Last week, I asked the question in our Facebook group: "What topics would you like to work on in coming weeks?" Responses identify the priority of dealing with stress. Stress comes in many shapes, from dealing with aging parents to retirement, moving, having surgery, or losing a loved one. Yet while details vary, the core challenges have much in common. We are stressed by change. We are stressed when we experience loss of control. We are stressed when the demands of our lives exceed our perceived capacity to respond.
I love serendipity, and this morning my email inbox contained the review of a new book, The Upside of Stress, by Stanford University professor KellyMcGonigal. I look forward to reading the book, having heard several of her talks and interviews over the years.
We may almost consider it a cliché by now, but McGonigal's message re-iterates current wisdom that stress arises not from external events but from our response to those events. The more helpless and isolated we feel, the more stress we experience. We can counter helplessness and take charge of our response by developing awareness and honing mental and emotional skills to face events head-on. We can counter isolation by cultivating compassion for human suffering and building networks of mutual support.
Other resources from the fields of neuropsychology that I draw upon when stress is the topic include Jon Kabat-Zinn's Full Catastrophe Living, Rick Hanson's Hardwiring Happiness, and Linda Graham's Bouncing Back. Those three authors offer insights and recommendations that draw on a a combination of brain research and their own grounding in long-term meditation practice.
I have also found valuable resources in the fields of organizational development and business performance. The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz was summarized in a powerfully written Harvard Business Review article, The Making of a Corporate Athlete. Managing Transitions by William Bridges has also stood the test of time as a guide for dealing with change
Finally, when I am stressed, I reach for my favorite spiritual resources. It helps me to view personal events against the backdrop of life's purpose and to explore the deeper meaning of pain and suffering. It also helps me to ask for guidance from the divine inner voice in which I believe and trust. Each of us has found our own spiritual teachers and wisdom literature, so I won't narrow the field here to those I find most helpful.
I look forward to sharing principles and suggestions from these diverse resources over the next month or two. I also look forward to making them relevant by drawing examples from my own life and asking that you share from yours.
