www.servantleaderstoday.com

Stress Management Series
“Understanding Stress--Study Resources” (SL#88)
by Lloyd Elder, Th.D., adapted from SkillTrack® Vol. 11 - Stress Management

For Reflection and Action: The following resources are intended to provide additional assistance in your efforts to identify and understand how stress has come into your life, pulled up a chair, and settled down to stay for a while--welcome or not. You may find many of the following insights reflected in SL#87 or elsewhere in this series of articles. Make note of your personal reflections and action as this material relates specifically to stress expressed in your life and leadership planning. Review this article until you can summarize “stress” in your life and how you respond.

1. Study Resource: Stress Warning Signals

A review abstract by Lloyd Elder from Part 4, pp. 175-285 of The Wellness Book: The Comprehensive Guide to Maintaining Health and Treating Stress-Related Illness, edited by Herbert Benson, M.D. and Eileen M. Stuart, R.N., M.S.; a Fireside Book published by Simon & Schuster; New York, 1992.

This book, resulting from 25 years of scientific research and clinical practice at the Harvard Medical School, seeks to combine the best of what you can do to enhance your health and well-being with the marvels of modern scientific health care.

Part 4, “Stress Management” (pp 175-285), is composed of six chapters: 10. Managing Stress; 11. How Thoughts Affect Health; 12. Feelings, Moods, and Attitudes; 13. Coping and Problem-Solving; 14. Communicating; and 15. Jest 'n' Joy.

Stress is part of our lives; any change is stressful because change requires us to make adaptations. What causes stress in one person can be an exciting challenge for another. This resource admits to using “stress” in the common usage as “distress”--the negative cycle of chronic or excessive stress that reduces coping and performance. However, “stress-hardiness” emphasizes the positive characteristics of stress such as control, challenge, and commitment. One psychiatrist advocates the “five L's of success,” of health and happiness: Learn, Labor, Love, Laugh, Let go.

The negative stress cycle can be avoided in the first place, but is difficult to interrupt: stress accumulates . . . activates the “fight or flight” response . . . causes stress symptoms either physical (e.g. muscle tension, pain) and/or psychological (e.g. anxiety, worry) . . . in turn increases stress. Stress warning signals may differ from one person to another, but some are common.
From p. 182 of The Wellness Book:

	Physical Symptoms
Headaches Indigestion Stomach Aches Tight Neck, Shoulders	Sweaty Palms Sleep Difficulties Dizziness Back Pain	Racing Heart Restlessness Tiredness Ringing in Ears
	Behavioral Symptoms
Excess Smoking Bossiness Compulsive Gum Chewing	Attitude Critical of Others Grinding of Teeth at Night Overuse of Alcohol	Compulsive Eating Inability to Get Things Done
	Emotional Symptoms
Crying Nervousness, Anxiety Boredom-- Feeling of No Meaning Edginess-- Ready to Explode	Feeling Powerless to Change Things Overwhelming Sense of Pressure Anger	Loneliness Unhappiness for No Reason Easily Upset
	Cognitive Sympoms
Trouble Thinking Clearly Forgetfulness Lack of Creativity	Memory Loss Inability to Make Decisions Thoughts of Running Away	Constant Worry Loss of Sense of Humor

Reflection
Do any of these stress earnings seem familiar to you?
Check the ones you experience when under stress.
Are there other stress warning signals you experience?

2. Study Resource: Symptoms of Anxiety
A study abstract prepared by Lloyd Elder from an Internet article by Archibald D. Hart, Ph.D., presented on www.troubledwith.com.

Dr. Archibald reports that anxiety symptoms fall into three categories: physiological, cognitive, and emotional. If you count the following symptoms that apply to you, you may get an idea of your stress level. The checklist is designed to communicate a variety of symptoms; the more symptoms you experience, the more likely you may need to explore treatment for anxiety-related problems. Now, the symptoms list:

Physiological symptoms
Do you feel:
- Weak all over?
- Rapid, pounding heartbeat or palpitations?
- Tightness around your chest?
- Hyperventilation (a feeling that you cannot get enough air)?
- Periodic dizziness and sweating?
- Muscle tension, aches or tremors?
- Chronic fatigue?
Cognitive symptoms
Do you think to yourself:
- I can’t carry on. I’ve got to get out of here.
- What if I make a fool of myself?
- People are looking at me all the time.
- I’m having a heart attack.
- I’m going to faint.
- I’m going crazy.
- I can’t go on alone; no one will help me.
- I can’t go out; I will lose control.
- I feel confused and can’t remember things.
Emotional symptoms
Do you think to yourself:
- I’m full of fears that I can’t get out of my mind.
- I feel like something terrible is going to happen.
- I worry excessively.
- I feel uneasy and alone a lot of the time.
- I often feel isolated, lonely, down in the dumps and depressed.
- I feel I have no control over what happens to me.
- I feel embarrassed, rejected and criticized.
- I often feel like screaming with anger.

Reflection:
Note your personal reflections, assessment, application, and action planning. Review this article until you can summarize “stress” in your life and how you respond

Close this window

© 2008 servantleaderstoday.com; hosted and copyrighted by Lloyd Elder & Associates, Inc.
For full citation of referenced works, see Bibliography/Links at www.servantleaderstoday.com
Adapted by Lloyd Elder, Th.D., Founding Director, Moench Center for Church Leadership