Key
Concepts
This section of stress.mindtools.com
explains the fundamental ideas behind stress
management. By understanding these ideas,
you can see how the tools on this site work
for most common sources of stress, and can
understand how to adapt them or create new
tools to handle unique situations.
Definitions and mechanisms
It introduces the debate over the definitions
of stress, and gives the most commonly
accepted definition: that stress is experienced
when a person perceives that demands exceed
the personal and social resources that the
individual is able to mobilize. It also
brings in the intertwined instinctive responses
to unexpected events and threats that are
so much part of stress.
We then looked at these instinctive responses
in more detail, firstly looking at the Fight-or-Flight
response that helps us to respond explosively
to immediate threat, and then looking at
the General
Adaptation Syndrome and burnout. We
also saw the way that the normal day-to-day
stressors of overload, frustration, conflict
and deadlines can trigger small-scale fight-or-flight
responses.
Next, we looked at the negative
effects of long-term stress, first from
a behavioral perspective, and second, by
looking at its contribution to disease.
We saw that stress has a well-established
link with heart disease, but that relationships
with other diseases were still not fully
established.
The Inverted-U and stress management
We then looked at the “Inverted-U”
relationship between pressure
and performance. We saw that when pressure
is low, performance is normally low as other
activities compete for attention. When pressure
and stress are high, anxieties and disturbances
can overload our thinking, reducing our
ability to concentrate on a task, and thereby
reducing our performance. However, we saw
that there is a medium level of pressure,
at which we can concentrate effectively.
At this level of pressure, we can enter
a state of intense concentration or ‘flow’,
in which we do our best work. The goal of
stress management is to help us to manage
stress so that we can maintain this state
of flow and deliver exceptional performance.
In doing this, there are three
different stress management approaches
that we can use:
- Action-oriented
- Emotionally-oriented
- Acceptance-oriented
An action-oriented approach is often best
used when you have some power to change
a situation. Where you do not have power,
it may be appropriate to take an emotionally
oriented approach. With this approach, you
seek to change your understanding of and
response to the situation. Lastly, when
you have no power, and a changed appreciation
of the situation is not appropriate, then
an acceptance-oriented approach may be best.
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