A Warm Welcome to

Learning Session
on
“Stress Management”
Facilitator: Atif Gohar
 What is stress?

 A normal response to daily life pressures called stressors or

triggers.
 Not a mental health condition.
 Has a clear trigger like bad job conditions, relationship issues,
illness, changes in social status etc.
 Having too much triggers can cause burnout (stress bucket)
 Having even a single trigger for too long causes burnout (video)
 Stressors/Triggers (Activity)

External Internal
• Relationship issues
• Black and white thinking
• Job insecurity
• Negative self-talk
• Conflicts in personal and
• Over-analyzing
professional life.
• Perfectionism
• Lack of time management
• Future fears and worries
 What is not stress?

 Depression:
-A long term mental health condition
-Can persist without a clear trigger.
 Anxiety:
-A short term mental health condition.
-Can persist without a clear trigger.
 Stress in long term can lead to burnout, depression and anxiety.
 Symptoms of stress

 Feeling angry, irritable or easily frustrated

 Fatigue
 Physical
Lack of concentration Psychological
• Flight and fight response
 Change in eating habits • Lack of concentration
Behavioral
• Increased heart rate and • Change in eating habits
• Confusion
breathing
 Procrastination • Change in sleeping habits
• Depression and anxiety
• Muscle tension • Procrastination
• Anger and irritability
• Exhaustion • Fidgeting and pacing
• Frustration
 Types of stress

Eustress Distress
• Positive and
• Negative and
energizing
uncomfortable
• Helps in achieving
• A hurdle in achieving
goals
goals
• Motivates
• De-motivates
• Is not overwhelming
• Mostly overwhelming
Stress-Performance Curve
 Approaches to stress management

 Cognitive
 Behavioral
 The ABC model

 Understanding the ABC model.

A=Antecedent/Event/Stressor/trigger
B=Beliefs/ Thoughts/Cognition
C= Consequence/Feeling /behavior
 Stress can be tackled from both the cognition and behavior.
 Cognition and behavior effects each other directly
 Cognitive approaches

 Awareness and understanding of triggers and yourself

 Awareness of thinking errors
 Rational Thinking
 Re-framing
 Action based thinking
 Separation of personal and professional life
 Mindfulness meditation
 Mindful prayer
 Awareness and understanding of triggers yourself

 Itis the first step as correct diagnosis leads to correct

cure
 Key to everything is the awareness
 Recognizing dysfunctional responses and re-framing
them.
 Understanding your personality

 Type A and Type B

 Do gooder./ People pleaser
 Perfectionist
 The worrier
 Stoic
 Rational thinking

 Are your thoughts always correct?

 Challenge your own thoughts with logic.
 Avoid emotional approach while assessing thoughts
rationally.
 Analyze thoughts from 3rd person perspective. (Friend
approach)
 Why do we give good advice to others?—Less
emotional attachment
The approach to rational thinking:
1) Write down your most frequent negative thoughts
2) Assess each of them from neutral perspective.
3) Imagine that your close friend has these thoughts
4) Look at that thought from all angles and see if its
correct.
 Common thinking errors
 Note which error have you committed or commit.
 Black and White Thinking (All or Nothing Thinking)
“My job is really bad” or “My job is really good”
 Catastrophizing
“I will never be successful in life”
 Personalization and Blame (Work and personal life)
“I lost my job only because of myself” or “I lost my job only
because of him”
 Labelling and Mislabeling
“I am useless” or “He is stupid”
 Mind Reading
“He talked less today, I must have offended him”
 Fortune Telling
“I will surely lose my job”
 Hindsight Thinking
“I should have not joined that firm 5 years ago”
 Egocentric Thinking
“People should think the way I do”
 Control Error
“I was not born in rich family so I cannot be successful”
 Comparisons
“I wish I had job like his”
 What ifs
“What if I get fired?”
 Re-framing
 We assign meaning to events and our thoughts.
 Only our interpretation of events gives it its meaning.
 We interpret events through our frames.
 Everyone has a different frame due to different past
experiences and upbringing.
 So we can control how we frame the events
 Use friend technique to reframe without biases
 The approach to re-framing

1) “My job is really bad”

-Reframed: “My job has some positive aspects like…….”
2) “I will never be successful in life”
-Reframed: "I have had some successes in life and I can have
more”
3) “I lost my job only because of myself”
-Reframed: "There were other factors involved in losing my job
like……”
4) “I am useless”
-Reframed: "I have been useful many times in past like
when……..”
5) “He talked less today, I must have offended him”
-Reframed: "There are countless other things which could have
offended him”
6) “I will surely lose my job”
-Reframed: "There are so many variables which can determine
the future”
7) “I should have not joined that firm 5 years ago”
-Reframed “At that particular time it was my best choice”
 Is re-framing self deception?

 Role of motivational speakers

 Why positive thinking fails
 Frames are made of our deep beliefs, thoughts, assumption and
past experiences.
 They drive emotions and behavior
 Action based thinking
 Are you thinking more than doing?
 Action solves problems and gives the sense of progress.
 Sense of progress reduces stress and increase self-
confidence.
 Can I do something about it?
Right and wrong approach:
1) “What can I do to solve this problem?” VS “Why do
always have these problems?”
2) What options and resources do I have to solve this
problem? VS “These problems are very tiring to deal
with”
3) “Who can help me with this problem?” VS “Why do
people not care about my problems”
 Separation of personal and professional life

 Do you think about home when at work and about work

when at home?
 Understand your professional role in contrast to
personal roles.
 Leave your work at work unless it is urgent and
practically doable option is available.
 Feedback at work is not personal.
 Most conflicts at work are also professional and not
personal.
 A few stories

 Holding on to your stress (Activity)

 Overthinking—Centipede and philosopher frog—Natural flow of
life and universe
 Letting go- Monk and his disciples
 Mindfulness meditation and breathing
techniques
 Our limbic system is responsible for flight and fight
response or the stress response.
 Our prefrontal cortex is responsible for rational
thinking and problem solving. ( It is the cool mind)
 Our mind is occupied with countless things daily
 Too many thoughts exhausts the mind.
 Meditation is about focusing on one thing which
relaxes the mind.
 The mindfulness technique:

1) Rate stress level from 1 to 10 (Activity)

2) Sit in a relaxed position
3) 4 7 8 breathing (4 breaths) or box breathing before starting
4) Return to normal breathing
5) Focus all your attention on breathing
6) Count your breaths but do not control your breathing
7) Despite the distracting thoughts only focus on each breath.
8) Do it for 30 minutes daily
 Mindful prayer or chanting

 What is the real purpose of prayer and chanting?

 Mindful prayer is the correct way to pray or chant.
Approach:
1) Focus all your attention on the prayer or chanting.
2) Distracting thoughts will arise do not get distracted
3) Focus on each word of the prayer or chants.
4) Do this for every prayer and chanting.
 Behavioral

 Time management and organizing

 Socializing and catharsis
 Exercising
 Diet and eating habits
 Time management and Planning

 Procrastination and stress cycle

 Organizing and planning----Taking control before crisis
 Routines
 Socializing and catharsis
 Humans as social animals.
 Socializing releases oxytocin, which gives us a calming effect.
 It turns our focus outwards.
 Gives us a an opportunity for catharsis which is the most effective
way of releasing negative emotions.
 Psychologists suggests socialization as the most important factor for
mental health.
So:
 Spend time with friends and family.
 Meet new people.
 Call or meet old friends
 Help your family and friends with their problems.
 Create long-term relationships
Story of Mcandless
 Diet and eating habits

 Bad digestion results in higher levels of stress

 Eating fast is a result of stress but can also be cause of stress.
So:
1) Eat slowly and chew food well
2) Have small meals spread out through the day
3) Have a brisk walk after the meal.
4) Avoid too much salt, sugar and caffeine.
 Exercise

 Exercise releases endorphins also known as the happy hormones.

 Can lift the mood instantly
 A healthy body can increase confidence and energy.
Questions/discussion
Thank
you!