Stress Management
What Is Stress?
The dictionary defines stress as –
“a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances.”
Stress is a normal part of life. If we are in a threatening situation, we respond with the Fight or Flight Syndrome, which is an instinctual reaction to danger. However, sometimes this response is triggered by a situation that is stressful, but not life-threatening. It can be set off by feelings, ideas, memories and expectations, and for many people stress can become a normal reaction to many life situations.
Stress can affect us in many different ways and is one of the most common problems treated by doctors in the Western world.
What is Stress Management?
In stress management, we don’t attempt to eliminate stress, but instead, learn to manage it better and therefore ease the physical, mental and emotional symptoms.
We will identify stress levels and cause(s) of stress and then take positive actions to help you manage your daily stress in a more positive way.
Stress Management works by breaking down the Fight or Flight response into three inter-related systems: our thoughts; the physical changes which take place in our bodies; the behaviour which results from these.
When we experience stress our thoughts are of perceived danger.
Such thinking creates the physical changes we associate with fear or panic, and this in turn, may result in behaviour which causes more stress. In Stress Management, we can learn to create relaxed and positive habits of thought and we can learn techniques of physical relaxation.
Stress Management can achieve these results by a logical sequence of training in the areas of muscular and mental relaxation, deep breathing and breath control techniques, discovering and challenging negative thinking patterns, positive thinking and the development of self-confidence.
Each session includes an Information Giving and a Stress Management Relaxation exercise. The Information Giving describes the origins and expressions of the symptoms of stress, and explains how we can learn to control, or manage, these symptoms. Research shows that the greater the understanding that individuals have about stress, the better they are able to manage it effectively.
The Stress Management exercise should be practised daily until the next session.
◦Talk through your problems and learn ways to identify your stressors & stress levels in your life.
◦Learn the different ways you can treat stress positively & effectively.
◦Practice simple relaxation techniques & leave feeling calm, revitalized & able to take control again.
Stress Management really can help you to change, but it takes practise, hard work and commitment.
*Stress Management is run as a course of six 1 hour sessions, at a cost of £35.00 per session, or £195.00 for all 6 if paid in advance, saving you £15.00.
