Do you have a stressful job?  Do you find that your stress levels sometimes hinder your performance?  Are you concerned that this stress could become a risk to your health?

Stress is caused when we inhibit the body’s ‘fight, flight, or freeze’ reaction to what it perceives as danger.  The stress is caused by the action of opposite forces in ourselves.  For example: we want to run away but we are afraid of making things worse; we want to punch our boss but we are afraid of disciplinary action; we want to curl up in the corner of the meeting but we are afraid of being ridiculed.  The stress results in increased levels of physical and mental readiness while shutting down nonessential systems.  Prolonged periods of excitation can lead to exhaustion and many physical issues including suppression of the immune system, ulcers and a lack of sex drive.

Once you have realised when and how you create your own stress or take it on from others you can take responsibility for making some changes.  These may include changing your attitude to your work, the way you create and enforce boundaries with your co-workers, your emotional reactions to certain situations and learning simple and effective techniques to increase your levels of relaxation.  Rather than managing the stress you may find that it simply disappears or transforms into something else like excitement.  Some clients do end up changing their job but I recommend getting all the learnings from this one first so you are positively choosing something new rather than being forced out of the existing situation.