Pressure Point

Kerry Fallon Horgan is interviewed by Lollie Barr for Body & Soul, The Sunday Telegraph Newspaper

Feel like the stress monster is going to gobble you up? Never fear, there are ways to turn a stressful work situation into a positive burst of adrenaline. You feel the pressure mounting. Your boss is breathing hard down your neck, yelling about deadlines, productivity and that report she asked for two days ago. Suddenly, your workload is simply overwhelming. Your “fight or flight” response kicks in, causing the release of adrenaline in your body. Your heartbeat quickens, your blood pressure rises and your breathing speeds up – and you’re back in familiar territory: stressed out.

But not all stress is bad; stress actually allows you to stay sharp and focused for a short, intense time. “Your body is pumping adrenaline to confront whatever is making those demands,” says Kerry Fallon Horgan, managing partner of Flexibility At Work and author of Time On, Time Out! Flexible Work Solutions To Keep Your Life In Balance (Allen & Unwin). “However, problems arise when there is little or no recovery time between stressful events and your body never gets back to equilibrium”.

The result? In the short term, physical and mental exhaustion, a weakened immune system, and losss of energy, ability to function and make decisions effectively. The consequence of long-term stress can be depression, addictions, job loss, family breakdown, cancer, high blood pressure and heart disease.

If you suffer from stress, you’re not alone; one in three adults suffers from work-related stress, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2001. And the National Occupational Health and Safety Commission reports that mental stress now accounts for six per cent of all injury claims, up from three per cent in 1997/98. But in dollar terms it represents 21 per cent of all claims ($200 million a year). And you can forget the myth of that laid-back Aussie attitude to work; statistics from WorkCover show that worker’s compensation claims for stress-related illness have risen by 400 per cent in the past 10 years. Hardly surprising, when you consider the fact that Australians work the second-longest hours in the OECD (an organisation of the world’s top 30 industrial nations), just behind our workaholic American cousins.

In a world of globalization, economic rationalism, downsizing and longer working hours, there’s just no getting away from stress – but it’s how you deal with it that counts. “When you’re under pressure, having a positive and stable stress response will enable you to go with the flow,” says Fallon Horgan. “The effects of stress depend a great deal on how you think of it. Is it an ordeal or a stimulating challenge? You can turn your stress into a motivator by consciously choosing to view situations in a positive light. Negative self-talk only exacerbates stress. If you focus on the negative, expect high stress levels.”

The trick is to ride the buzz of adrenaline, without allowing yourself to topple into negative stress – where you become angry, emotional or fuzzy headed and unable to deal with the situation. “Check in with your body and learn to recognize the physical signs of stress, such as churning in the stomach, heart palpitations, tension in the neck and shoulders and sweating, and take steps to alleviate stress before you’re in the middle of a stress attack,” says Fallon Horgan. “To keep clear-headed and focused, it’s as simple as undertaking some deep abdominal breathing for a couple of minutes. Lack of oxygen is a stress amplifier and hinders our coping power and effectiveness. Or, by removing yourself from the situation for a few minutes, you can effectively see where your priorities lie.”

The corporate world is tackling stress by offering meditation classes. Former lawyer Sandy Wright is now a stress-management consultant who teaches meditation in the corporate sector. “Meditation is a holiday for your mind,” says Wright. “Once you start meditating daily – even for 10 minutes – you’ll develop a clearer, more focused way of thinking. Meditation means you move from living in overdrive – where the smallest thing becomes important – and gives you the time and space to be able to see the bigger picture when stress does hit. You make that choice: ‘Am I going to let stress tip me over the edge, or am I going to give myself a few minutes to stand back from the stress, allow myself to have some clarity and focus on positively resolving the situation?’ It’s a choice of whether you’ll try to keep a healthy and balanced mental attitude to work and life or not.”

And isn’t a healthy balance what we all really want? After all, only you can make the decision to control the things that you do have power over and let go of the things you don’t. (Abridged version, for the full article email kerry@flexibility.com.au)

Sandy Wright’s excellent CD “A Taste of Meditation” is now available from Flexibility At Work. Order the meditation CD or our book, audio and video on work/life balance at www.flexibility.com.au

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