Stress management for life

Its hazards at work :

by Ranga Chandrarathne

As the world cup fever spreads its tentacles around the continents and the world cup aspirant cricketing nations in Asia such as Sri Lanka, the pent-up adrenaline of thousands of spectators worldwide was suddenly up-surged by the unexpected tragedy which befell on one of the brilliant coaches, Bob Woolmer who died in his hotel room in Kingston under mysterious circumstances.

Although the exact cause of death has still not been established, various grounds ranging from unknown medical conditions, diabetics to stress brought on him by the job, have been cited. However, the inconclusive autopsy carried out by the Jamaican Police indicated that Woolmer had been suspicious and conveyed this to his family.

The stress factor which could have certainly have compounded the physical and mental well being of the Pakistani coach, is associated with almost all the professions in fast moving consumerism society.

Though the degree of strain that stress brings about on a person may differ from one person to another and by and large depends on individual coping abilities (both physical and mental), the stress-prone circumstances may vary very little from one field to another.

Specially, in the field of professional sports, target-oriented commercial sector and the production process in a highly competitive environment, a lot of strain is generated on the chain of workers throughout hierarchical administration from the top managers to the lowest ranking employer.

Improving physical environment in the place of work, division of labour, financial incentives would have a mitigating effect on the strain exerted on the workers. However, a total stress-free environment could not be achieved through a continuous process education on the stress management and its benefits.

The inalienable nexus between mind and body

It is commonsense that emotional well being of a person has a strong positive effect on his entire spectrum of activities and would invariably increases one's productivity. This fact has been proved by scientists and researchers.

The most common manifestation of this connection is stress. The stress response, the body's reaction to unpleasant or dangerous environment, increasing physical illness and a long-term stress could lead to many other complications and also can cause depression, anxiety and irritability.

It has been proved that, for instance, anger is a risk factor in heart disease, that anxiety exacerbates skin conditions and asthma, and depression is linked to hypertension (high blood pressure). Therefore, physicians believe that stress management is a key factor in self-preventing diseases.

However, the human mind has the potentials to control and manage stress responses. Cognitive/ behaviourial interventions help stress resiliency while relaxation techniques and meditation can lower or block the physical mechanisms that creates stress.

What is stress

Stress can simply be defined as the body's physiological reaction to environmental stressors. It is an ancient, crucial and natural survival technique for humans.

From the primitive times, when wild animal threats , the body releases hormones and chemicals such as adrenaline and cortisol that expedite metabolism in order to gear up the body for strenuous physical action to deal with the danger or to escape from it.

This natural mechanism worked well in the past. However, the condition termed out as? fight or flight? has become counterproductive when danger become less likely to be a physical threat; such as being caught up in a traffic jam, worrying about bills, depleting income in the face of rising inflation, work pressure and deadlines which has become a part and parcel of modern life.

Stress response can be triggered many times a day without producing any useful out come. The chemical reaction would create mood disorders which are visualized, at physical level, with negative effects on organs and their functions including circulatory, digestive, respiratory, and nervous systems, skeleton-muscular and epidermis, and the responses of the immune system.

The prolonged and excessive stress can cause/accelerate many illness and conditions including headaches, joint pain, coronary heart disease, hypertension/high blood pressure, asthma, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, chronic pain, chronic fatigue syndrome, diabetes, G.I. tract conditions (colitis, irritable bowel syndrome) and skin problems

Stress resiliency

Although the stress response triggered by hostile stress-prone environment, stress responses variy from person to person. For instance, while in a traffic jam, reckless drivers are an irritant to everyone, some people can 'shrug off' these situations while others will develop 'road rage'.

Some stress agents are not external; negative thoughts can create stress response and prolonged repetitive patterns of depression, worry, or anger could keep one in a constant state of physiological stress.

Interestingly, some people have been found more stress resiliency than others. The stress resilient men/women can handle overwhelmingly complex situations with zero stress response while those with low stress resiliency have adversely react to seemingly flimsy issues.

Strong personal support systems, belief systems with positive and spiritual values, person's power will cognitive/behaviourial strengths and ability to self-induce will relax responses are contributory factors that produce stress resiliency.

Behaviourial techniques for stress reduction and resiliency

Identification of environmental stress agents, developing methods of remove or to reduce their negative impact will help to make a person stress resiliency. It is obvious that one may not be able to resign from the high pressure job. However, one can concentrate more on positive aspects of the work place rather than the stress prone aspects.

For instance, one can concentrate on the pleasurable company at the work place. In some instances, the newly married couples ended up in divorce. Though the divorce many be inevitable but partners can learn how to structure their contact with each other in a way shielding some of their range.

On some cases, one's own behaviour may create stressful situations. Learning to refuse certain requests, or over-work, lack of sleep would invariable trigger stress agents in the environment.

Self-awareness on the environment and to see the problems in their proper perspectives and learning to find out and stop negative thoughts and avoiding negative forecasting will also reduce stress and increase resiliency.

Practising relaxation

Practising relaxation exercises, learning to block stress responses and stress counselling would also help to manage and reduce stress.

The stress reduction techniques includes Karate or Yoga exercise, "belly breathing" or diaphragmatic breathing, "sitting" meditations, including mind-clearing strategies, visualizations, and silent mantras; spoken meditation, like prayer, mantra, and chanting; physical meditations, ranging from formal methods like tai chi or yoga, to walking meditation, to activities such as knitting or gardening.

Apart from them, Buddhist way of stress management teaches that stress is born out of one? s own incorrect understanding, clinging on to pleasant experiences and absolute aversion to unpleasant experiences.

Understanding of true nature of sensuous experience would lead to recognize stress agents and to avoid reaction to them. Creating confidence and strong will power coupled with virtues like equanimity will increase one resiliency to stress.

Meditation can be a source of strength and took for personal growth. Certain meditation practices such as meditation of breathing (Ana Pana Sati) develops self-awareness and power of concentration making a person less distractible.

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