Emotional Intelligence: Stress Management
Appropriate levels of stress management show up in the form of recognition of a stressor and choice in terms of how to manage it. Inappropriate levels are evidenced by the flight or fight response. Now we all have those situations when we feel like we’ve been hit in the gut and don’t know what action to take. This is why we need people, and sometimes professionals, to help us through these difficulties. The emotional intelligence tool I use addresses 15 elements with the following three in the area of stress management:
- Flexibility: The willingness to change
- Stress Tolerance: the ability to recognize stress and take action
- Optimism: hope is at the heart of optimism or good will prevail in the end
Imagine this scenario
- Tear in your chest has caused heart problems
- You’re workplace is becoming increasingly difficult.
- Your spouse is about to have a significant surgery and you have experience when it was fatal.
- Your son has pain in his body and the doctors cannot make a diagnosis.
This happened to me in October 2014. My chest is healed. We added a layer of management to decrease my stress level. My wife’s surgery was a success and my son finally has his diagnosis – gluten intolerance. Who knew gluten intolerance attacks the nervous system?
In the movie, Tombstone, Doc Holiday says to the dead Johnny Ringo, “Poor soul, you were just too high strung…I’m afraid the strain was more than he could bear.”Click here for the video.
Inappropriate levels of stress management show up as change resistant, reluctance to follow through on a plan, agitation, a feeling of hopelessness, lacking ownership, lack of a true understanding of reality and so much more.
- What are you experiencing right now that could use a healthy dose of stress management?
- Who is processing this with you?
- Do you really want to do it alone?
- Are you willing to set your preferences aside for the good of the team?
- How open are you to change?
- Has your past taught you to think best of a bad situation or have you become a cynic?
- How do your expectations play a role in all of the above-mentioned questions?
