Is stress making you stupid too?

Stress makes me stupid and I am guessing it does the same to you. Sooner or later it makes all of us candidates for the Dumb and Dumber movie.

Think back to the last time (aka sometime today) when you rushed to get an email out before a meeting, or to carry those 15 bags of groceries while texting your partner or thought you could finish that report tonight while rocking your baby, talking to your mother on the phone and stirring dinner.

When I’m under the pump, overwhelmed by deadlines, pressures and calls, I say and do some really dumb things. Even my body becomes uncooperative and unintelligent, banging into things, dropping things and generally not complying in a typical coordinated way.

Is it any wonder. According to Dr Steven Stein in studies conducted by his company, Multi-Health Systems, stress affects all parts of our intelligence, including emotional intelligence which can create difficult interpersonal relations. According to Stein’s research,

A strong emotional intelligence can help build positive relationships with colleagues and improve performance – the ideal formula for workplace success. But if stress prevents us from being aware of and controlling our emotions, getting along with others, adapting to changes, and maintaining a positive mood, then our EI is going to suffer.

Stein found that 42 per cent of those tested said they “frequently” experienced stress in the workplace. Yet 48 per cent had no clue that emotional intelligence could be negatively affected by stress, and few if any people do anything about it.

According to Stein, stress harms a worker in many ways:

• It affects decision-making, making us too impulsive.
• It forces us to make mistakes.
• It causes us to ignore cues.
• It interferes with relationships with clients and colleagues.
• It lowers productivity.

Stress affects us all - it is everywhere you look in modern society. Therefore how we adapt, manage and reduce stress is extremely important as too much stress can wear you down and make you sick, both mentally and physically.

What Is Stress?

Stress is the body's natural inbuilt response to harmful situations - whether they’re real or perceived. When you feel threatened, a chemical reaction occurs in your body that allows you to act in a way to prevent injury. This reaction is known as "fight-or-flight,” or the stress response. During stress response, your heart rate quickens, your muscles tighten, and the good old blood pressure begins to rise.

Of course it's different strokes for different folks - what's stressful for one person may be of little concern for another. And what might derail one person for an entire day, another may recover from in 5 minutes.

Harvard researchers estimate that 80% of doctor’s visits are caused by stress. Getting stressed is not bad for you, staying stressed is toxic. Chronic stress can lead to high blood pressure and heart disease. It can even dampen the immune system, increasing susceptibility to colds and flus, asthma, digestive issues and other health problems. New research even supports the notion that high levels of stress somehow speed up the aging process - stupid and unsexy not a great combination.

How to stress less and achieve more

Though stress is inevitable, the good news is you can help control your body's response to it. Exercise, meditation and mindfulness are all great stress busters. In my Higher Power Leaders Program I teach leaders three steps to reduce stress including:

1. Minimalise. Prioritise, reduce, eliminate, focus. Often when we are stressed it's because we've loaded our plates way to high and can't possible chomp through all the tasks at once. Stop for a moment, figure out what really needs to be done right now, what can be done by someone else, and what can be put off until later. Minimalise your stress.

2. Meditate. Meditate. Meditate. Yep with added emphasis. When the body is in “fight or flight” mode, mental capacity decreases. Meditation reduces stress and allows you to continue to perform at the top of your game. Watch my brief video tip here where I share a brief in motion meditation you can add to your day.

3. Mastery. Focus improves flow and when we're in flow we experience less stress. Bringing our attention to mastery, to doing one thing at a time and doing it well keeps our minds in the now and stops us leaping head to the future which creates anxiety and stress.

My advice is the advice I had to swallow myself. I had to stop believing its a matter of time management and efficiency that if I could just organise my time better, I would have less stress. Der dummy, I had to embrace thinking about how I could reduce my stress and then it gave me more time. Hooray.

We can all be much smarter, if we simply minimalise, meditate and master our focus before moving into the future. Here's to a smarter you (and me to).

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A B O U T T H E  A U T H O R

Alexandria Joy's (AJ) mission is to empower people to create more meaningful, joyful lives that bring a deeper connection with themselves, others and our planet. She wants to shift the way we think about and deal with success in business and life.

As an aspiring minimalist and tiny house dweller she believes in keeping things simple and making 10 degree shifts in all aspects of life and work so you can do less and achieve more. 

She is the founder of company culture firm UQ Power, co-founder of Human Power and creator of The 10* Shift and the tiny house experiment The Joy Box.