|
What
This Section Gives You
In our article on definitions
of stress, we see that the most commonly
accepted definition of stress is that it
occurs when a person perceives that
demands exceed the personal and social resources
the individual is able to mobilize.
In becoming stressed, people must make
two main judgments: First, they must feel
threatened by the situation; and second,
they must doubt that they can meet the threat.
How stressed they feel depends on the damage
they think the situation can do them, and
how closely their resources meet the demands
of the situation.
Perception is key to this. Being precise,
situations are not stressful in their own
right - rather it is our interpretation
of the situation that drives the level of
stress that we feel.
Quite obviously, sometimes we are right
in what we say to ourselves. Some situations
may actually be dangerous, and may threaten
us physically, socially or in our career.
Here, stress and emotion are part of the
early warning system that alerts us to the
threat from these situations.
Often, however, we are wrong. It's easy
to be overly harsh and unjust to ourselves
in a way that we would never be with friends
or co-workers. This, along with other negative
thinking, can cause intense stress and unhappiness
and can severely undermine self-confidence.
How Negative Thinking
Undermines Performance
Not only do these inappropriate negative
thoughts cause a great deal of unhappiness,
they also reduce our performance.
One obvious part of this comes from the
mental effort wasted in worrying. This is
particularly important when we are focusing
on a task in which we need to perform well.
Here, negative and anxious thinking compete
with task-related thoughts for the attentional
capacity of our conscious mind, disrupting
the state of flow
in which we perform at our best.
This is shown reliably in study after study,
in sector after sector. A particularly good
example of this is with students’
academic performance:
| |
“Anxiety
also sabotages academic performance
of all kinds: 126 different studies
of more than 36,000 people found that
the more prone to worry a person is,
the poorer their academic performance,
no matter how measured…. In
a test, non-worriers were asked to
worry for 15 minutes – their
ability to do a task reduced measurably.
When worriers were relaxed for 15
minutes, their ability to do a task
improved radically.”
Anxiety and Meta-Performance,
Bertha Seipp, ”Anxiety and Academic
Performance, A Meta-analysis”,
Anxiety Research 4,1 (1991) (cited
in Emotional
Intelligence, Daniel Goleman,
1996, Bloomsbury Publishing, London). |
|
Tip:
Worry and anxiety often contain important
information on threats that we may
face. Eliminating them altogether
can mean that we miss important cues
from our environment, and fail to
make appropriate contingency plans.
However, as we say above, worry interferes
with our performance.
A useful way of dealing
with worry is to reschedule it: Acknowledge
to yourself that you need to think
the issue through, and allocate a
time to do so. Keep a notebook with
you and note down the worries “buzzing
around” in your mind. Think
the issue through at the appointed
time, but in the meantime, put it
out of your mind. |
Negative Thinking and
Health
Not only does negative thinking affect your
performance, it also affects your health.
People who approach the stresses of life
with depression, anxiety and hostility experience
significantly worse health.
This is in direct contrasted with people
who showed stress "hardiness".
These people manage to survive intense stress
with little illness. Hardiness is characterized
by positive attitude to challenges, positive
thinking and commitment to goals, among
other things.
We can see this in the following quote
and the study that followed:
| |
Patients
are also taught to examine their mental
and emotional responses and to restructure
them in a non-stressful way….
Those on the behavior modification
group learned how to recognize their
exaggerated physiological, mental
and behavioral reactions to stressful
situations. They were taught how to
relax physically and mentally, as
an alternative response. Lectures,
demonstrations, role-playing and behavioral
drills helped them develop new, non-Type
A skills.”
“Stress, Behavior,
and Heart Disease”, Matthew
M. Burg Ph.D., Chapter 8, Yale
School of Medicine Heart Book. |
|
In this study conducted over a four-year
period, the group of patients who had modified
their behavior experienced half the number
of heart attacks of the group who had not
modified their behavior.
This section provides powerful tools that
help you to rationally understand the negative
thinking that causes so much stress. This
helps you to identify either where you need
to take action, or where you are being unduly
negative.
Introducing the Tools
The first thing that we do in this section
is to take
another look at the “Thought Awareness,
Positive Thinking and Rational Thinking”
tool we looked at in in our section on Performance
Stress. In this section, we extend it into
a more general setting.
We then look at “Emotional
Analysis”, which helps you understand
the emotions that you and other people feel,
and identify the assumptions that lie beneath
them. Once you understand these assumptions,
you can decide for yourself whether they
are correct, and either change your interpretation
of the situation or take appropriate action.
The final tool in this section, “Cognitive
Restructuring” is similar to the
first one, but takes a more formal, intensive
approach to understanding what lies behind
negative moods. “Cognitive Restructuring”
is a useful tool for looking objectively
at negative thinking, helping you to cut
away the unfair and unjust negative thinking
that damages self-confidence and take a
clear, balanced look at the realities behind
upsetting events.
The next
article gives you simple techniques
for turning around negative thinking...
|
|
