More than 50 years ago, Hans Selye, the father of modern stress research, defined stress as “the body’s non-specific response to any demand.” This way of looking at stress implied that any demand that threw your body out of balance, whether it was positive (you inherit $ 1,000,000, etc.) or negative (you lose your job, etc.), would trigger a stress response. While this was a pioneering insight 50 years ago, current research from the fields of brain psychology and physiology has shown that it’s not demand that triggers stress, it’s what your mind tells you about demand from your dialogue. internal, which triggers your stress response.

When you are exposed to a potential stressor, there is a transaction in your mind between it and your internal dialogue about how threatening it is and whether or not you can deal with it. Two questions related to stressful potential flash through your mind; “Is it threatening?” And “Can I face it?” If you answer “Yes, it’s a threat” and “No, I can’t take it,” your brain will trigger a stress response. If you say to yourself “No, it is not a threat” and “Yes, I can handle it”, your mind does not trigger a stress response. Lastly, if you feel like something is threatening but you can cope and say to yourself, “Yes, this is threatening, but I can cope,” your mind will not trigger a stress response.

Defining stress as a transaction between you and a potential stressor is a whole new way of looking at stress. It puts you in the driver’s seat to determine if a potential stressor becomes an actual stressor and triggers a stress response. In other words, the jump from a potential stressor to a stress response doesn’t happen automatically. Your mind determines how threatening a potential stressor really is and assesses the resources you have to deal with it. Since viewing stress in this way begins with your perception of the threat and your ability to cope with it, you can short-circuit the stress response by precisely measuring the threat that a potential stressor actually poses and your ability to cope with it. Most people overestimate the threat posed by potential stressors and underestimate their ability to cope. Even if you are like most people in this regard, you can LEARN HOW to improve your ability to measure threat and your ability to deal with it more accurately by mastering certain cognitive and behavioral skills.

Cognitive skills revolve around rethinking or changing the way you think about potential stressors. They focus on improving your mind’s ability to think more clearly about potential stressors, the threat they really pose, and your ability to cope with them. Behavioral skills teach you how to relax your body and release tension, how to reduce excessive demands on your time and life, and how to set and achieve goals based on your values ​​and what is most important to you in life. Both skill sets will help you feel less threatened by potential stressors and better able to cope with them.

The five R’s of dealing with stress

I have incorporated cognitive and behavioral skills into an approach to managing stress that relies on helping you more accurately assess threat and develop a personal toolbox of coping strategies to deal with stressors. The approach I have used with thousands of students and clients revolves around a five-level stress defense system called the Five Rs of Coping. Each “R” represents a different approach to reducing threat and improving coping. The five R’s; Rethink, relax, release, reduce, and reorganize, combine synergistically to give you a more flexible stress-coping system that can be used to combat whatever stressors you will encounter.

Rethink

There are three components to rethinking your stress. The first involves understanding how your mind works when stressed. It is based on principles of Relational Frame Theory (RFT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). The second examines how your values, goals, and views about your life relate to your stress. It also emphasizes the importance of clarifying your values ​​and setting value-based goals. The third component involves learning to harness the power of the mind to handle stressful thinking.

take it easy

The relaxed state and the stressed state are incompatible. You cannot be relaxed and stressed at the same time. This “R” revolves around learning four proven relaxation strategies that will help put your body in a relaxed state that is incompatible with stress.

Launch

The stress response results in the mobilization of tension and energy. A simple but effective way to manage stress is to use mild, moderate, vigorous, and cathartic physical activity to dissipate the tension and energy mobilized during the stress response.

Reduce

Challenge is a concept that has replaced the notion of good stress or what Selye called “eustress.” You can turn potential stressors into challenges by finding your optimal level of demand and stimulation. This is the point where you are involved in just the right amount of different activities to be challenged by the demands of your life, not stressed by them.

Reorganize

Stress transactions don’t happen in a vacuum. They are influenced by your general level of health at the time of your exposure to potential stressors. Reorganize helps you manage stress by showing you how to incorporate resilient health habits to reduce stress into your daily routine.

Develop a personal stress management plan

Since stress is such a personal phenomenon determined by the way your mind views the threat and your ability to cope with it, your stress management plan must accommodate this. Each “R” under the five Rs contains several different strategies for managing stress. You can choose strategies from each of the Five Rs to develop a multi-layered self defense system against stress that you can use to manage all of your potential stressors.

The next seven articles in this series will show you how to do just that. I hope you follow the series and start to take care of your stress.

Sincerely,

Dr. Rich Blonna