Stress and Resilience
I talk about these subjects a lot, but there’s some good reasons for that.
Modern living is more often than not stressful living – always on the go, doing multiple things at once, never really resting whilst doing your best for everyone around you, working excessive hours, “on” all the time through technology, limited relaxation, less sleep than ever before, reduced nourishment from food and relationships….. and so on.
Our reality is that we tend to lead stressful lives, yet haven’t become a society that are masters of resilience. This only leads us in one direction – ill-health of some kind and potentially burnout. I wrote recently about the hidden costs of stress– you may recognise some of these things.
World Health Organisation recognise burnout as a disease
Only yesterday the WHO recognised burnout in the International Classification of Diseases – something I’m delighted about. Not delighted that we have so much burnout that it needs its own classification, but that the epidemic of burnout in our society will start to become recognised, supported ,and hopefully prevented on a much broader scale.
Burnout is real
Burnout is real and devastating for those who experience it, it can manifest in many different ways, but without a doubt it affects people physically, emotionally, mentally.
I’ll share my full experience of burnout another time, but needless to say it was difficult to explain to anyone who hadn’t experienced it and the health support system just wasn’t there.
Whilst this was a few years ago, the situation today is no different, and it needs to be. Just like we’ve had the amazing campaigns around mental illness, we need the same for burnout.
Imbalance of stress and resilience
Whilst the whole subject is complicated, it’s also really simple – we’re not generally equipped with the resilience strategies to deal with the level of stress we experience.
Unfortunately, resilience doesn’t come in the form of a pill that can be prescribed and taken daily. What builds resilience is likely different for everyone, but at the heart of it is creating a self-support system that requires a focus on lifestyle and mindset.
My raison d’etre is quite simple – build resilience, manage stress and prevent burnout in order to thrive in life and work.
Start building resilience today
Building resilience isn’t rocket science, but unravelling our busy lives to make changes is. It’s why we get our head down and press on, rather than proactively take time out to do something different.
Yet we all know that it we don’t make time for health now, we’ll have to make time for ill-health later……
The good news is that we can all make a difference quickly and easily – for ourselves, families, work colleagues, organisational teams.
By having a deeper understanding of stress and learning how to build resilience we’ve already taken a big step forward. Trying out new things and working out what works for you comes next, but I promise you it doesn’t have to be hard.
Resilience for Leaders – one-day workshop
For all of these reasons I’ve developed a one-day workshop targeted at leaders in organisations. Having great resilience as a leader is key, but so is knowing what to look out for in your teams and helping them do just the same.
1-2-1 Resilience Coaching
My 1-2-1 personalised coaching programmes help people to thrive at work and in life because at the heart of supporting people to be their best is also enabling them to manage stress and build resilience.
Let’s make a difference
If you want help for yourself, your team or your organisation, just get in touch. There’s plenty we can do to make a difference.