Hello,
My name is Shirelle Moore Tucker and I'm a corporate and community wellness educator based right here in the Washington DC metro area.
And today I want to talk a little bit about stress.
Good stress versus bad stress.
So I like to start with this quote by an unknown I think is pretty powerful and it'll set the stage for our discussion.
Stress isn't the problem.
Depression is.
Hmm,
Something for us to really think about.
So let's talk a little bit about the definition of stress.
Stress is your mind and your body's response or reaction to a real or imagined threat,
Change or an event.
Let me repeat that one more time.
Stress is your mind and your body's response or reaction to a real or an imagined threat,
Change or an event.
So we see here with this basic definition that many times when we think about stress,
We're not necessarily thinking about how our body and our mind is responding so much as the stressors,
Right?
So a threat,
A change or an event are commonly called stressors.
You know,
My family is stressing me out.
My job is very stressful.
Dealing with my finances are very stressful.
Those are stressors and stressors can be internal as well as external.
So consider this.
Some internal stressors could be your own thoughts,
Right?
They can also be beliefs and certain attitudes that you may hold.
But also stressors can be external.
Things such as loss,
Tragedy and life change can also be stressors.
But at the foundation at the heart of stress is really about how our mind and our bodies respond or react to those stressors.
So there is a such thing as good stress and bad stress.
Although for many of us in our society,
When we refer to the term stress,
We're not thinking about it in the best sense.
It's kind of negative.
So let's start there.
This type of stress is called de-stress.
This is the stress that wears you out,
Leaves you jittery and can really wreak havoc on your health.
And this type of stress tends to be chronic in nature.
This is the type of stress that many of us are dealing with.
It's chronic.
It's never ending.
We always feel stressed out and we feel it most in our minds and in our bodies.
However stress is not going to get a full bad rap because there is a such thing called eustress.
And so this refers to the circumstances in which something stressful helps to inspire,
Motivate and enhance your performance.
Now here's the difference.
This stress tends to be shorter in duration.
It's not chronic.
So consider this at your job,
Your particular place of work,
Or if you're in business for yourself,
You're working on a project and that project has a start date and an end date.
You may feel stressed during this time where you're working on this project.
And then once the project ends,
The stress leaves.
That was a good type of stress.
Maybe you were able to discover some new things about yourself,
Some new skills that you acquired.
You were inspired to push yourself more and that type of stress is great.
Many of us may have experienced this type of stress at work,
Working on a project,
Maybe even in school or maybe serving in your community where you feel those,
The stress and then at the end it leaves.
Research conducted by Berkeley suggests that short lived and not chronic stress primes the brain for improved performance.
This is so true and we can see this even when we talk about physically moving the body.
So whether you lift weight,
So you do some type of resistance training,
Stressing the muscles,
Stressing the tissues in your body,
Stressing your bones brings forth strength.
And so the same can be said for the brain if it's not chronic in nature.
So once again,
This research talks about short lived and not chronic stress.
So what are some common modern day stressors?
Many of us deal with saying yes to everything.
So we have too many obligations.
Remember no is a complete sentence.
Some other modern day stressors can be too many negative thoughts.
Maybe you've made a mistake before and now you don't trust your judgment.
And so you have all these negative thoughts about what happened when you made that mistake.
Although life is moving you forward,
Your mind is caught in this negative loop where you're constantly replaying these negative thoughts.
Poor skills to deal with conflict.
This is very common here in the United States.
It's sometimes easier to just be quiet versus stating something that may be contrary to what the majority are saying.
Whether you're in a meeting and you disagree or something that you want to highlight that may be different than what others are talking about.
It's very important for us to realize how important conflict resolution is,
Not just in your particular industry,
But in every area of your life.
From resolving conflicts within your family,
Your community,
And at work.
Many of us deal with too many commitments.
We have committed ourselves to sit on this board and that board.
We're also a part of different groups at work and we just have spread it ourselves so thin that we are in a constant state of stress,
Chronic stress.
And lastly,
I want to end with this,
The enemy within self sabotaging.
We talk about this very casually,
But this is a real thing that many of us deal with.
Where we say we want to press forward and do more and do better.
But because of those negative thoughts or maybe something is on repeat in your mind,
You actually end up sabotaging your best efforts.
It's really important for us to invite mindfulness as a way to deal with stress and stressors.
The components of mindfulness allow us to really tap into how our mind and our body is responding to particular stressors.
Mindfulness gently invites us to presence,
To become more open,
To set clear and new intentions for our day,
To be more aware and to pay attention.
This part is so important and as it relates to stress,
I want to emphasize mindfulness.
It's not necessarily a cure,
But a tool that you can use when dealing with chronic stress.
To learn more about mindfulness and what it is and how to become more mindful at work,
Check out my other talk on the characteristics of mindfulness.
