A huge welcome to Mark Walsh, author of this week’s guest post. Mark leads Integration Training – specialist stress management training, business leadership training and resilience training providers, based in Brighton (Sussex), Birmingham and London UK. His clients include multi-national blue chip companies, UNICEF and The Institute of Development Studies. Prior to this he worked for a charity in conflict-zones worldwide. In his spare time Mark meditates, dances, practices aikido and enjoys being exploited by two cats.
Mark offers grounded, practical advice to help you to bounce back from stressful situations:
Bouncing Back – Resilience and Stress Management Training
Life is stressful in some way or another for everyone. People vary however in how effective their personal stress management is and how quickly they bounce back from adversity. This article offers a few tips on resilience training for anyone who’s life isn’t always easy. A large proportion of healthy adaptation to stress has been shown to be how people think, manage their physical health and use social support. In other words there is hope as resilience and effective stress management are life-skills that can be learnt.
Mental Stress Management Training
It is not external events but our thinking that create stress. Consider two people stuck in a traffic jam. One may get annoyed thinking about how unfair it and dwelling on the appointment they will miss while another may take it in their stride, saying to themselves “heh, that’s life, at least I can listen to the radio for a change” It’s the thought process that creates stress. The following are some good resilient thinking strategies:
- Acceptance of what can’t be changed
- An internal “locus of control”- i.e. not being a victim
- Creative problem solving
- Flexibility
- Realistic optimism
- Maintaining positive and stable self-esteem
- Managing (but not repressing) emotions
- Managing stress and conflict skilfully
- Humour
- Mindfulness and Spirituality
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) deals in depth with some of these factors and discusses “thought distortions” such as over-generalising, personalising and (my personal favourite) “catastrophising”.
Resilience Training and The Body
Maintaining good physical health is a key foundation of resilience. The fundamentals of good diet, plenty of exercise, rest, good quality sleep and minimal alcohol and other drug intake cannot be ignored. Beyond the basics of health, physical grounding and centring exercises to manage stress arousal can also build resilience. The following is the ABC “centring” technique to manage stress:
- Aware – Be mindful of the present moment using the five senses, especially feeling the body, ground (yourself on your chair and feet) and your breath
- Balance – In posture and attention. Have an expansive feeling
- Centre-Line Relaxed – Relax your mouth and stomach – breathe deeply into your belly
- (Also: Connected to the reason why you are doing this and Connected to other people)
Other forms of stress-busting body awareness practices such as yoga and tai chi are also recommended for resilience.
Social Support, Stress and Resilience
Social support and empathy are critical factors in psychological resilience so if you want to bounce not break build a support network around you and invest in relationships. Equally if you want to help those around you really listen to them, empathy is a great gift that builds resilience.
Resilience and Environmental Factors
Environmental factors have been shown to significantly effect stress. Background noise is a good example for office workers and contact with the natural world is also a stress-buffer. Even ensuring you receive a little natural light and get a few house plants can make a big difference. Many people also find organising and cleaning their environment to have an impact on stress and wellbeing.
Comments
5 comments
Although “what you think” causes stress, what you believe is even more powerfully linked to what you are thinking. A stress response is a response to stress. Controlling the stress response is what is being discussed above. But there are many events that are naturally stress inducing. They can’t be denied and telling someone figureo or remember to change your thinking is not as practical as managing the stress with interventions designed to mitigate, remove, prevent, the stress response. There is an important distinction.
Thank you for your response, Dan and for making the distinction. My view would be that you need both responses. Whilst I see your point that it’s helpful if you can to remove the cause of stress, this isn’t always possible, and Mark’s piece is written to support people who are in unavoidable stress-inducing situations.
Hi Dan,
I outline an integral (not just mental) approach from the point after potential stressors have entered – minimising them is of course also beneficial! Many of these will prevent a stress response all together so are not just damage management.
Very few things are “naturally” stressful – noise, heat, hunger, that’s about it – the rest is a matter of training, perspective and resources. Why do I enjoy in my aikido class what most would find distressing for example?
All the best,
Mark
Thanks for the post Mark, it was a fascinating read. Having worked with many companies staff members that may be undergoing work based stresses, I can vouch for the success of leadership programmes and specifically equine guided leadership activities like those that we offer.
It offers a break from the norm and allows the worker to learn the necessary skills for improving their working life, in a much more calming environment, the benefits are clear, it is a shame that some employees find themselves in such positions that they do not have access to such activities and have to resort to de-stressing within an already stressful environment.
Thanks. I’ve also heard good things about Equine leadership and the similarities with embodied work.
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