Science shows us the more sustained our stress is the more we…

• Make poor decisions-reduce memory

• Affect sleep quality

• Reduce empathy for another

• Become more selfish

This is to name a few of a long list.

When I talk about sustained stress I’m of course not talking the ‘temporary’ out of control feeling that you get on a roller coaster.

Stress can be measured on how out of ‘control’ you feel and the associated risk attached.

So a rollercoaster hits both lack of control and slight risk but many find it FUN.

Yet, financial struggle in a struggling economy shoots many people off the scale of stress and how sustained it is.

When I work with professionals and clients I always want them to understand that we as humans have amazing abilities yet sustained stress makes us dumb.

Literally.

As with anything, the body will re-regulate, so if you have sustained stress over a long period you don’t just suffer the effect of the ‘event’, it’s affects the pathways in the body.

Some key areas would be lack of drive or contentment for life

Lowered sexual function and drive

Depression due to over stimulation of neurotransmitter pathways.

Again, just to name a few!

People try all sorts to combat stress but what we do most often which is kind of depressing is ‘project’ our stress on another.

As Dr R.Salposky said “We’d rather give another an ulcer than have our own’.

Stress over a long period doesn’t just contribute to every metabolic illness, it pushes away the people that you care about.

People think meditation or exercise is enough, yet look at stress rates, they just rise and rise.

I believe one of the key things we are missing is understanding of WHY we respond to stress in the way we do.

Whether Marta and I deal with corporate clients, pro athletes or professionals we always want them to understand their BEHAVIOUR and its triggers.

You don’t actually make a choice on behaviour in the moment, that’s just neurotransmitters firing,

You don’t even make it a few hours to days before, that’s just hormonal pathways…

Our behaviours around stress are patterned long before we can imagine.

Thus, simple ‘habit’ change work like ‘morning routine’ without letting someone know why they will likely give up is in my opinion fruitless.

When you can understand behaviours and what contributes to them, you take back power.

More importantly you can contextualise fear.

See it differently and EXPERIENCE it differently.

Pain?

Anxiety?

Food and drink habits?

Money stuff?

I can keep going Let me break this down a little as I get that the first line may seem like conscious riddles…

You know the thing you say you don’t want in your life anymore

The stuff that you keep working on

Yet somehow

Somewhere

In the middle of a conversation With a friend

Or a stranger

Slip out

You tell your story

And bang there’s the validation

There’s the connection

You unconsciously seek

And then you may or may not realise

Right after

Or a little while later

And you say to yourself

Why the fuck did I just speak about it?

I say I don’t want it in my life anymore

Yet I keep going on about it…Doh!

It could be a birthday party

Or a work do

Or a coffee you’re having with a friend on a weekend afternoon

And they mention something about their pain here and there

And you right away chime in about yours

Or Someone mentions something about anxiety

And you know you want to get over it in your life

Yet you use it as a validation to get things your way

Or to connect with people ‘feeling your pain’

See what I mean here?

Here’s your chance to come clean

To make a statement

To be vulnerable

And to share

Your commitment

To respond differently to an old trigger

It’s a challenge to our ego

It’s a challenge to our stories

You can play the child, You can play the victim,

Yet when you strip it back to bare bones

The question ultimately always is

What are you going to do about it?!

M x