Emotional Resilience & Stress: Using Stress to Achieve Peak Performance

1. Emotional Resilience & Stress: Using Stress to Achieve Peak Performance Presenter: Kelsey loushin, licdc-cs, cdp Counselor, coach, professional speaker

2. agenda Stress Biology Thinking Results

3. What is stress anyway? Body’s natural defense againstrealor imagined danger. Body flushed with hormones to prepare systems to evade or confront danger (fight or flight). The body is an intelligent operating system, but can’t determine the difference between life threatening external threat from imagined or perceived non-life threatening stressors.  The body reacts the same either way.   The body produces significantly greater quantities of the chemicals cortisol, adrenaline, &noradrenaline.

4. The first date the scary movie

5. Types: Acute stress Usually brief, most common & frequent. Most often caused by reactive thinking. Negative thoughts predominate about recent situations or events, or upcoming situations, events, or demands in the near future.

6. Examples of acute stress Recent argument &/or negative repetitive thoughts about the argument. Upcoming work deadline, again the stress is thought induced. However, when thinking induced stress is reduced or removed the stress will subside too. 

7. EPISODIC ACUTE STRESS  Frequentacute stress. Often live a life of chaos &crisis. Always in a rush or feel pressured. Take on many responsibilities, usually don’t stay organized. Perpetually in the grips of acute stress overload.

8. Episodic acute stress types (2) main personality types frequently present with Episodic Acute Stress: 1) “Type A” personality 2) The “Worrier” Type A: Excessive competitive drive, aggressiveness, impatience, abrupt, & sense of time urgency. React with hostility, & almost always a deep-seated insecurity about performance. Type A’s are significantly likely to develop coronary heart disease.

9. The Worrier:Incessant negative thoughts. “Worry warts” project probable disaster & negatively, forecast catastrophe in most situations. Believe the world is dangerous, unrewarding & punitive & something awful is always about to happen. Negative binge thinkers, tend to be over aroused & tense, more anxious & depressed than angry & hostile. Thoughts are frequently filled with “What if….” statements projected with negative outcomes.

10. CHRONIC STRESS Most harmful type. Left untreated over a long period of time, can significantly &often irreversibly damage physical health &deteriorate mental health. Long term poverty, repeated abuse in any form, unemployment, dysfunctional family, poor work environment, substance abuse, or an unhappy marriage can cause significant chronic stress. Can also occur when an individual feels hopeless, does not see an escape from the cause of stress, &gives up on seeking solutions.

11. Can be caused by aversive experiences in childhood or traumatic experiences. When living with chronic stress, behavioral actions & emotional reactions become ingrained. The neurobiology of the brain & body change. Constantly prone to hazardous stress effects on the body regardless of the scenarios.

12. Which of these stress have you experienced in the last year?

13. How you think about stress matters! A study tracked 30,000 adults in the US for 8 years. The question was asked "How much stress have youexperienced in the last year?“ Then "Do you believe that stress is harmful for your health?“ And then used public death records to find out who died.

14. Findings… People who experienced a lot of stress in the previous year had a 43% increased risk of dying. HOWEVER…. That was only true for the people who also believed that stressis harmful for your health. People who didn’t believe that stress was harmful actually had the lowest levels of death…

15. Over 8 years of the study, researches suggest 182,000 deaths occurred prematurely for those who believedstress was bad for them! This suggests changing our thoughts about stress can change our physical response to stress! Therefore, we encounter a stress producing situation & notice our common physical responses; heart racing, sweaty palms, racing thoughts…We mustconvert our thoughts: my heart pounding means: “I feel energized, I have an opportunity, I’m going to be great at this, I’ve got this!” When you think it, your body responds accordingly! This changed thinking results in improved physical response!

16. Stress also makes you social! Enters the Neuro Hormone Oxytocin AKA “the cuddle hormone”. Gets released through human connection. Fine tunes our brain’s social instincts & primes us to do things that strengthen close relationships. Makes us crave social contact, produces empathy & reach out to help & support. Produced by Pituitary Gland & pumped out during stress responses… When it’s released it’s motivating us to seek support! It also motivates us to reach out to support those wecare about.

17. Oxytocin also supports the body & the cardiovascular system during stress. Helps us stay relaxed during stress, reduces the size of blood vessels. Helps heart heal from any stress-induced damage, it has natural receptors for his hormone & strengthens the heart. When you reach out, either for yourself or another, you release more & your stress response becomes healthier &you heal faster. This is built in stress resilience!

18. Caregiving & stress Another study of 1000 adults studied stress & caregiving. For very major life experience; financial, family crisis, etc. Death risks went up 30%....however, those who were caring for others showed absolutely no increase in death risks! When we choose to view our stress response as helpful & when we choose to connect with others under stress, we can create resilience. How wethink & how weact can transform our stress experience!

19. resilience The process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress. Family & relationship problems, serious health problems or workplace & financial stressors. It means "bouncing back" from difficult experiences.

20. Research shows resilience is ordinary, not extraordinary! Wecommonly demonstrate it. One example; response of Americans to 911 terrorist attacks & how people rebuilt their lives. Resilience is not a trait that people either have or do not have. It involves behaviors, thoughts and actions that can be learned &developed in anyone.

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