STRESS MANAGEMENT

According to the NHS Health Encylopaedia

Stress can be defined as the way you feel when you're under too much pressure.

Research suggests that a moderate amount of pressure can be positive, making us more alert, helping to keep us motivated, and making us perform better. However, too much pressure, or prolonged pressure, can lead to stress. Stress can cause illness and physical and emotional problems.

Research has shown that around 12 million adults see their GP with mental health problems each year. Most of these suffer from anxiety and depression, much of it stress-related.

As most people are aware of what stress is and how it affects them instead of reiterating the list of symptoms and so forth, we will go straight into dealing with stress.

In Chanquanshu we look at dealing with the problems of stress from an holistic, mind-body, direction and we consider the stress condition to have three stages.

Stage 1: Yin - Onset (mind)
In this stage the two types of “stressors” (Internal Stressors, thoughts and negative attitudes and, External Stressors, specific events or conditions), can trigger stress and induce a stressful response in proportion to the perception of that stressor. For some people this is a negative response but for others it may have a positive outcome.

Stage 2: Yang - Fight or Flight (body)
In this stage the fight or flight syndrome is activated and the automatic nervous system swings into action. The activities of the automatic nervous system are regulated by the hypothalamus, which prepares you to deal with stress by shifting blood to your heart so it can beat faster and help you flee from danger or prepares you to defend your self by releasing hormones into your system. The sympathetic nervous system carries these hormones to various parts of the body so you can respond more effectively to your stressor. The pituitary gland and the adrenal glands also produce the hormones noradrenaline and adrenaline, which prepare the body to respond physiologically to the presence of stress.

Stage 3: Collapsing or Coping
In this stage, should a stressful situation continue, the body has to continue to adapt to the stressor and eventually exhaust itself or find some mechanism for coping with the situation.

The methods used for coping with stress in Chanquanshu fall into Yin, stress prevention, and Yang, stress relief, categories which correspond to stage 1 and 2 above.

Stress Relief is designed to deal with Stage 2 situations. Because the body systems are moved into ‘overdrive’ at Stage 2 stress relief methods are yang in nature and involves a certain amount of physical exertion in order to respond positively to the flight or flight expectations of the body.

Stress Prevention on the other hand is designed to be used during Stage 1 conditions. Adhering to the old Chinese belief that prevention is better than cure, stress prevention is yin in nature compared to stress relief and is designed to calm the mind down at stress onset and alter our perception of that stress to give a positive result.

Once the stressor and the stress response have been removed, then the body should return to its original state and resume its normal activity.

For more information on Chanquanshu Stress Management courses and seminars, or to book onsite courses and seminars,
Email: Chanquanshu Stress Management