How to improve your coping skills?
Set a goal to become a go-to person by mastering the art and science of Stress management.
Follow the LAST model to build your personal brand as a Guru of Stress Management.
- Learn - Invest time in learning different frameworks/ models/ techniques of managing stress
- Apply -
- Identify a model suitable to you
- Create a template to document the flow of the process
- Find opportunities to use the selected method/ template
- Maintain record/ process flow of every important activity you did with respect to this skill
- Maintain notes of your thoughts/ insights/ failures/ challenges…. to be used for sharing/ training others
- Share - Share the insights captured in step 2 above in a planned manner (social media posts, blogs, videos, study notes…)
- Train - Generate opportunities to train your peers and team members so that, over time, your organization benefits from your efforts
My learning for the day
Source - Theory of stress
Stress is basically our body mechanism to help us survive against danger. In today’s world, it has manifested itself into a mega killer, a leading cause of premature deaths.
Stress isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s what helped our hunter-gatherer ancestors survive, and it’s just as important in today’s world. It can be healthy when it helps you avoid an accident, meet a tight deadline, or keep your wits about you amid chaos.
What is stress theory
The stress theory was proposed by Hans Selye (1907-1982), Hungarian-Canadian endocrinologist.
His model states that when an event (stressor) threatens an organism’s well-being, it leads to a three-stage response - Stage 1: Alarm, Stage 2: Resistance, Stage 3: Exhaustion
Stage 1: Alarm - Upon encountering a stressor, body reacts with “fight-or-flight” response and sympathetic nervous system is activated. Hormones such as cortisol and adrenalin are released into the bloodstream to meet the threat or danger.
Stage 2: Resistance - Many physiological functions are brought to normal levels to focus all our resources (power) to fight the stressor. Body remains on red alert.
Stage 3: Exhaustion - If stressor continues beyond body’s capacity, organism exhausts resources and becomes susceptible to disease and death.
Ways to cope with stress
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” - Viktor Frankl (1905-1999), Austrian Neurologist. What a great quote that encourages us to nurture the space between the stimulus and the response.
There are numerous ways to cope with stress (Google for “coping with stress” and you will find more than 80 million results! Choose the ones that inspire you to adopt)
"The carpenter I hired to help me restore an old farmhouse had just finished a rough first day on the job. A flat tire made him lose an hour of work, his electric saw quit, and now his ancient pick-up truck refused to start.
While I drove him home, he sat in stony silence. On arriving, he invited me in to meet the family. As we walked toward the front door, he paused briefly at a small tree, touching the tips of the branches with both hands.
After opening the door, he underwent an amazing transformation. His face was wreathed in smiles, and he hugged his two small children and then gave his wife a kiss.
Afterwards, he walked me to my car. We passed the tree, and my curiosity got the better of me. I asked him about what I had seen him do earlier.
“Oh, that’s my worry tree,” he replied. “I know I can’t help having worries on the job, but one thing for sure, worries don’t belong in the house with my wife and children. So I just hang them up on the tree every night when I come home. Then in the morning, I pick them up again.” “Funny thing is,” he smiled, “when I come out in the morning to pick them up, there aren't nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before.”
Are you ready for the journey? Have a nice journey! jó utat!
Purpose of this document
I took a 66 day challenge to study Life Skills last year (10 April 2019). To my astonishment, I succeeded in studying for 66 days one skill a day.
My objectives of learning these skills were - To strengthen my mind to face life’s challenges with ease, To use these skills in my worklife for a better performance, To use these skills in my personal life for enriching my relationships, To open new possibilities to surprise myself.
This is my next 66 day challenge (from 10 April 2020) - To share my Life Skills learning with my social media friends.
I pray that my toil helps you in your success journey.
What are Life Skills?
UNICEF defines Life skills as - psychosocial abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enable individuals to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of everyday life. They are loosely grouped into three broad categories of skills
- cognitive skills for analyzing and using information,
- personal skills for developing personal agency and managing oneself,
- inter-personal skills for communicating and interacting effectively with others.
Which LifeSkills are covered?
The World Health Organisation identified these ten basic areas of life skills that are relevant across cultures:
- Decision-making
- Problem-solving
- Creative thinking
- Critical thinking
- Communication
- Interpersonal skills
- Self-awareness
- Empathy
- Coping with emotions
- Coping with stress.
Some trivia
‘Life skills’ was never part of the school curriculum. WHO/ UNESCO mandated academia to teach these skills in all schools across the globe in 1993.
Different countries educate their children in these skills with different objectives
- Zimbabwe and Thailand - prevention of HIV/AIDS
- Mexico - prevention of adolescent pregnancy
- United Kingdom - child abuse prevention
- USA - prevention of substance abuse and violence
- South Africa and Colombia - positive socialization of children.
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