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
❖ Hasthere 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:
✜ closeemotional 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 which11
 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 13
 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) 14
 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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