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Guest post by: Joseph Giove Become an Author

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Most discussion surrounding stress in the workplace is centered on the environment that creates stress, and how to modify that environment, i.e., management style, employee recognition, adjusting workloads, etc., to make it less stressful for the employee. While this approach can influence stress levels in the workplace, it takes nothing short of an organizational restructuring and change in management style to accomplish this. What is easier to achieve, and the focus of our work, is how a person responds to the various pressures of modern work life. The good news is that you can learn skills that reduce stress levels without a change in the workplace. This article addresses some common misunderstandings about stress in the workplace and introduces you to the philosophy behind our in-house corporate workshops…a program that can implement a highly effective stress reduction strategy for your firm.

Simply put, stress is what you feel when the demands on your life exceed your ability to meet those demands. It is the combination of psychological, physiological and behavioral responses that people have to events that threaten or challenge them. These challenges or demands trigger the feelings of stress.

Stressors can be external, such as the death of a loved one or a sudden change in your company’s management, or they can be internal, such as an illness or habitual worrying. Interestingly, the human body does not discriminate between internal and external stressors; at the personal level they both negatively impact your health if not handled properly. At the corporate level they directly impact the bottom line.

It is important to note that not all stress is bad; in fact, the good kind of stress is called eustress, and is vital for all facets of human growth and health. A baby needs to be challenged by obstacles and unmet desires in order to develop walking skills, a high achiever needs challenges and their stresses to excel, and the athlete surely requires the stress of competition to achieve peak performance.

The unhealthy kind of stress is called distress; the kind that most people usually refer to when using the word "stress." Stress becomes unhealthy when your personal capacity to handle stress is exceeded for a length of time that allows adverse psychological, physiological or behavioral patterns to establish themselves in your body and life. The key phrase here is "personal capacity," which is as unique as one's fingerprints. Therefore, there is no value in comparing one person's stress-capacity to another.

The key to living a healthy, productive life is not being stress-free; rather, it is understanding your capacity for handling stress, in other words, to know your limits. It is applying proven techniques for discharging the excess stress in your life. It is that simple, but not necessarily easy without expert help. By applying skilled relaxation techniques you will understand the impact of stress on your physical and psychological makeup. This will motivate you to use proven stress reduction techniques that can be applied in any environment or circumstance.

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