#11 The Shared Language of Stress

What happens in our brains and bodies when we experience unprecedented levels of stress? In a world where our day-to-day lives have been turned upside down in many and unforeseen ways, we are all at risk for the performance-limiting effects of high stress. This episode explores strategies for leading through stress.

Unprecedented and uncertainty are words that are often used to describe what everyone is going through both during and after the global pandemic. But the event has also created a lot of a lot of stress, anxiety, and challenges to live and work through. Hannah, Luke, and Chris discuss how they identify the early signs of stress.

The hosts explore how they know when it shows up at their door and how they monitor their stress levels. They quickly learn that stress manifests itself differently to all of us.  For Hannah, her skin will break out in a rash, and she will eat less, which will cause her to lose weight. A feeling of being overwhelmed into this mode of inaction also makes it difficult to make decisions, causing inaction.

Luke shares how his first sign of stress is usually when his partner asks, “Are you okay?” She notices that his behaviors change before he notices them himself. Luke reveals that he quickly becomes more inward. He admits that he is much less present and available to the people around him because he is fixating on something in his head which results in him being a much less fun person to be around

When Chris feels stressed, he struggles to sleep, which makes him struggle to control his thoughts during waking hours. Although they all react differently, they agree that the effects result in limiting their performance. The key is learning to identify and manage stress appropriately.

Fight or flight is the typical stress response for everyone. But the more intentional we can be about creating a shared narrative and language about everything from stress, strategic initiatives, or purpose as an organization, the more shared understanding we can create about all of those things. Ultimately, the more unified, connected, and aligned our community will be too.

With a clear vision and communication, we can come through this together. We must remind each other that we can be creative and responsive and encourage everyone to bring their best ideas and solutions to the table. But we must avoid the temptation to blame our performance on the amount of resources that we have.

Identifying the shared language of stress and what we experience can help us all understand what we can do to ease stress levels in an organization and lives. The more shared understanding that we can create about all of these things, the more unified and connected and aligned our community is going to be.

Please share how you are managing stress individually, as a team and as an organization by commenting below.

The post Magic in the Room Podcast #11 – The Shared Language of Stress appeared first on Purpose and Performance Group.