Stress - Building Your Strengths

The term ‘stress’ was coined by the endocrinologist Hans Selye to describe ‘the non-specific response of the body to any demand‘. Selye noted on ward rounds that despite having different diagnoses, many patients would have certain symptoms in common such as tiredness, wanting to lie down all the time and lack of interest in eating.

Whilst carrying out some experiments on rats relating to female hormones, Selye noted that it didn’t matter which hormone he injected the rats with, they all had the same response one of which was heightened adrenal response. Selye determined that this was so because the body is trying to maintain homeostasis. Eventually, Selye described the stress response as having 3 stages: alarm reaction, resistance and exhaustion. This describes the state of chronic stress as opposed to the acute stress response you might experience when for example attending a job interview.

Selye went on to research further into the effects of stress in humans and wrote the book entitled “The Stress of Life”. Like Shakespeare before him, Selye came to the conclusion that stress is not what happens to you, but rather how you react to it. This truth is self-evident if you consider how you react to or deal with certain events or situations compared with others you know. You will see that everyone has different triggers for stress.

Selye concluded that stressors could come from either internal or external sources and that our reactions are filtered through our beliefs, expectations, life experiences, conditioning, self-esteem and confidence. Typical ’negative’ responses might include panic, avoidance, flight or fight. Selye also described the state of ’eustress’ where a response to a stressor is met with excitement, elation, approach or joy. Here the person views the stressor as an opportunity for growth. The person feels they have a certain amount of control over the situation even if demanding, choice and the mechanisms to cope.

Many researchers have come to the conclusion that an important element of helping people to handle stress, is to focus on strengths. This is one of the approaches in hypnotherapy when we are helping someone reduce their chronic stress. We may of course have to deal with past trauma, beliefs and conditioning but building resilience through developing strengths and harnessing the resources you already have is extremely important.

Sometimes the resources we have are well-established in another area of our lives and we can through the medium of hypnosis, bring them where they are needed, that is make them more available to you when you want them. Sometimes resources are in embryonic form and we can amplify them so that they are more available to you. Sometimes you have an idea of the kind of strength or resource that would be really useful to you and we build that and mentally rehearse using it in the required situations. According to research, boosting strengths and resources means that not only is their frequency of use increased but also the number of different situations in which they are applied.

The use of the imagination in hypnosis is very powerful here. Think about it. You feel stressed by a situation and play it over and over in your mind with the same result. Nothing changes. In fact, you may feel that the way you experience the situation just becomes more entrenched. In hypnosis however, you can experience something different and develop responses more to your liking and more empowering.

Life is full of challenges. We can either shy away from them or allow them to overwhelm us, or we can build our resilience and begin to welcome them as opportunities for growth. How would it feel to believe you can rise to all sorts of challenges?

If this speaks to you, you might be interested in my Stress Free package.