Stress prepares for immediate action. Stress is a natural response and has a healthy effect as long as it takes a short period of time. People and animals need stress, so the body can rely on a very fast response which for humans was very useful back in the hunting days: fighting or fleeing.
The stress reaction becomes chronic Back in the old days, when humans had to survive in the jungle, every threat - like an attack of an animal - was intense and short. But this no longer is the reality of everyday life. In our demanding daily life this system is being triggered so frequently, that it doesn’t have time to recover. Our mind continuously spots threats and feels lack of control. Stress hormones are produced continuously and won’t be broken down. As a result, chronic stress can develop. The price of stress We all know the price of stress: loss of joy, creativity and productivity. It’s an alienated feeling, as if we are being commanded by activities, not able to be in the present moment. Stress is not only a personal problem. A recent TNO-report states that between 150.000 and 300.000 employees annually call in sick due to stress. Stress is of tremendous economical concern, and seems impossible to solve. But is it really incurable? Stress doesn’t come from the outside
In most anti-stress courses participants learn to manage how their time more effectively, to say no when they run out of time and how to communicate in a clear way. That’s fine. But still these courses miss out on something essential: the simple fact that our own mind causes stress, not our demanding society. When the mind is convinced something is difficult and impossible to deal with, then it quickly switches to the stress mechanism. This is an unconscious response: suddenly you feel stressed out. The only way to control this mechanism, is to focus on the way our mind works and how it causes stress. Switching the gears of the stress mechanism
An effective way to control the stress mechanism is the training of awareness. We become aware of the mind’s tendency to wander off, it's worrying about the past and the future. Then there is a choice. Either we let automatic and unconscious stress patterns play out, or we choose to be aware of what is actually happening now. While focusing on the present moment, the mind has no time left to worry and so our stress mechanism isn’t triggered continuously anymore. Return to previous page | 