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By putting good energy into your home, you will breathe in this good energy every day and it will help you to heal. 

Stress

Causes and Effects

What causes stress is mental, physical or emotional tension.  This tension is caused by demands being made on you, that you feel unable to cope with.   These demands can come from  outside you or from within you and if they are not balanced out by your ability to cope, then you experience stress.

DEMANDS

On the demand side you have:

external demands being made on you, from people or situations.  These can be from people: such as friends, family, work colleagues, neighbours, anyone, and from life events:  such as births, weddings, bereavements, illness, job, house move, family celebrations and others.

internal demands which are what you expect of yourself and others in your life, such as your own standards of performance, behaviour, appearance and any other personal values and needs for your well-being.

COPING ABLITIES

On the coping abilities side you have:

external coping resources: people or things that support you, such as helpful friends or family, and helpful resources such as time-saving and labour-saving equipment or people. 

internal coping resources: your own personal strengths and qualities, perhaps a positive attitude, tolerance, faith, problem-solving skills or other things.

If your demand side is balanced by your coping side, then your stress can be managed.  If  the sides are out of balance, with strong demands but weak coping resources, you could feel stressed.

Not all stress is bad.  We all need some stress to make our lives challenging and interesting.  It is when our stress exceeds our coping abilities that it becomes a problem.

What is a negative stress to one person can be a positive challenge to another.  This does not mean that if you feel stressed about something,  it is wrong.   Your stress is real and needs to be addressed, so that you can learn how to deal with it, and possibly eliminate most or all of it. 

Stressful situations cannot always be totally eliminated, but there is a lot that you can do to reduce them and cope with them, and you can sometimes make situations stress-free.

Whatever the cause of stress, and to whatever degree, it needs to be dealt with, because repeated stress can cause anxiety.  This is when we feel uneasy, tense, fearful or panicky just thinking about possible future unpleasant situations, people or events.  What we fear may not ever happen, but just the thought of it can make us feel uncomfortable.  It can start to affect our lives by making us avoid people or situations and it can also reduce our self-confidence. 

Unless the cause of the stress is discovered and dealt with, it can go on to create unpleasant physical symptoms which could lead to health problems. 

Severe and prolonged stress can often lead to depression.  Prolonged stress is when we have to deal frequently with repeated stress situations or major adjustments in our life.  These adjustments may not all be negative ones, such as illness, job loss or bereavement, but can even be positive, such as starting a better job or moving to a nicer home.  It is the accumulation of events which causes the stress.

EFFECTS OF STRESS

When there is danger or a physical threat to us, like jumping out of the way of a fast oncoming car, our body and mind go into 'fight or flight' mode. This state is our body's automatic defence mechanism to help us to cope with the threat and survive it.  It is the result of many physiological changes in our body which take place automatically when we perceive that there is a threat to us.  It's like pressing a panic button in our body which alerts all parts of our body to gear up for emergency action, either to fight or to run.   These are instinctive reactions inherited from our pre-historic ancestors, whose survival depended on overcoming danger, such as attack from wild animals. 

Some of the changes that take place include the release of extra hormones throughout our body, such as adrenalin, which prepare every cell of our body for emergency action.  Body fluids are re-directed into the bloodstream, allowing the blood to be directed to where it is needed most, such as the muscles for strength and the brain for clear decisions.  Our heart and lung functions accelerate.  Our liver releases stored energy and our physical and mental responses become sharper and more efficient.  Through these changes in body function, we experience heightened levels of energy, strength, instant reactions and clear thinking. 

Although all these physiological changes help us to cope with the stressful situation, they have many uncomfortable effects on our body, such as a dry mouth, our heart and pulse start  pounding, we become breathless, our skin gets sweaty, pale, cold and clammy, our stomach and bowels may do strange things, we may get pins and needles, aches and pains and muscle tension, and we can suffer exhaustion.

After the threat has passed, and the stress hormones have been used up, our body recovers and goes back to normal and there are no adverse effects. 

MODERN STRESS

Nowadays what mostly triggers our stress response is not physical danger, but more a threat to our well-being in the form of things that we feel unprepared to deal with, that we do not know how to cope with, and for which we have no helpful reactions.  

If our stress button is pressed frequently, and our body doesn't have a chance to rest and recover,  it is on almost continuous alert, so the effects of the physiological changes build up in our body, and we can begin to suffer anxiety, depression and health problems.  At first these health problems are mild, but then progressively more serious as we continue to experience repeated stress and fewer ways of coping with it. 

Warning signs of stress can start as mildly unpleasant health symptoms, such as headaches, blurred vision, dizziness, nausea, nervous indigestion and palpitations.  If the stress is not addressed, more severe problems may begin such as neck and back problems, ulcers, blood and heart disorders and possible eventual physical and mental breakdown.

courses in managing stress 

Our stress management courses provide numerous tools and techniques for relieving the effects of stress.  Each one targets different stress symptoms and provides effective ways of reducing and eliminating stress. 

The stress management tools and techniques we teach will always be with you, whenever you need them.  Not only will they help you to deal with many different stress symptoms, such as tension, anxiety, depression, insomnia, grief, worry, lack of confidence, lack of self-esteem, but they will also improve your overall health and well-being, and give you the energy and motivation you need to tackle the problems and challenges of daily life. 

They will also keep you motivated to continue to overcome stress in a constructive manner.  In doing so, your stress will reduce and no longer hold you back.  You will feel healthier, happier, more energetic, more positive and confident, your self-esteem will improve, and you will move forward in life. 

Have a look at our courses.