Coaching - Managing workplace stress in Sandton

Stress management is a conscious and targeted action to build up the psychological and physical resources, to be able to deal with the demands of everyday life and to feel up to the challenges of life. An important part is stress reduction and there are many ways to reduce stress.

Stress management can focus on our body, our mind or our soul. There are a variety of methods, exercises and rituals for all areas – but not all approaches work the same for everyone – it is important to try out what suits you best and helps you the most.

As a coach, I help you find a new way to deal with stress – I take a holistic approach and together we will look at the following areas in your life:

1. Body: Which rituals, exercises and time-outs help you to calm your body again?
2. Mind: Which areas in your life can you change and which are out of your control? How is it possible to change your attitude and approach these things with more serenity?
3. Soul: How would you like to shape your life and your everyday life and how much stress do you have to and would you like to expose yourself to?

From a biological point of view, stress has an important function – it helps us to react confidently in extremely stressful situations. We all know the “flight or fight” moments when we breathe short and fast, our pulse is racing, adrenaline is shooting through our body and we are extremely tense and concentrated – our body is preparing to make the right decision and to make the right decision as quickly as possible act. In general, we feel stress when we have the feeling that we cannot meet our requirements – whenever we have the feeling that our capacities are not sufficient. Many people experience this in their everyday lives, which have become increasingly faster, more demanding and more varied. Stress arises in very different phases of life:

• Professional requirements, training and further education as well as conflicts in the professional environment.
• Responsibility for family members, such as children and dependent parents, difficulties in our relationships or private commitments.
• Life crises, such as illness or disability, loss or separation, and identity issues or conflicts.

And more and more often we are stressed because we have the feeling that we have to do our best and function in all areas of life – and therefore a certain pressure or stress can also arise from leisure activities, fitness, personal interests or private contacts – especially if we work every day being reminded by social media of how ingeniously everyone else is doing it.

If the following symptoms persist for a long time, stress can become chronic and also dangerous:

• Shallow breathing, more in the chest, and difficulty in taking one really deep, slow breath.
• Tensions in the body and physical complaints such as stomach pains or headaches.
• Thoughts jump wildly back and forth – from one requirement to the next and hardly a chance to consciously perceive and enjoy a moment.
• Trouble falling asleep, listlessness, frustration or hopelessness.

Stress isn’t always bad. On the one hand, our body’s stress response is extremely important – it helps us to focus and courageously make a decision and act quickly in challenging situations. On the other hand, stress can motivate us, encourage us and sometimes help us to achieve top performance. Stress that we experience positively is also described as eustress. It is problematic if stress lasts for a very long time – we often perceive stress in everyday life as negative, as a burden that robs us of zest for life and lightness.

Our body is perfectly geared to short, extreme stressful situations that require our full concentration, courage and the ability to act quickly. But these moments are rare – modern stress is characterized by long-lasting phases with a high workload, often characterized by subtle challenges and latent excessive demands. And that’s exactly where the problem lies – our body’s stress response no longer fits in with today’s world.

Biologically, our body reacts in a very similar way to these modern demands – we have shallow breathing, are tense, get a racing heart, a tepid feeling in our stomach or a feeling of heat – but we don’t relax. And this creates a feeling of physical strain and emotional strain and chronic stress – and if this is long-lasting, health problems can develop – up to and including panic attacks or burn-out.

Stress management is important to avoid these negative consequences, to protect our health and to increase our mental well-being.