Stress… the productivity and engagement thief

Stress costs the US economy $300 billion per year. Most people are aware of the negative effects of stress on physical and mental health, but what about the effect of stress on focus, engagement and productivity?

 

How stress affects engagement, focus and productivity

Well it’s all to do with brain function and arousal. Stress is the body’s reaction to events in life or the work stimulus. Some stress can be positive: the brain and body become energized (known in neuroscience as “arousal”), brain function, motivation, focus, engagement and productivity increase. But there is a tipping point, when increasing arousal begins to affect brain function and focus, engagement and productivity decline. And this is the negative stress, that is commonly referred to as “stress”.

The image shows the the relationship between performance and arousal of the brain, for a cognitively challenging task (known as Yerkes-Dobson law). Simple or habitual tasks and those requiring stamina and persistence show a different relationship: increasing arousal leads to improved motivation and performance.

The effects of stress on the brain, are not global. Stress causes deterioration in function of some parts of the brain more than others. World-renowned psychiatrist and brain researching maverick Daniel Amen has showed that stress affects frontal lobes (executive function center), cerebellum (balance center) and amygdala, hippocampus and temporal lobes (emotional and memory centers). The consequences of this include negative effects on motivation, focus, judgement, impulse control, empathy, balance and coordination, emotional regulation, response to events  and memory.

Stress and the business world

So what’s the relevance of all this to the business world? Well stress and burnout are increasingly common in the workforce. Not only does this impact the health and wellbeing of the individual employees, but it also reduces focus, engagement and productivity… and ultimately the bottom line… profit. I have a question for you: “If you knew there were serious inefficiencies in your business would you ignore them?” I’m guessing the answer is “NO”. Now I’ve just explained why stress is so bad for performance, causing significant inefficiencies among your workforce. So my next question is “Are you doing everything you can to reduce stress among your employees?”

The good news is that most people can learn to better manage their stress and when they do… you guessed it… focus, engagement and productivity improve. Most of the chronic effects of stress are reversible. Learning to manage stress must begin with education. Most people would rather not be stressed, but they lack the knowledge and skills to prevent and reduce it. A good stress management program will include strategies to identify sources of stress and deal with any that are reversible, improve the health of body and mind, so the response to stress will be appropriate and development of a stress management toolkit.

If you are a CEO, CFO, manager or HR specialist, I urge you to look into programs to help your employees manage stress, it might end up being one of the best investments you ever make.

To learn more about how to reduce in your workplace visit: www.WellbeingInYourWorkplace.com

Your heart… Your life!

Cardiovascular disease which includes heart disease and stroke leads to 33.6% of all US deaths and this just the tip of the iceberg: nearly 4 million people suffer from cardiovascular disease and report disability from illness. The CDC estimates that approximately 200,000 of these 700,000 deaths are due to lifestyle choices and are therefore preventable. In 2010, the estimated total spending on cardiovascular diseases in the United States was estimated to be $444 billion: that’s about $1 of every $6 spent on health care in the USA.

Prevention is key

While some people have an increased genetic risk of cardiovascular disease, for most people lifestyle choices play a large role in personal risk. Cardiovascular disease severely affects your ability to live a happy, fulfilling, successful life and it is essential that we all take some personal responsibility for reducing our risk.

5 things you can do to significantly reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease

1. Don’t smoke: Cigarette smoking increases your risk of coronary heart disease it also increases blood pressure, reduces exercise tolerance and increases blood clotting.

2. Exercise regularly: Studies show that doing more than 150 minutes (2 hours and 30 minutes) of moderate physical activity or an hour of vigorous physical activity every week will reduce your risk of coronary heart disease by about 30%.  

3. Watch your weight: carrying more than a few extra pounds increases your risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis) all of which put you at higher risk of cardiovascular disease.

4. Manage your stress: it is hard to accurately estimate the effect of stress on cardiovascular disease, as the effects of stress are complex. But we do know that stress increases your blood pressure and cholesterol, speeds up aging and death of cells, makes weight gain more likely and increases frequency of bad habits such as smoking, overeating, inactivity and excessive alcohol consumption, all of which are bad for your cardiovascular health.

5. Get good advice on managing your health. There are many symptoms and signs of impending cardiovascular disease including: hypertension, hypercholesterolaemia, high blood sugar and excess belly fat. In combination these risk factors are now known as Metabolic Syndrome or Syndrome X. These should not be ignored, as if treated early serious illness can be limited or prevented. Seek out advice from a holistic practitioner, as there is increasing evidence that inflammation and sugar addiction are implicated in these.

Employers have a responsibility too

If you are an employer, you should know that the health of your business is integrally tied to the health of your employees. As cardiovascular disease is a major cause of chronic ill health, it is also a major cause of absenteeism, poor productivity and health care costs. Large corporations are beginning to invest in Corporate Wellbeing Programs for their employees, and these have been shown to have an impressive return on investment and reduce the impact of chronic illness. Small to medium sized businesses need to do the same.

Your heart, Your life!

Your heart health is essential to the health of your body, brain, mind and spirit. Having a healthy heart and brain increases your energy levels, your focus, productivity and your relationships. It really is win-win all around.

Sources: CDC and Heart.org

Health is your Greatest Wealth

Now I know I am a doctor and I would say this, but Health is Your Greatest Wealth!

When you have good health you have energy, vitality and zest for life. With good health it is easier to have wellbeing in the other areas of your life such as career, finances and personal growth.

The absence of health is disease, discomfort, pain and suffering. In this state it is so much harder to have wellbeing in other areas of your life. And of course, the absence of health in the extreme is death: the absence of life.

We all have a responsibility to ourselves and our family to take our health seriously. To value it, cherish it and work hard to protect it.

A simple way to look at health is like your finances. You have health liabilities and health assets.

Simply put the way to increase your health is to increase your health assets and decrease your health liabilities.

Balance of health

Increase your health assets

• Genetics (while you can’t change your genes but you can do things to stop certain genes being triggered)
• Nutritious diet
• Positive thinking
• Self-regulation (learning to control certain body and brain functions)
• Exercise
• Sleep
• Healthy habits
• Positive relationships

 

Decrease your health liabilities

Known in the medical field as risk factors! There are some health liabilities that you can’t do much about like genetic risk factors or being born with an inoperable physical deformity. However one risk factor does not define your outcome.

Health liabilities include:

• Dehydration
• Lack of Exercise
• Unhealthy habits
• Not seeking medical advice for health problems
• Contact or ingestion of poisons (such as smoking) or unhealthy food products
• Physical harm
• Emotional harm including stress
• Extremes of weight
• Poor hygiene such as oral and skin

For more advice on protecting your greatest asset: your health visit…

www.positivehealthandwellbeing.com

or email drleonaura@positivehealthandwellbeing.com

My love affair with stress!

April is Stress Awareness Month and I am celebrating! Stress is one of my favorite subjects. Yes, I know I am strange, stress is an odd fascination.

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My whole adult life has been filled with stress… medical school, 100 hour weeks as a doctor, two very sick children, leaving my profession, being a full-time mom, returning to my profession, leaving my home country, leaving my profession, running my own business, launching a book, starting a new business and so on… Stress has been ever present in my life, as it is for many. 

There have been times I have managed stress well… and other times when I have been a mess. Stress has led to depression, anxiety, poor health and weight gain. It sapped my energy, stunted my emotional growth and overshadowed the joy in my world. I was so good at being stressed that when things in my life were going well, I created my own. Thankfully I had an aha moment when I realized that my stress was harming me and everyone I loved. I became determined to take control of my stress and learn strategies to deal with it. I became an avid student of stress management techniques. When I became a coach and neurotherapist, it seemed natural to me to help other people overcome their stress.

As a neuroscience geek I am fascinated by the fact that even though we are the most evolved creatures on the planet, we still react to stress as if we were cave-people. When an event occurs that we perceive to be a threat, hormonal, neurochemical and electrochemical cascades are triggered, getting the body ready to respond with the fight and flight response: heart rate, blood pressure, breathing and muscle tension increase; digestive, immune and reproductive functions are side tracked, after all if you might die imminently digesting food, fighting infection and sex can wait. Now this is fine for a short time, if the threat is real and impending, but long periods of sustained stress are bad for us, causing a multitude of physical and mental health problems, along with unhelpful behaviors, relationship problems, focus and productivity decline.

The problem with stress and the reason it is such a maladaptive behavior is that the trigger for stress doesn’t even have to be a dangerous event. Today much of our stress is triggered by our thoughts. Say person A is walking in the woods and they see a dog, and they have Cynophobia (dog phobia: yes I had to look that up) when they see the dog they think “arghhh I am terrified of dogs” and trigger a stress reaction. Person B loves dogs, in fact they prefer dogs to people, when they see a dog they think “oh look a lovely, cute cuddly dog” and they trigger feelings of love and caring. Remember Descartes famous saying “I think therefore, I am”, in todays world this should read “I think I am stressed, therefore I am”!

Courtesy of stock

The cool thing about stress (well I think it’s cool, but as I said, I am a neuroscience geek) is that learning to manage it, is easier than you might think and has many benefits. As you can imagine I can talk about stress for hours, but here are my…

3 simple steps to managing stress

Step 1: identify your sources of stress and deal with any that are reversible,

Step 2: improve the health of your body and mind, so you have a more appropriate response to stress,

Step 3: learn to develop a stress management toolkit, a list of things that help you, personally reduce your stress. This might include: exercise, walking in the woods, meditation, massage, riding your motorbike, visualization… whatever works FOR YOU!

Learn to love your stress

Stress has made me resilient and flexible, it has taught me many lessons about what is important in life. Everyday I seek new ways to reduce my stress and to help others overcome theirs. I am no master of stress… mastery is a journey and I am an eager student. I used to suffer with stress, now I embrace it. I hope you will embrace it too!