WHY Scientific Stress Management
Stress drains energy
We feel stressed and our body instantly begins to work overtime. It gets ready for “fight or flight”. This preparation consumes enormous amounts of energy. The nervous system switches from parasympathetic mode, or relaxation, where we perform most effectively, to sympathetic mode or stress mode. The result is a whole combination of physical and mental changes to prepare for “a survival emergency”. This automatic response drains our energy and focuses away from our current tasks, from what we want to accomplish now.
Stress blocks performance
When our nervous system switches on the stress response and moves to sympathetic mode our performance immediately suffers. Our thinking becomes foggy as up to 70% of the blood flow is reduced to our thinking brain, the prefrontal lobes of the neocortex. The feeling of pressure and anxiety translates in a predisposition to react aggressively or defensively. Our muscles become tense and twitchy causing back aches, headaches and migraines. We tend to tunnel vision. We feel restless and irritable.
Stress sabotages health and well-being
The stress reaction causes a whole cocktail of physical changes. They are only useful when we are in a true life or death situation. Frequent stress reactions in normal life will cause increasingly detrimental effects to our health. Stress instantly increases blood pressure and heart rate. Ongoing levels of high stress will therefore predispose us for chronically high blood pressure and heart disease. It causes our liver to pump more glucose into the bloodstream which over time opens the door to diabetes.
Stress will slow down digestion causing indigestion and bloating. The stress hormone cortisol makes us grave sugar and fat. This inevitably leads to bad food choices and over-eating. Resulting obesity reduces lifespan and invites a whole new set of diseases. Long-term exposure to stress will even change the structures of our chromosomes. It will shorten telomeres and thereby accelerate aging.
HOW Can New Scientific Stress Management Help?
Modern stress management is faster and more effective than any conventional methods. It is based on the neuroscience. Better yet, these tools are easy to learn and easy to use. They can be applied anywhere and at any time. You can use them at work and at home, in the car or on the plane, during a stressful phone call or luncheon meeting. You will feel the effects clearly in a short time. These stress management tools can be applied to any problem physical or mental. Results last longer, often are permanent and can even prevent future stress. And it’s easy to train groups of people, large or small.
You are fast becoming skeptical. That’s very natural. How can so much be accomplished so quickly? How could the tools be helpful for so many kinds of problems? And how could such powerful tools be learned so easily?
Important questions. They deserve clear and unequivocal answers.
Switching quickly to parasympathetic, relaxed mode, changes all the body’s and the brain’s functions. Instead of the toxic cocktail of stress reactions the nervous system switches to a symphony of positive changes. These changes counteract the negative effects of stress on performance, health and well-being.
WHAT Are the Tools to Make this Happen?
What is SciStress scientific stress management?
SciStress provides natural tools to quickly induce changes in neural functioning. They are based on rhythmic tapping on sensitive acupressure points on the body. This tapping generates electrical impulses which the nervous system immediately transmits to the stress centers of the brain. These rhythmic signals are not compatible with the typical survival signals which generate stress. Therefore, the stress centers switch off the survival alarm. The nervous system returns naturally to the parasympathetic relaxation mode of functioning.
What happens to the thinking brain and the rest of the body?
Immediately more blood and oxygen returns to our prefrontal lobes. Our thinking is clear again. Our memory becomes unfrozen. Tunnel vision recedes. Our focus broadens. Aggressive or defensive overreactions dissipate as adrenaline levels drop. Muscles relax and any tension induced headaches or backaches ease away. Blood pressure, blood sugar and pulse rate levels return to normal.
Do you have to tell everyone about your problems? Is this some kind of therapy?
Absolutely not. These powerful tools are used by each individual by themselves and for themselves. Even when you work with the tools in a group or with a coach your privacy can be fully maintained. Don’t you have to tell your coach or other people in a group what your stress inducing problems are? Again, absolutely not. Even when you work with a coach on very intensive stress issues you do not have to disclose what they are! The tools are perfect for effective self management.
Obviously, in a coaching or training situation you can talk about what issues cause your stress. An experienced coach may then be able to help relate your experience to that of others and how they solved it. In a team situation you may help other team members by discussing your stress issues. However, this is always your personal choice. You do not have to disclose your issues in order to apply the techniques successfully. You alone make this choice.
Outcomes: Results of Scientific Research
A significant body of research is available. This is true in spite of a lack of funding for these new techniques by either institutions or government. This research shows consistent and fast improvements in anxieties. Anxieties inhibit performance. Here are some related outcomes:
Further areas of effectiveness identified by research:
Outcomes: Case Studies and Practical Experience
Over 8000 case studies have been recorded demonstrating the effectiveness of the tapping techniques in virtually any problem area, any distress and even many diseases. A few example are:
Again, how can this be possible? Because the rhythmic tapping signals are transmitted directly to the stress causing survival functions of the subconscious part of the brain. That part of the brain initiates the “fight or flight” survival response. If that fight or flight response is mild, feelings of stress and discomfort are also mild, sometimes barely noticeable. Yet even these light reactions surreptitiously affect performance and well-being. If this survival response is powerful, then the feelings of distress, pain and discomfort are also powerful, at times overwhelming. In those instances we cannot function successfully or in the extreme cannot function at all.
What is the the most central and powerful element of brain and nervous system? It’s the survival function! It affects everything in body and mind. We wouldn’t have survived as a species without it. Therefore, the ability to calm this response will also affect everything in body and mind!
The Vision for a Healthy, Thriving Organization
How can such easy to use natural tools help an organization, small or large, be healthy and thriving? Because when the cells of the body are healthy the whole body becomes healthy. Because when the employees of an organization are healthy and function at their best the whole organization is healthier and functions optimally.
Imagine the health of your employees steadily improving as they manage their stress levels with ease. They can reduce any stress during their day-to-day work without taking more than a few minutes. Imagine overwhelm, burnout, and resistance to change gently receding week after week. Imagine absenteeism and healthcare costs steadily decreasing month after month.
Imagine the performance of your team steadily increasing. As your team members and employees continuously reduce the inhibitors to their performance with ease, what will that mean for your organization? Can you see enthusiasm rising? Can you see results improving while your employees stress level drops. Can you see the instances of “dis-stress” gently transforming to positive “eu-stress”? Can you envision the freed up energy and creativity?
Imagine your management team further improving their focus, their communication amongst themselves and their employees, and their performance without increasing pressure and stress. Imagine how this can make their lives at home with families and friends better. Imagine the possibilities to bring this to your schools, your civic organizations and into your communities.
How can we make this vision a reality together?
There is research and the vast body of experience with individuals. There is an even greater opportunity bringing these powerful tools into organizations. What is missing now is the research to prove and quantify the results in organizations.
If you want to be part of leading this effort, if you want to help prove the results in your organization we urge you to contact SciStress. Together we can lay out simple low cost and low risk pilot studies. We can demonstrate and quantify the benefits for your organization and your team. Your risks are minimal:
Your SciStress Team stands ready to move forward together!
Fred George Sauer, MS, MS Eng, Stress Management Coach, Business Process Improvement & Productivity Specialist, Author
Judith Lynch-Sauer, PhD, RN, Clinical Professor of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing
Fred George Sauer Founder of SciStress
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