Stress Management
Prof. Daniela Ilieva, PhD
Business Communication & Leadership Trainer | Empowering Professionals with Proven Strategies for Success | Author, Mentor & Corporate Expert
The start of the spring season is typical of the awakening of the natural world, but also of the depletion of the energy of the human body - a phenomenon called "springtime lethargy". In addition to the springtime fatigue or lethargy, we are all experiencing some form of stress. In this article, we will look at what stress is, whether there is useful stress and how to deal with useless stress. We will look at some techniques to prevent the symptoms of stress, and other useful techniques to overcome the emotions and reactions caused by stress.
In a medical or biological context, stress is a physical, mental, or emotional factor that causes physical or mental tension. Stress can be external (environmental, psychological, or social situations) or internal (illness or medical procedure).[1]
Stress is a non-specific reaction of the body to any change in the process of adaptation, which is created as a stressor and is manifested through changes in hormone levels. This is the body's natural reaction to an unknown or difficult situation. This situation can be due to various external and internal factors such as environment (temperature, light), physiological illness, and mental (anxiety, family problems, personal problems, etc.), which we generally call stressors. Our body does not distinguish stressors from each other; it simply reacts in the way that nature set it hundreds of thousands of years ago.
A typical prehistoric response has been fought or flight, which is a response to an acute threat to survival, marked by physical changes, including nervousness and endocrine, that prepare a person or animal to react in response to a battle or retreat with escape. The functions of this response/regimen were first described in the early 1900s by the American neurologist and physiologist Walter Bradford Cannon and are hidden in our limbic brain.
Thanks to the limbic brain, our survival as species were possible. For thousands of years, we have preserved our animal heritage in the form of regulating our behavior when faced with danger. Whether it's the danger of a wild beast that the prehistoric man of the Stone Age faced, or the fear of the modern presenter standing on stage in front of an audience.
These important life-saving internal reactions have ensured our survival, and the brain's exceptional response in these situations of stress or threat has taken three forms: freezing, fleeing, and escape. Like other animal species whose limbic brains have protected them in this way, human beings with these limbic responses have been able to survive and reproduce because this behavior has already been instilled in our nervous system.[2]
In prehistoric times, the evolution of our animal ancestors led to the creation of a limbic brain strategy to compensate for the power dominance that our predatory enemies had over us. This strategy, a form of protection of the limbic system, was "freezing" in the presence of the predator or in the face of some other danger. Movement attracts attention, so by standing still in a situation of danger, the limbic brain has effectively ensured our survival. Most animals and predators respond to movement. The ability to freeze in the face of danger makes sense because many predators follow moving objects driven by the instinct "chase, capture, and eat", which is clearly expressed in large predators of the cat family, the main enemies of our ancestors.
The freeze reaction is transmitted from primitive to modern man. Today we are not being chased by wild predators, but to this day freezing or stumbling remains our first response to protect against perceived threats or danger, because for five million years the limbic brain has prepared human beings to behave in this way in the face of danger.
In modern life, the freezing reaction is observed when people are accused of bluffing or stealing, and sometimes when they lie. When people feel threatened or exposed, they react just like our ancestors a million years ago: they just freeze.
When the limbic system is in a state of comfort, mental and psychological well-being is reflected in a non-verbal way in showing satisfaction and high self-esteem. However, when the limbic brain experiences discomfort, the corresponding body language is characterized by behavior that is emblematic of stress and low self-esteem. Knowledge of these behavioral cues helps us determine what the individual thinks or how to act, or what to expect when communicating with others in work or social context.
The limbic brain is like a computer that receives and stores data from the outside world in the form of a set of negative events and pleasant experiences. This database, stored in the brain, allows us to cope with life in the world in which we live. This is the mechanism by which we protect ourselves from physical and emotional injury.
This is also the reason why we experience a reaction of satisfaction and predisposition, or euphoria when we see an old friend, a friendly person, or recognize a pleasant smell from our childhood.[3]
When something that is perceived as a threat happens, the sympathetic nerve fibers of the autonomic nervous system are activated. This leads to the release of certain hormones from the endocrine system. Physiologically, the main action of these hormones is to initiate a rapid, generalized response. This response can be caused by a drop in blood pressure or pain, physical injury, severe emotional distress, or low blood glucose levels (hypoglycemia). The fight or flight regime is characterized by increased heart rate (tachycardia), anxiety, increased sweating, tremors, and increased blood glucose levels (due to glycogenolysis or destruction of liver glycogen). These actions co-occur with other neural or hormonal stress responses, such as increased corticotropin and cortisol secretion, and have been observed in some people and animals affected by chronic stress, causing a long-term "fight or flight" response.[4]
As already mentioned, some of the symptoms of stress are physical symptoms:
Other symptoms are emotional and can be systematized as follows:
The third group of symptoms of stress is behavioral:
Stress management encompasses techniques designed to provide people with effective mechanisms for dealing with psychological stress, as well as programs designed to analyze specific stressors by taking appropriate action to minimize stress levels.
There are people who are charged by a certain dose of stress, and there are those who cannot do without a high degree of stress. Whether with or without stress, problems arise when it comes to burnout syndrome. Burnout is defined as physical or emotional exhaustion or demotivation usually as a result of prolonged stress or dissatisfaction.[5]
It is not possible to remove stress from our lives because stressful situations are part of everyone's daily life. In addition, meeting often unbearable administrative deadlines or dealing with uncharacteristic tasks brings additional tension and accumulation of stress. In big cities, traffic is becoming more significant and even moving to and from work can be a source of daily stress.
However, despite all this, we can learn to respond to stress in a positive way and take control of situations instead of allowing situations to take control of us.
Reducing the cortisol hormone also reduces the effects of stress on the body. The table below presents simple and affordable methods and the percentage of effects they have on cortisol reduction. Oddly enough, listening to your favorite music (no matter what style it is) can help reduce stress hormones by up to 66%.
The contact with nature is significantly underestimated. In my therapy sessions and in my work as a corporate consultant, I pay special attention to the power of nature. We have easy and free access to fantastic natural resources. The simplest activities such as walking in a park, forest, or mountain, walking barefoot on grass or sand, breathing exercises outside, hugging trees, petting flowers, welcoming sunrises, and sending sunsets, are a small part of the gifts of nature, which not only reduce stress but also bring pleasure and satisfaction.
[2] Наваро, Джо. Карлинс, Марвин. Какво казва тялото. София: Изток-Запад, 2011, с. 42
[3] Наваро, Джо. Карлинс, Марвин. Какво казва тялото. София: Изток-Запад, 2011, втора глава с. 37-72.
[5] Merriam Webster Dictionary, достъпено на 2.02.2022