Stress is good for you. In the past months we have received had a lot of inquiries from companies to explain the dangers of stress and the link with burn-out.
Most people are surprised when we tell them that stress is actually good for you.
Coming from individual top sports coaching world and having worked with top musicians for two years, we now tend to treat stress and fear as our friend.
I guess I got your attention now.
The good thing about stress is that it will make your body and brain alert. It makes us ready for action, such as running away from stress or fighting the “enemy”.
In our actual life, this kind of somatic stress will lead us to a better performance. It will go away once we start moving or actually start executing our performance. SO THIS STRESS IS YOUR FRIEND.
The most important thing for employees is to recognize this kind of stress. The best thing to do is to start moving around in the office when we sense this helpful stress coming up in our body and mind. This way, the Cortisol in our body will go away and you will be in your “performance flow zone“.
Our negative stress is called cognitive stress. It’s the one that keeps us awake at night and causes long periods of extreme tension. Let’s be very clear on this: this kind of stress is NOT your friend. That’s when you need autogenic techniques (like sports, meditation,…) to get this stress out of your system.
Our colleagues from the Head Heart Brain Company made an interesting video about the difference between good and bad stress.
During stress moments, our body will release a stress hormon called Cortisol,wich will shrink our hippocampus (=our memory) and activate our “small brains”, the Amygdala, which is the fortress of our emotions.
This is why burn-out patients face short memory and emotional storms.
If you feel this or see these symptoms amongst your colleagues, go and get some help before it is too late.
Let the peace come in your mind and heart these days, may the flow be yours.