A Focus on Stress Reduction Will Not Work - Stress is a Symptom
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There are many smart people out there working on the problem of stress. The stress reduction industry is larger than the pharmaceutical industry by a long shot. Stress is big business at over 8-trillion dollars a year. And the industry grows bigger every year.
In this article I look at the question, WHY IS STRESS GROWING?
The simple answer is that the stress industry works on the reduction of symptoms not the causes of stress. Let’s say you believe that stress is causing you to have indigestion. You take an antacid and you feel relief. You have resolved the symptom (indigestion) but not the cause of indigestion. When the cause of the problem returns, the stress returns.
The same thing happens with using exercise to reduce stress. Let’s say you feel stressed because you are angry with someone at work. You grab your exercise gear and go do a workout and you feel better. You have resolved the symptom (feeling stressed), but not the cause. If the cause reappears (the thing that caused you to become angry) the stress will return.
Stress is an outcome, not a cause. The 8 trillion-dollar stress relief industry focusses on symptom relief, not a causal reduction. So, what’s the answer?
I have spent many years in manufacturing, and I used root-cause analysis-tools to look at quality issues. If stress keeps coming back, we have a quality issue. So, I ran the stress industry problem through the Bekaert Learning Cycle tool. The Bekaert Learning Cycle looks at the symptom, cause, remedy, and action.
SYMPTOM – CAUSE – REMEDY – ACTION
When I put the industries focus on stress reduction, through the root cause analysis tool, I found the base of the problem; stress is a symptom, not a cause. Work on symptoms reduces the symptoms (the current industry focus). Only, work on the cause, can both reduce the symptoms and prevent symptoms from recurring.
That has become my new, cause celeb. I am working on creating a start-up, to address the problem of stress, and I will ask you for a little help later, to help me build a business foundation. So, let’s get back to stress.
If the stress is a symptom, in Bekaert Learning Cycle, then what is the cause?
Stress is caused when your sympathetic nervous system (the fight or flight response system) is activated. It is called a stress response. A stressor causes a stress response. Back to the Bekaert Learning Cycle. Stress is the Symptom. A stressor is the Cause.
What is the Remedy? We need to identify the stressor before we can come up with a remedy. In the manufacturing industry we often looked to the 5Ws +1H (Who, What, Where, When, Why and How).
Let’s use the antacid stress problem. We take a little time to look at what we do, or what is happening around us before we start to feel the acid pain in our stomach. Let’s say, I feel it every morning after breakfast. Then after a little more investigation, I find I only get it Monday to Friday after breakfast. On the weekends, I have the same diet, just no pain.
Maybe it’s the Monday to Friday traffic in the morning? No, I have similar traffic going home and no pain.
Maybe it’s work? Almost everything at work is great, except for that new person. When you think of the new person you begin to feel the acid flow in your stomach. We are getting close.
Let’s say you find out that it was not the person but actually that she or he got the job you wanted, and that you were angry with your supervisor for giving it to that person. Indigestion is the symptom. You not getting the job and being angry with your supervisor is the cause. Now you know the cause, now you can work on a remedy.
The Remedy might be, talking with your supervisor about how you feel and asking what you can do to improve your chances of getting the next similar position.
The Action is to talk with your supervisor, to create a plan, and to act on the plan.
Free photo 2127591 © Pemotret - Dreamstime.com
And if it feels as if it is just all too much…
If even thinking about all of that, seems like it is just too much work, then stress is already becoming a debilitating issue with you. Do what you can to feel better. Do your exercises to relieve stress and perhaps see your doctor.
I said earlier in this post that there are many smart people out there. A few people are going to recognise that professional therapists might use specific therapy to identify and act upon on a single activating stressor.
As an example, cognitive behavior therapy is a type of psychotherapy in which patients reframe negative thinking patterns into positive thoughts. Of course, getting to the root of the problem might take months or even years depending on stressor severity. For most people, the cost of therapy is not free. And of course, there is a negative stigma about seeing a therapist.
This kind of talk therapy works but there is just not enough qualified therapist out there to provide the needed service to help each of us dig down to root causes. That is just one reason why we have a stress epidemic.
The Trouble with Tribbles
I recall a Star Trek episode that aired in December of 1967 called ‘The Trouble With Tribbles’. Tribbles are furry little creatures that are born pregnant and multiply when they are fed.
Stress and stressors, like tribbles, also multiply when fed. We feed stressors by neglecting them. Our body recognises something as a real or potential danger and produces the stress response. We then react to the danger and the bodies relax response will kick in. Given time, the stressor damage heals, and we go back to normal.
Where our bodies developed to deal effectively with a few stressors each day, we are now bombarded with thousands of stimuli that our bodies perceive as stressors. Our bodies can’t keep up so the stressors, for the most part, become neglected. Our stress-tribbles multiply.
Perhaps you might consider what I did to improve my tribble trouble.
A Stressor, is a Stressor, is a Stressor
I have found that there are many stressors. In fact, I personally found when stress became a debilitating issue with me, I was far too stressed to even think about any particular issue; it felt like everything was an issue. I needed to find a way to work on all my stressors at once.
I developed three metaphysical exercises that helped me apply an ACTION that became an across-the-board REMEDY for all the stressors in my life. I can use these exercises at any time that I feel the stress. I feel less and less stress every day.
The exercises worked like a placebo. The word placebo means - to soothe. A placebo is an innocuous medication or practice of no intended therapeutic value, that results in a therapeutic improvement. My exercises are built around our response physiology, powerful wording that anchors to strong feelings, and energy transfer or removal thoughts, that the subconscious brain responds to as if they were real.
To me, the exercises create a therapeutic improvement, and my psyche and physiology, respond positively. I now call them the placebo exercises, because they appear to work at the subconscious levels offering me peace through the placebo effect.
These placebo exercises work on stressors both at the conscious and subconscious levels. After using these placebo exercises my thinking became easier and clearer. The stressors presented less stress and I was able to finally work on CAUSES as needed.
What I found was that many of the stressors simply evaporated. The stress dissolved as the stressors became weaker.
I wanted to share my experiences. The placebo exercises worked. I began to show others, but I found that that took considerable time and effort. I found that I needed to explain all about the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, about stimulus and response, and even how to learn so that the learning would stick. I even showed others my morning placebo exercises and the short cut placebos that I used when I am out and about during the day. With friends, you do things a little at a time when you have the time and it worked but was not cohesive.
I ran my problem through the Bekaert Learning Cycle.
- the symptom (hard to learn),
- the cause (sporadic learning attendance, low commitment),
- the remedy (create a proper training placebo effect-seminar), and
- the action (create and deploy a placebo talk seminar business)
In the past, I not only worked in manufacturing continuous improvement I also taught at a vocational college. I worked with adults recovering from mental illness. Because of this experience, I knew the methods worked. But if I wanted to help anybody, I needed to put it into a true training and delivery program. If I wanted to help with the stress epidemic, then I needed to develop a way to deliver the training properly. That is where the idea for a business start-up came in.
I plan to teach people about placebos that they can create and use across-the-board to reduce or eliminate stressors. The proposed seminar-talk business shall be called Placebo Talk.
Free photo 1246021 © Sylada - Dreamstime.com
TO SUMMARIZE
Stress is a symptom that may show in many forms.
The cause of stress is the stimulus that creates the stress effect or the number of stressors that you are faced with. To reduce stressors in your life, you need to reduce the strength or the effects of the stressor stimuli, that is creating a stress response. Find a way to reduce the stress response.
The remedy is a method to root out and resolve the stressor or to reduce the number of stressors.
The action is to do something that will make stressor reduction happen.
If This Helped You to Understand About Stress, Then Please Help Me
Earlier in the post, I asked you for a little help to build a foundation for my business. I have created a 7 question, multiple-choice survey from TYPEFORM.
The form will take 3 minutes to complete. Please complete it to help me to define the services my business should offer, how to roll it out and to offer the best possible service to clients.
Win A Placebo Talk Seminar Session
The last question has a space for comments. Input your email address and the word LinkedIn in the comment section. I will take all the responses and draw one name. I will contact the draw winner and set up a Placebo Talk personal training session for them through Skype.
If you wish to gift your session to someone else, I will be happy to accommodate that too.
The survey link is https://dale107.typeform.com/to/pAxHjI Control-click or copy it, and drop it in your search bar.
Well, there you have it. Like, follow, comment, share and complete the survey. I will get back to everyone that inserts an email.
Until then, let’s connect. Dale Syrota