In their book Never finished, Martijn Aslander and Erwin Witteveen draw a picture of a world that is never finished and over which we have less and less control. Unfortunately, let that also be one of the main reasons why we experience stress. The lack of control over a particular situation.
In a world where the number of residents has almost quadrupled over the past 100 years and where technological developments can no longer be kept up to date, stress is increasing accordingly.
Everywhere you read about the negative consequences of that stress. But is that justified?
Indeed, stress can be quite paralyzing. We have all heard of the flight or fight response that is activated in our brain when we experience a lot of stress. Our brain prepares us for action. Where in the past the stressful situation was often actually life-threatening, it has now been replaced by an emerging presentation, deadlines and work pressure.
The stress your body and head build up is precisely there to help you be sharper and respond more quickly. In principle, you will function better. You become more creative and thus arrive at smarter solutions.
Too much stress, too often or continuously is absolutely not good for you. But if you learn to deal with stress well, learn to appreciate stress for what it is and take the peace and quiet to recover after a stressful situation (we don’t work too hard, we just ‘recharge’ too little), then you will only be there. stronger of it.
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A well-known study into the effects of stress from Stanford University followed 30,000 adults for 8 years. Participants were asked 2 questions.
The first was: How much stress do you experience; 1) Little, 2) Moderate, 3) A lot?
Then the death registers were monitored to check how many participants died.
The results were shocking. Participants who indicated that they experienced a lot of stress were found to have a 43 percent higher chance of death. However, that was only the case if they had also answered the second question positively: Do you think stress has a negative impact on you?
Participants who did not think that stress had a negative impact on them, even with high stress levels, were less likely to die than those with low stress and negative stress. Your experience of stress says a lot about whether stress paralyzes you or whether it helps you to take action or come up with creative ideas.
As a training agency, we are constantly looking for new programs and techniques to help people deal with that stress better. If you also want to get started to convert your own stress levels into resilience, you can do so with the following 3 simple steps:
- Become aware of the fact that stress is actually helpful for you.
- Look up stressful situations to practice with, to see your stress experience positively.
- Share this insight with others. Not only do you teach someone else how to deal with stress better, but you also produce oxytocin right away. That hormone ensures that your brain can better cope with stressful situations.
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