Stress

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Stress: our fight-or-flight mechanism

Stress forms an intrinsic part of life. Our (primary) brain is focused on survival: eat or be eaten (fight, flight or freeze). Our ancestors still fought sabre-tooth tigers, whereas we get startled when crossing the road because a car blows its horn.

We need these stress hormones just to survive. Thus stress is an essential part of our lives. We shouldn’t eliminate or reduce stress, but we need to integrate it into our lives.

Toxic stress: capacity and workload

Our body produces ‘recovery hormones’ which help us to regain our balance after a short and acute moment of stress. Our body needs a moment of rest so that we can recover.

But what if the stress doesn’t stop and we can’t incorporate recovery moments anymore? Our body and mind become exhausted and stress becomes ‘toxic’. Result: our immune system, which normally protects us, weakens. We can no longer put things into perspective, so our primary (survival)brain takes over and says ‘stop’! In other words: we become ill.

Or better: our workload (the amount of stress) has become bigger than our capacity (that which we can cope with).

Stress at work: causes?

• Communication problems
• Poor relationship with management and/or colleague
• Poor work-life balance
• Poor physical working condition
• Poor work organisation
• Job insecurity
• Lack of autonomy
• Lack of development opportunities
• Lack of recognition
• Work load too high
• Emotional demands too high
• Not seeing the point of the job
• Dissatisfaction with earning
• …

Stress: symptoms

(bron: Geestelijk Gezond Vlaanderen)

• Physical symptoms
  • Constant fatigue
  • Insomnia
  • Pain (head, back, stomach)
  • Palpitations, high blood pressure
• Psychological symptoms
  • Inability to relax
  • Being touchy and irritable
  • Having mood swings, worry, anxiety, crying fits
  • Inability to enjoy things, without energy
  • Insecurity, less self confidence
• Behavioural changes
  • Performing less and making more mistakes
  • Smoking more, drinking more alcohol
  • Using more sleeping pills and sedatives
  • Avoiding social contact.

Stress: our brain in action

Theo Compernolle (neuro psychiatrist) distinguishes 3 types of brain in his book ‘Brain Chains’ (highly recommended literature!)

• The reflexbrain
  • The oldest primary brain: subconscious, primitive reflexes
  • Helps our reflection brain to carry out routines fast
  • When the reflex brain is not corrected by the reflection brain strange things may happen
• The reflectionbrain
  • Our (newest) brain which makes us uniquely human
  • Uses a lot of energy and tires easily
  • It can only work with one idea at a time (so forget about ‘multi-tasking’)
• The archivingbrain
  • Saving/processing/sorting information (long-term memory)
  • Is also creative because it can make surprising associations
  • However, it can only function when the reflection brain is at rest as they both use the same ‘processor’

Stress & burn-out: our 4 intelligence levels

In general you could say that there is a problem on one or more of our 4 intelligence levels when dealing with stress & burn-out:

• SQ = spiritual intelligence = meaning and inspiration
• IQ = intellectual intelligence = rational thinking (concrete/abstract)
• EQ= emotional intelligence = empathy & social skills
• PHQ = physical intelligence = physical health & physical awareness

Human ‘imbalance’ is situated on one or more levels, for example:

• SQ = you feel your job is useless, doesn’t match up with your personal values, floaty
• IQ = you can no longer think clearly, you worry, …
• EQ = you are anxious, moody, aggressive, unable to connect emphatically, …
• PHQ = you have no energy, are listless, feel weak, physically unwell, …

During the coaching process the idea is obviously to strengthen and harmonise the 4 intelligence levels.

Recommended reading:

• ‘Spirituele Intelligentie: de kracht van persoonlijke ontwikkeling’ – Marjolein Rikmenspoel).
• De zeven eigenschappen van effectief leiderschap – Stephen R. Covey
• The 8th Habit – Stephen R. Covey

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