• Stress Free Do you suffer from mental and/or emotional stress?
• Are you familiar with the fight/flight/freeze response?
• Do you often feel worn out, tired and fed up of feeling overwhelmed?
• Are you ready to do something about it?

Stress Free We can help you to switch off the hormones of stress, physically relax, become mentally calm and emotionally tranquil, whilst you learn the skills of effective stress management.

Who gets stressed?

Stress can affect people of any age, children and adults alike. We now live in a society where most people have mobile phones or smart phones, receive e-mail instantly, are on call for family/friends/work, surf the internet anytime, anywhere. We are bombarded by information which can lead to overload. Many people work longer hours, most women have careers and bring up a family, most men are expected to provide every new type of convenience or gadget to make things easier and better, having a greater amount of responsibility placed upon them. We often over commit ourselves to taking on too much and end up running our batteries down to almost empty. Is it any wonder that stress and anxiety has become so widespread?

Super Stress

Some stress is normal and exciting. Life could be boring if everything always went along smoothly. Our bodies are hardwired to cope with stress, but we are biologically ill-equipped to deal with the high levels of stress that has become the norm for many people today.

The hormonal surge of adrenalin, our instinctive fight-or-flight response, can often be triggered so many times a day that it stays on almost permanently. This type of Super Stress can result in very serious symptoms like immune deficiencies, high blood pressure, weight gain, insomnia and more. Think of how Stress is holding you back from enjoying life to the full. What would your life be like without the stress? How would things be different?

Stress Can Upset Your Sense of Balance

Many people who come to see me for stress reduction are negatively affected by the behaviour of other people around them, and as a result they find themselves at the receiving end of the hormonal surge of adrenalin, one of the hormones involved in the fight-or-flight response.

If this response is triggered many times a day, on a daily basis, it can stay switched on almost permanently. One of my clients described this feeling as if they were “fire fighting”, always ready to put out the next fire, finding it difficult to switch off, waking up with a feeling of dread in the pit of their stomach. Other people have reported bowel problems; sometimes lying awake in the middle of the night worrying, going over things in their minds again and again. People who are suffering from stress often react strongly to external events and this can upset their sense of balance.

How can you remain physically relaxed and mentally calm when others are behaving badly or creating a fuss around you? Think about this story for a moment...

Is There Really A Lion Chasing Me?

Once upon a time, there were three goats who saw a terrified horse running away as fast as it could. The goats were struck by the strangeness of the situation and they started making fun of him, calling him names and laughing.

The horse felt embarrassed, but thought to itself “If only they knew there is a lion chasing me, then they would understand why I am running so fast and feeling so scared”.

This fable was written thousands of years ago by Aesop and it can still work today as a useful metaphor.

Other people's behaviour can often appear rude, unpleasant or even idiotic. The next time you see someone behaving in a way that you don’t like, ask yourself this question: What if they believe they are being chased by a lion?

Different Approaches to Manage Stress

There are three approaches to manage stress effectively.

1. Take action – confront the problem head on and do something about it, if it is within your power to do so.

2. Manage your Emotions – change your interpretation of the situation, look at it in a different way, like the horse example above.

3. Accept the things you cannot change – accept that it is outside of your control and you have no power to change things.

And finally, remember the 3 'P' words, Permanent, Pervasive and Personal and ask yourself these questions about the situation you find yourself in:

• Is it permanent? will this situation last forever?
• Is it pervasive? does this affect every aspect of my life?
• Is it personal? is it happening because of me or am I wholly responsible for this?