Leaders,
Has stress become your way of life? Do you need pressure to perform and feel motivated to do your best? Guess what – when you constantly run in emergency mode, your mind and body will pay the price.
Stress is a normal physical reply. It is the body’s protective reaction to any change that requires adjustment or response. Stress generally helps you stay focused, energetic, and alert. In emergency situations, stress can save your life. A stress response also helps you rise to meet challenges. Beyond a certain point, however, stress starts causing major damage to your health, your mood, your productivity, your relationships, and your quality of life.
How do you recognize when your stress levels are out of control? Stress can easily creep up on you, and you just get used to it. You don’t notice how much stress is affecting you, even as it takes a heavy toll. Stress doesn’t always look stressful.
Everyone responds differently to stress. Stress symptoms can affect your body, your thoughts, feelings, and your behavior. Warning signs and symptoms include memory problems, poor judgment, feeling overwhelmed, frequent colds, loss of sex drive, eating more or less, insomnia, or procrastinating or neglecting responsibilities. Long-term exposure to stress can lead to serious health problems. Chronic stress disrupts nearly every system in your body. Feel free to download our poster “The Effects of Stress on your Body”.
Do you know your limit? How much stress is “too much” differs from person to person. Your ability to tolerate stress depends on many factors, including the quality of your relationships, your general outlook on life, your emotional intelligence, and genetics.
Did you know that almost 50% of all adults suffer adverse health effects from stress? And did you know that 10.4 million working days in the US are lost each year to stress, depression or anxiety?
Modern life is full of hassles, deadlines, frustrations, and requirements. Anything that puts high demands on you or forces you to adjust can be stressful. These stressors can include exhausting work schedules, a rocky relationship, getting married, buying a house or receiving a promotion.
Stress can also be self-generated. Common internal causes of stress are chronic worry, pessimism, negative self-talk, unrealistic expectations, perfectionism, rigid thinking, lack of flexibility, all-or-nothing attitude. What causes stress basically depends on your perception of it.
The good news is that you have more control over your stress levels than you might think. You can always control how you respond to situations, pressures or high demands. Remember: Avoid unnecessary stress. Alter the situation. Adapt to the stressor. Accept things you cannot change.
Coaching with Inspired Executives helps you manage your stress levels, empowers you to recognize the signs and symptoms, develop positive coping mechanisms, and to take bold steps to reduce its harmful effects, thus preventing burnout and contributing to more happiness. Take a break and contact me.
Energetically, Annette.
