What is Stress?

Stress is a term originated by Dr Hans Seyle in the 1950s to describe the combined reactions of the human body to what he described as noxious agents later known as stressors. When we experience ‘stress’ we are usually feeling the effect of accumulated strain in different systems of the body from prolonged reactions to stressors.

These reactions originate from the primitive nature of our nervous system and its reaction to potentially challenging demands. This reaction is called the stress response and is a simple physiological chain of events involving every system in the body.

Our bodies were designed over 100 000 years ago and have remained relatively unchanged. Contrast this with the rapid pace of change and the technological advances in the world around us and we can see how our bodies might struggle to cope. This struggle is experienced as the many symptoms of stress or strain such as disrupted sleep, anxiety, fatigue, digestive disorders, more colds and flu, muscular tension and headaches. This strain also leads to irritability, negative thinking, depression, memory problems, concentration problems, and negative coping such as increased alcohol consumption, over-eating, and reliance on over the counter medications.

While we are experiencing prolonged stress we usually stop doing some of the things that help resource us such as exercise, meeting friends, eating healthier food, and recreation. Stress accumulates when there is an imbalance between demands and resources. Our training programmes are geared to helping all these bodily systems to re-balance by introducing participants to scientifically proven stress management techniques. These help to interrupt or counteract the stress response, providing the individual with a ‘menu’ of resources that encourage healthy coping skills and better stress management strategies .