Whats is stress? Is it a physical thing (blood pressure, sweating, sleeplessness, adrenalin) is it psychological (depression, anxiety, mood changes), is it the causes (workload, poor relationships at work, work environment) or any number of other things?
In other words, you can’t define it clearly, it’s an umbrella term that’s come to represent all the negative issues of modern working life. In the 50s and 60s we used to got to the Doctor and say “Oooh it’s my nerves Doc”. In previous centuries it was “humours” or “miasma” Stress is the 80s 90s 2000 equivalent.
If you can’t define it clearly, then you can’t measure it. If you can’t measure it then you can’t set targets for improvement or evaluate your training interventions.
Many of the stress interventions on the market are a pot pourri of Physical (eat better, exercise more, don’t smoke) Psychological (meditate, breathing exercises, positive thinking) and others (goal setting, creative thinking…, cosmo style scoring charts around life events) But everyone’s “stress” is different, every context is different, every reaction to training is different.
Sure some of the elements of some programmes work for some people, but I would love to see the evidence. My view is that the stress management industry doesn’t want to own up to its scattergun approach because it would make less money and have to work far harder to offer something that meets individuals rather than something that seeks profit from headlines, hype and fashion.
Colin Bentwood
