Article#2: What is Stress? Flight or Fight? |
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"Annihilate Stress and Propagate Hope--Wayne F. Perkins"
Article #2. What is Stress: Flight or Fight Are you having a magnificent week selling your products and services building your business, and making new friends? I also sincerely wish you enjoy your job and the people you impact each day. Today
we are going explore stress what it is, how it affects you, and we will
examine the flight or fight reaction to stress. We need to examine these
issues s and get to the root causes of stress to enable you to break the
chains that keep you from achieving top business goals. What
is Stress? The
following is a definition from Dictionary.com
“1. Stress is a specific response by the body to a stimulus, as
fear or pain that disturbs or interferes with the normal physiological
equilibrium of an organism. “ ”2. Stress is a physical, mental, or
emotional strain or tension.” The following sentence illustrates the
definition. “Worry over his job and his wife's health put him under a
great stress.” From
definition #1, remember that “fear” initiates a flight or fight
response in our bodies. This is where stress becomes real trouble. We
have enough fear associated with the selling process and with human
relationships. Why add the physiological realities of disturbing our
equilibrium? In prehistoric
times when the fight or flight response evolved in humans, fight was
manifested in aggressive, combative behavior and flight was manifested
by fleeing potentially threatening situations, such as being confronted
by a dangerous animal. Now, these responses persist, but fight and
flight responses have assumed a wider range of behaviors. For example,
the fight response may be manifested in angry, argumentative behavior,
and the flight response may be manifested through social withdrawal, overeating,
obsessive/compulsive behavior, substance abuse, and even television
viewing. Now I understand why so many people watch American Idol. Facts
about Stress:
The body reacts to stress first by releasing the catecholamine hormones, epinephrine also known as adrenaline and norepinephrine also known as: noradrenaline, and the glucocorticoid hormones, cortisol and cortisone. One medical research group found that anywhere between 1000 and 1200 identifiable chemicals are dumped into your bloodstream every time the stress response is initiated.* Sounds like fun? Read further. Television shows can induce stress. Recognition of some people can induce stress. Your Mother in Law and your boss can induce stress. Stress is contagious. If you do not believe me with this statement conduct the following experiment. The next time you are extremely stressed out, go up to your boss and scream as loud as you can at him or her. You will quickly discover as a result of the experiment that stress is contagious. Here are some additional facts about stress:
Did you ever begin working at a company and really enjoyed the job? But soon disgruntled employees and changing conditions created stress in your body. After a while you begin to dislike your job and you initial a stress response on the way to work or as you are passing through the front door. The
following is a story that demonstrates how eating can induce physical
stress. I remember working at a company where I had an hour to each lunch. One of my fellow employees said; let’s go to a pizza restaurant on the other side of town. It will take us fifteen minutes to get there and fifteen minutes to get back, however, if we all order the special we will be served in about five minutes. We left
our building at Boy,
was I angry with myself! From that point on I never left the building
regardless of where the potential lunch disaster was located. I began
feeling the effects of stress any time someone said, “It is time for
lunch.” Story 2 Flight or Fight In my story, lunch time became associated with fear. I felt the flight or fight reaction to stress. Today, I live in the mountains of Northern Arizona. Here archeologists have discovered many ancient ruins and burial grounds. These experts theorized that the people living in the ancient ruins were hunter gatherers. Ancient peoples grazed. People did not have set times during the day that they ate, they munched on anything found on the ground in bushes, and or in trees as they went along their daily business. You can imagine an ancient man walking though the tall pine forests of Northern Arizona, bending down on the ground to pick up a berries or nuts, testing them a little before putting them in his mouth. Maybe,
ancient man quietly observed squirrels, birds or other mammals eating
the berries first so he had reason to believe he would not be harmed
eating the same foods. Every day man would leave his cave or dwelling to
gather these foods for his mate and his family hiding in the safety of
the rocks. The one day, ancient man, we will call him Bob, leaves his shelter, kisses his wife let us call her Molly, and his baby, we let’s call him Baby Bluto, goodbye and heads down his well worn path through the woods, winding up at an opening near the rapidly flowing creek below. At the creek he will bring water back in a container he fashioned out of a hollow tree branch. Let’s call this hollow tree a “water stick.” Now,
Bob heads down the path,
relaxed, calm and confident ready to accomplish his mission of bringing
water back to his family. But this time just as he arrives at the creek
a hungry bear spots Bob and thinks Bob would be great to wash down with
this cool, and tasty, creek water.
Bob spots and bear
and instantly his “flight or fight” reaction takes place. Bob stops
the blood involved in digesting his the juicy berries he found a few
minutes ago on the path and redirects blood to his legs…for flight and
his arms…for fight. His body produces adrenalin and his heart beats
faster. Bob chooses flight over fight and sprints like a race horse back to his cave. The
next morning Molly tries to awaken Bob to get more water at the creek.
Bob opens his eyes a little, yawns, and
then rolls over back asleep.
Bob is procrastinating because he is thinking about the bear he may have
to confront at the creek. Molly begins punching Bob to get up and he
finally rubs his eyes and gets up. Molly tells Bob not to forget his
water stick. Bob takes the stick and begins moving it from one side of
the cave to the other. Finally, Molly tosses Bob out of the cave
entrance where Bob now begins to walk slowly and cautiously toward the
creek. Bob doe not feel like picking up any berries, today. He is
not hungry. Bob’s heart is beating faster the closer he gets to the
creek. His mouth is dry his arms and legs feel heavy. Gone is the calm
and confident state of mind and body. In its place is fear. The flight
or flight response is beginning to become hard wired to Bob’s brain. Bob makes it to the creek, slowly and nervously but without incident. I
wonder how many days it will take Bob to get back to the calm and
confident water collector he was prior to his bear encounter? Stress
Annihilation
Exercise 1.2 Training Your Brain to Reframe When you are working, do you find certain activities where you move your water stick from one side of the cave to the other? You
have to consciously train your brain to reframe an incident like Bob and
the bear. Bob will have to take time to relax and remember all of the
times he went down to the creek without incident. Otherwise he will soon
build up a conditioned response to walking toward the creek. Soon stress
will exhibit its parasitic nature and Bob will experience stress in any
direction he travels. In
our lives, how many times do we focus on the bad experiences we have had
and forget all of the great experiences we had? Bob
needs to focus on the outcome…keeping his family healthy with plenty
of water. Rather then focus on activities. Thinking about the
frightening bear he will meet up with on the way fulfilling his goal may
prevent him from fulfilling his job of taking care of his family. When
we focus on positive outcomes, improving sales by 40 percent so we can
take a relaxing vacation, and continue to support our needs and wants,
we take a positive step in conquering
procrastination and annihilating stress. Write
this down 1.
What activities today do I find myself procrastinating about?
What activities do I always put off until later? 2.
If you are in sales or an executive in charge of business building, ask
yourself, what activities that I am putting off, are valued most by my
boss or my company? You may find that the most productive activities
from your company’s point of view are the very ones you are trying to
avoid. How many bears do I have to avoid today? Taking
Action: 3.
Then write a reframing statement and focus on that statement. The
statement will include the positive outcome you wish to receive based on
overcoming procrastination. The
statement will look something like this. “I will take action today.”
Each time I find myself procrastinating over an activity, I will
complete the task immediately. “I realize that by completing the task
I am taking a calm and confident step forward in sustaining life for
myself and my family.” Now
if you do not have a family, perhaps your reframing statement will
include something you really desire such the prestige of becoming the
top sale producer in your company, or winning a sales contest, or
earning enough money for a vacation. Your favorable outcome may be more
respect from your peers, superiors or the business community. Summary: Flight or fight stress reactions have negative effects on our lives. Dumping thousands of chemicals in our bloodstream, the physiological effects of stress can be paralyzing as “procrastination” takes over our minds and bodies. Your goal is to focus on your positive outcomes by changing the way you think about stress. In this way, you will immediately lessen the effects of stress and annihilate the flight or fight response that is poisoning your mind and body. Like Bob, you will wake up refreshed and begin your productive day avoiding the bears that affect your business and your life. I am in the process of publishing a book on annihilating stress. I welcome any thoughts you have. Please email me with any questions by clicking here. "Annihilate Stress and Propagate Hope,"--Wayne F. Perkins Stress Expert Do you want to learn how to Achieve All of Your Goals All of The Time? Click here for more information.
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