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Stress is a fact of life. Stress is also one of the major causes of lost time at work as well as having a major impact on family and personal life. Your response to stress in your life determines whether you are managing your stress or not. People’s typical patterns of thinking of the past or imagining the future may trigger stress responses at any time or in any place. Stress responses are often triggered without a person knowing what to do about the extra chemical energy produced by the body. The main chemicals involved are adrenalin (epinephrine) and cortisol (stress hormone). Stress responses can use a lot of energy and leave a person feeling drained, tired and unable to manage their lives in a constructive way.
 Sometimes, people need to look at the positive events rather than the negative factors in their lives. Negative thoughts only breed more negative thoughts and can result in a vicious cycle. So, in some ways, a person can “think” themselves well and be able to manage stress more constructively. Control of one’s life situations can be part of an individual’s stress management strategies. The big problem for most people is being able to determine what they can and can’t control in their lives. People can get into trouble attempting to control things or people that are well beyond their control.
The Stress Management course offered at the Personal Development Centre educates participants on how their thought processes in relation to control issues, may be coming from previous experiences or belief systems they grew up with. Often the clients think these beliefs are their own, when in fact, they have been learned. The Stress Management sessions are geared to help people challenge beliefs that are no longer working for them, and change them to fit the individual. The Stress Management course also looks at personality types and how the characteristics of specific personality types (Type A or Type B) may be affecting their stress levels. The sessions also deal with how to change thoughts and behaviour that may be responsible for increasing the person’s stress level.
Not all stress has a negative effect on our lives. People often do not realize that stress can play a big part in motivating a person to get things done and accomplish great things.
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