The need of stress management
The ability to manage pressure has always been a central element of growth and success. As seen in society, the most effective and fast-moving individuals all share the unique ability to handle acute stress levels without it having a major influence on their results. Conversely, there are many who find themselves at the whims of stress and become flooded with the uncomfortable feelings when it arises in life. Ultimately, stress is something we face daily, and to varying degrees, depending on the intensity of a given thought or event. Everyone shares this, and there exists no human mind that is not subject to a stress reaction. However, the level and length of exposure have great significance on the consequent impact. The theory is that with prolonged exposure, our baseline of stress increases gradually, leading to the development of psychological distress if there is no coping strategy in place to handle the consistent pressure. Accordingly, managing stress and moving through stressful situations with efficiency is a high-demand skill that makes us mediate the degree to which stress impacts our mind and behavior.
Over the following essay, we will discuss the various elements surrounding stress and the approaches to manage it effectively. Additionally, we will explore stress management through the two crucial interrelated topics of mental resilience and emotional regulation. To begin, we will provide a quick overview of the science behind stress and how it affects the brain and body. Following this, we will describe the benefits of effective stress management and how it can be cultivated.
Stress – what is it?
We have mentioned stress and its effect on the human mind. However, what is stress at its base? Moreover, which neurochemical processes create the stress response that we all experience? To better understand the function of stress, we must first understand its evolutionary purpose.
Most simply put, when the environment demands more than what we have at the moment, we experience stress. More scientifically stated, stress is a natural response that arises to support us in coping with situations that require action or defense (Worthman, 2015). Essentially, it is signal that indicates to the mind and body that an action is required to handle the circumstances (Nesse et al., 2016).
In itself, this process is highly beneficial to many aspects of human functioning, as stress in these cases can create motivation to get a promotion at work, finish a difficult physical task, or get fight ready in a competition. Basically, it makes us care about and attend to important things that demand our attention.
In more severe or prolonged cases of stress, however, the event can activate our sympathetic nervous system, producing the infamous fight-or-flight response (Nesse et al., 2016). This response acts as a survival mechanism that helps us fight a given threat or flee to safety if the opportunity presents itself. This model has been extended over the years with additional response types, including freeze, fawn, faint, etc.
All these processes are adaptive in nature, meaning they serve a fundamental evolutionary purpose to ensure our survival. However, if the stress response becomes chronic (e.g., persistent), or the level of it is unmanageable for us in our current condition, the long-term impact of neurochemical and physiological impacts can generate adverse effects on our brain and body (Azza et al., 2020). This is because stress responses are marked by the production of specific hormones such as norepinephrine (i.e., adrenaline) and cortisol that prompt our bodies into action. Despite their short-term adaptive purpose, having these hormones consistently released into the body can abnormally increase our heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure, leading to changes in how our brain receives its blood supply (Goldstein, 2011). Remember that the brain is meant to stay within a balanced state, called homeostasis, otherwise it cannot undertake its neurological functions effectively. Hence, if the brain is continuously pumped with adrenaline and cortisol, our neurological processes begin to work in a dysfunctional way. Researchers attribute numerous psychological distress to the brain’s inability to return to homeostasis, claiming that prolonged stress response can lead to severe consequences such as depression, anxiety and hypertension (Romero et al., 2009).
How we experience stress
It’s a vital skill to learn how to effectively manage stress in order to stay physically and psychologically healthy. Not only does stress dysregulate homeostasis and change the condition of the body, but it also leads to a cascade of various emotional and psychological reactions. Stress can induce anger, fear, anxiety, and confusion – emotions that make normal functioning difficult and burdensome (Zautra, 2003). Hence, we must learn how to manage our levels of stress in response to environmental impact in a way that helps us avoid those negative feelings and regain agency over our bodies and minds. For many, it isn’t easy to control strong feelings and emotions, and oftentimes, people find themselves mentally swayed by such feelings when they arise. Effectively, this is primarily due to the lack of access to knowledge and specific techniques required to manage difficult feelings, and highlights the need for them to be purposefully acquired.
The primary issue in managing stress is how powerful the reaction is in the body. To reiterate, when the body feels threatened, the parasympathetic system will activate the fight-or-flight response, leading to the release of stress hormones (cortisol, norepinephrine, and adrenaline), causing increased heart rate, blood sugar level, and blood pressure. These contribute to decreased appetite, reduced need for sleep, and a faster heart rate – side effects produced by the stress response (Gross, 2001). Psychologically, this response is marked by a spike of fear and anxiety due to the production of stress hormones (Nesse et al., 2016). Research into the neurobiological origins of stress has shown that stress and anxiety share similar underlying neural circuits and are highly intertwined (Daviu et al., 2019).
As we can see, our condition significantly deviates from our normal physiological and psychological processes under stress. This significant deviation is precisely what makes stress hard to manage, as the acute sensations that arise possess a powerful influence over our minds and bodies.
The general principles of stress management
Managing stress can be boiled down to implementing adaptive coping mechanisms to minimize the change induced in our physical, emotional, and psychological conditions. It is essential to note that stress management does not entail removing the experience of stress altogether, as this is impossible. Most stress management models agree that there is no getting rid of the fight-or-flight response (Goldstein & McEwen, 2002). However, effective stress management can ensure that the psychological, emotional, and physiological impacts are significantly reduced.
More specifically, stress management involves developing coping mechanisms that do not allow the stress response to translate into overwhelming experiences, thus improving homeostasis and everyday functioning (Holton et al., 2016).
The concept of stress management also highlights a conscious effort to shape how you will allow stressful events to affect you or not. It means working towards having conscious control over your own outcomes instead of being at the whims of any random events.
Basic techniques
Stress management is an umbrella term that encompasses a broad range of practices and techniques. Ranging from general physical exercise to ancient spiritual teachings, the list of stress management techniques is extensive and has been taught throughout the ages (Baqutayan, 2015). At the baseline, we can reduce stress through relatively simple approaches such as mindfulness practices, self-care practices, and even exposure to the sun. These practices revolve around evoking calming emotions via internal and/or external sensations.
In research, hundreds of additional techniques have been shown to reduce stress levels. These include getting good sleep, eating well, meditating, and spending time in nature. Techniques such as these, that mainly approach stress from the physical self-nurturing side, are simple and available to anyone who seeks to mitigate the stress levels that they feel on a day-to-day basis. However, it needs to be acknowledged, that they have a limited impact on high level of stress or prolonged exposure to stress, as they neither change the circumstances responsible for the stress nor the cognitive processes that deal with the events.
Advanced techniques
There are areas of stress management that go beyond simple techniques and involve highly dynamic processes that have been shown to act as robust inhibitors of stress. In the case of high-intensity sports, high-performing or high-responsibility fields, we’re talking about positions that come with excessive exposure and accordingly require advanced stress management abilities. Stress within these contexts is enormous, and equally strong management techniques must be implemented to cope with it. Research has highlighted two crucial processes that have been shown to effectively manage high-stress environments such as these: Mental Resilience (literature review on mental resilience) and Emotional Control (literature review on emotional governance).
Stress management and mental resilience
Mental Resilience (often referred to as mental strength) can be broadly defined as the process by which someone can confront and adapt to difficult experiences by recruiting mental, emotional, and behavioral flexibility in response to external and internal demands (APA, 2014). Considering this, a mentally resilient person is someone who can sustain performance, achieve goals, thrive, and persevere while facing high degrees of pressure (Cowden, Anshel & Fuller, 2014; Hardy et al., 2014).
Research has demonstrated that aspects of mental resilience arise from situational factors such as adversity (Guillen & Laborde, 2014). More specifically, studies have shown that being faced with stress and psychological challenges, when they come in manageable doses and are reflected on properly afterwards, can prompt the development of mental resilience (Gucciardi et al., 2008).
One distinction that has to be made is that mental resilience does not always arise out of stress and adversity. The deciding factor that prompts it is how one copes with the stress at hand, called adaptive coping. Research suggests that those who take on stress voluntarily and strategically, hence are prepared for it upfront, and take a proactive stance to overcome the uncomfortable feelings that arise during stressful events, will be more predisposed to develop resilience to it in the future (Bennet et al., 2018). Conversely, if one attempts to avoid stress and pressure when confronted with it, or is inadvertently exposed to too much of it, they risk being more psychologically and physiologically vulnerable to the stress response (Berman et al., 2010).
The approach that is linked to mental resilience and stress is called habituation, which is essentially how the mind adapts to acute stress through progressive exposure to it (Bennet et al., 2018). When individuals voluntarily undergo stressful experiences, this indicates to the mind that there is less threat present, which basically perceived as a safety net for the brain, and therefore, less of a need to produce stress-related hormones such as cortisol.
Stress management and emotional governance
Stress is strongly linked to our emotions. When stress is high, it often results in the emergence of negative emotions such as anger and fear, which create further stress for the brain and the body. For those seeking to improve their everyday functioning, emotions must remain regulated. It is also vital to mention, that emotions are very influential to others, and the way our emotions are expressed can be significantly overwhelming to the people around us and can impact how they think and feel. Accordingly, for most people who find themselves in professional or social contexts that involve leadership or some other form of responsibility for others, it is crucial that their emotional state is well governed. Maintaining mental resilience can contribute to this and vice versa. Put simply, emotional regulation supports mental resilience, and mental resilience supports emotional governance.
Effectively, research has shown that emotional regulation techniques can significantly reduce the impact of perceived stress in one’s life. Many emotional regulation strategies have been proposed over the years. However, the most valid approach can be boiled down to leveraging two main strategies, one of which is buffering by evoking soothing emotions, serving as an immediate regulation method, while the other is cognitive reappraisal that helps the individual reinterpret emotional experiences through a positive lens instead of a negative one(Moore et al., 2008). This is a complex practice and commonly involves some form of structured program or the guidance of a cognitive behavioral professional.
The bottom line
Stress management is an extensively researched topic with an exhaustive list of techniques that offer some level of stress management. Research has proposed two linked processes that help effective stress management. The first is through the cultivation of mental resilience. The capacity to endure and confront challenging experiences is significantly associated with effective stress management. Most people in the highest tier of human performance, such as elite athletes, government and special operation officers, leaders, and entrepreneurs ideally possess exceptional stress management skills. However, their skills must be learned and maintained over multiple periods of adversity and challenge until they are adequately habituated and coped with. The second process that is linked to stress management is how we regulate our emotions. Research has shown that negative emotions and stress overlap in many aspects. Considering this, if we can build a practice to minimize them, we will escape the discomfort caused by acute stress.
Through these processes, the findings agree that you will be able to develop an effective layer of stress management that will allow you to improve your everyday functioning. In the end, stress is a debilitating experience that has the capacity to inhibit many of life’s positive aspects.
References
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