Managing Stress

Coping in a Fast-Paced
World
 Stress
 Reduces the national economy
by $500 billion
 Leaves almost half of all
adults with health problems
 Causes between 60% and 80%
of industrial accidents
 In the workplace, stress is
primarily caused by
incompetent management
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 People Who Experience
Stress...
 selectively perceive information
 fixate on a single approach to a
problem
 adopt a crisis mentality
 consult and listen to others less
 rely on old habits
 are less able to generate creative
thoughts

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 Stress
 What is stress?

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 Stress
 Has there been an increase in
stress in people’s lives?
 Change ambiguity
uncertainty
 Pressure time, workload,
expectations
 Changes in organizational
in Work structure, nature
of work, technology

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 When Is Stress Bad?
 When the imbalance can’t be resolved
 role conflict
 role ambiguity
 When the stress is long-term
 burn-out syndrome
 When the individual’s stress reaction is
ineffective
 coping that “numbs” the experience of
stress
 coping that doesn’t change the situation

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 Reactions to Stress
 Alarm
 increase in anxiety, fear, sorrow
or loss
 Resistance
 attempt to control stress using
defense mechanisms
 Exhaustion
 stop trying to defend against
stress; stress related pathology
occurs in this stage
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 Stress and the Individual
 Assumption: Stress is
something one does to
oneself
 stress is internally generated by
worry, doubt, anxiety
 some individuals experience
stress as a chronic state, or
generate stressful experiences

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 Stress as a Person/Situation
Interaction
 Assumption: Events trigger stress,
but people respond to stress
differently
 Resiliency factors moderate stress
Resiliency

Stressors Reaction

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 Personal Characteristics
Influencing Stress
 Hardiness:
 commitment, challenge, internal locus of
control
 Physiological resiliency:
 cardiovascular health, dietary control, rest

 Social Support:
 close emotional ties, common experiences,
supportive interactions, mentors, teams

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 Managing Your Own Stress

 Recognize and observe your own stress

reactions (e.g. irritability, muscle
tightness, fatigue, sleep disorder,
distractibility, confusion, etc.
 Learn to reframe
 Do you realize that
 Isn’t it great that
 Events can trigger but it’s the meaning we
place on the words or event which causes
the stress
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 Developing Resiliency

 Some stressors will not go away

 Resiliency increases capacity to
withstand negative effects of stress

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 Managing Your Own Stress
(cont.)
 Take care of yourself
 balance your life, align what’s most important to
you...
 build physical resiliency through exercise, diet and
rest
 build psychological resiliency through hardiness,
small wins, and relaxation
process and integrate thoughts and feelings
through writing and spiritual activities
 build social resiliency by developing supportive
relationships

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 The Ten slices of life
(Nathanson)
 Study (education)
 Health (sleep/exercise)
 Community (volunteer)
 Wage (primary job)
 Family (time with family)
 Home (duties at home)
 Fee (what you can sell)
 Hobby (spare time)
 Leisure (doing nothing)
 Mind (brain work)
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 The Ten slices of life cont.
 Add up the available hours in a
month (672)
 Figure out the hours and % for each
category
 Look at where you spend your time
now
 Look at where you plan to spend
your time 5 years from now?
 Observations?

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 Managing Your Own Stress
(cont.)
 Align your goals with what you
prize the most
 Create 3-5 five year, < one
year and daily goals which align
to what you prize the most
 Follow your vocational passion
 Your perfect day! Talk about it
 Laugh at yourself
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 Summary
 Stress is always present
 The challenge is how you deal with it
How you recognize it
How you react to it

How prepared you are for it

What you do to deal with it and

lower your reaction to it
 The good news is the strategies you use
are up to you

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