Guest blog: What is stress?

06 November 2024

Louise Newby, Head of Training at Three Eggs Training Ltd explores the nature of stress, its symptoms, and offers practical tips for managing it...

In today's fast-paced and demanding world, stress has become an all-too-common experience for many individuals. Stress can manifest in various forms and can have significant impacts on a person's physical and mental wellbeing. In the workplace, stress can affect productivity, job satisfaction and overall employee health.

What is stress?

Stress is a natural physiological and psychological response to demanding or challenging situations. It’s the body's way of mobilising resources to deal with perceived threats or pressure. Stress can arise from various sources, such as work-related issues, financial pressures, relationship difficulties, or major life changes. While some stress can be motivating and beneficial, chronic or excessive stress can have detrimental effects on health and wellbeing.

What are the symptoms of stress?

Stress can be experienced in various ways, which can be physical, emotional and behavioural, impacting different aspects of a person's wellbeing. Examples include:

Physical symptoms

• Headaches
• Fatigue
• Muscle tension
• Changes in appetite

Emotional symptoms

• Anxiety
• Irritability
• Restlessness
• Mood swings

Behavioural symptoms

• Social withdrawal
• Increased substance abuse
• Decreased productivity
• Difficulty making decisions

What can you do to manage stress?

Recognising signs of stress is an important first step in managing the symptoms.

Take a few seconds each day, perhaps whilst you’re waiting for the kettle to boil, to think about your breathing. This is a good way to recognise if stress is impacting you. If your breathing has become shallow and rapid and your shoulders are tense, you might be feeling stressed.

Try to include some breathing or relaxation exercises into your daily routine to slow your breathing down and relax your shoulders.

Talk to others about how you’re feeling and plan time to do things you enjoy so you have something to look forward to.

The Physiological Sigh

When you are in a stressful situation, or stress is building up, a really helpful technique to use is the Physiological Sigh. There’s a great video that explains the process here. In simple steps, you need to:

1. Breathe in through your nose as far as you can
2. Breathe in through your nose again
3. Breathe out through your mouth

The impact of this is to trick your brain into slowing down your heart rate, which increases when we’re stressed. Try it a couple of times, preferably when you’re sitting down and see if it makes a difference to how you’re feeling.

Final thoughts

Stress is an inevitable part of life, but it is essential to recognise and manage it effectively, especially in the workplace, so that you can continue to thrive and enjoy your career to your full potential. By taking steps to manage stress as part of your daily routine, you will reduce the impact it has on your overall wellbeing.

Louise Newby is a mental health trainer who works for Three Eggs Training Ltd.  Louise delivers workplace mental health and neurodiversity training courses to private and public sector organisations in the UK and overseas.

www.threeeggs.co.uk

[email protected]