He points out that as stress doesn’t really exist, it’s only a perception; we need to stop treating it as a disease. Instead, we need to start managing fear, as this is root cause of a person feeling stressed.
As stress is a perception, it only affects you if you perceive the event or interaction will harm you physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually.
The potential to experience stress starts with a stressor, or the cumulative effect of many stressors. Stressors are the events, incidences, encounters, situations, transactions or interactions that have a potentially negative influence on our lives.
When faced with a new stressor, or when we simply recall or think about it, or even a past stressor, we process that event or situation in two stages, which we term the primary appraisal and the secondary appraisal.
For most people, in most instances these appraisals occur spontaneously, immediately and without conscious thought. It is the same process that in extreme cases triggers our fight or flight responses.
In the primary appraisal we subconsciously determine if this event or situation is a threat to us.
What we consider a threat will be different for different people, but we would rapidly determine if there was a threat to our health, our wellbeing or even to our lives, or a threat to our security, to the achievement of a goal or outcome we had set for ourselves, to someone we care for, or our wealth or possessions. It may threaten our livelihood or our reputation.
If, at the primary appraisal point we decide it’s not a threat, we move on, not experiencing any real concern or angst as a consequence of what we have just experienced.
However, if we sense that what has just occurred does present a threat, we then re- appraise the situation and determine if we have the wherewithal to deal with it.
Simply put, if it is a threat we then complete the secondary appraisal and conclude if we can cope with it or not.
If we can, we do what we have to, feeling OK about it, because we know that we can deal with it or mitigate its affects.
But, if we conclude that we are unable to address what has happened, or will happen, this is where that ball in the stomach begins to form and be felt. A small event or incident leads to lesser feelings of stress, as does a few and infrequent events.
But unfortunately, just the opposite is also true. Having clarity and control of these appraisal points goes part of the way to explaining why different people experience the same situation with varying levels of stress, but it isn’t the entire picture.
What’s missing are our biopsychosocial factors. These are the things that make each of us, who we are. They are our background, our history, our upbringing, our cultural norms, our education, our economic position, our support network, all bundled up to influence how we appraise situations and what resources we have available to us, to cope with adverse situations.
This process supports us in managing the fear that translates into what we perceive as stress.
If you would like to immerse yourself in two days of creating your own unique Stress Management Toolkit then join us at the Brisbane Convention Centre on March 5 and 6 for the Stress to Strength Experience Workshop.
We have a fantastic team of qualified Stress Management Practitioners who will guide and mentor you through the processes. Plus you’ll have lots of fun and go home relaxed and de-stressed.
The Special Early Bird registration fee is still available www.stresstostrength.com/experience/
