Stress is a positive force in our lives that gives us the motivation to set and achieve our goals, to become excited and to react to everyday problems in an assertive way. Stress also helps us to deal with life threatening situations (our ‘fight or flight’ response) and to cope with some of the difficult events that we may encounter on our journey through life.
Distress is none of these things. Distress leads to depression, anxiety and poor performance. Constant exposure to a distressful situation is disabling for the individual it affects and all of those who surround the individual. Distress has a negative affect on teamwork and companies and can break up marriages and families.
Sometimes, in our distressed state, we impose upon ourselves impossible demands and inappropriately believe that it would be a weakness to call a halt or ask for help. Perhaps we are so distressed we don’t even recognise it for ourselves.
We may not always engage in openly aggressive behaviours in this situation either - we have learned in the workplace that rudeness and aggression are not acceptable outlets for our stress, so we indulge in passive aggressive behaviours instead. We smile and say yes and then submit work late, or not at all.
Does any of this sound familiar? Would you rather be saying ‘No’ to something but find that the ‘Yes’ word just keeps popping out of your mouth?
Inspire Change has a range of approaches and specialist experience with the NHS and the pharmaceutical industry that will help. This includes one-to-one coaching, a recommended approach by a director of a large multinational blue-chip company. He said: ‘It is lonely at the top when things go wrong. Coaching gives you a second brain. Suddenly there is someone who can help, a person to get you to stand back and put a perspective on things.’
Inspire Change also runs successful workshops on this subject, too. A delegate on one of our workshops last year commented that she had now learned that ‘Giving in doesn’t mean giving up’, and that she now recognised it simply wasn’t possible to do everything herself, nor was it expected of her by others, only by herself.
Their lives have changed for the better – what will you do to help yours? View our Top 10 stress factors. Do you recognise any of these?
Call Inspire Change if you would like to be able to:
- Discover the differences between stress and distress
- Learn how to say ‘No’
- Ask for behaviour changes
- Identify stressors and driving behaviours and how to manage them
- Challenge unhelpful thinking
Regards,
Hilary Shields
www.inspirechange.com
Telephone: 01908 511 572
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