STRESS & PERFORMANCE

How does stress and performance go hand in hand? Let me start by defining stress, the types of stressors and the effect it has on your body and mind.

Stress is the “wear and tear” our minds and bodies experience as we attempt to cope with our continually changing environment.

There are two types of stressors: external (outside) and internal (inside). Some examples are:

External:

·     Physical environment

·     Our job

·     Toxins

·     Relationship with others

Internal:

·     Nutritional status

·     Emotional well-being

·     Feelings of anger, fear or worry

·     Overall health and fitness levels

When trying to reduce the amount of stress in your life, it’s important to make note of whether you are dealing with internal stressors, external stressors, or maybe both. Internal and external stressors tend to affect you differently, and need different approaches to be controlled. This leads us into the next section.

How does stress affect your body and mind?

Stress symptoms can affect your body, your thoughts and feelings, and your behavior. Being able to recognize common stress symptoms can give you a head start on managing them. Stress that's left unchecked can contribute to many health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes. You can see that it's important to figure out the sources of your stress so you can start working toward a healthier and relaxed mental state.

Common effects of stress on your mood:

·     Anxiety

·     Lack of motivation or focus

·     Feeling overwhelmed

·     Sadness or depression

Common effects of stress on your behavior:

·     Overeating or undereating

·     Drug or alcohol abuse

·     Social withdrawal

·     Exercising less often

Common effects of stress on your body:

·     Headache

·     Muscle tension or pain

·     Chest pain

·     Fatigue

A healthy response to stress begins quickly, is appropriate in degree and in length, and can improve function, motivation, and productivity. The body's response to stress is initiated and controlled by the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord). In response to a stressful situation, the brain first signals the inner portion of the adrenal gland (called the adrenal medulla) to release hormones (e.g., adrenaline, norepinephrine) that initiate the "flight-or-fight" response.

Next, the brain triggers the release of other hormones, such as cortisol, to sustain this response.

Effects of these hormones include:

·     Changes in digestion (caused by increased blood flow to the muscles and reduced blood flow to the gastrointestinal tract)

·     Increased breathing (respiration) rate

·     Increased heart rate and blood pressure (caused by increased blood flow to the brain)

·     Increased blood sugar levels (to provide more energy)

Managing stress can involve making changes in the external factors which confront you, or in internal factors which strengthen your ability to deal with what comes your way. The most important point is to recognize the source of the stress. It’s a way to identify the problem and plan measures to overcome it. Now let’s take a look at stress affecting performance.

How does stress affect performance?

Stress can help you when it makes you more alert, more motivated, and gain a competitive edge. In the right amount, stress helps you prepare, focus, and perform at your optimal level. This is called eustress (good form and may enhance performance).

Conversely, too much stress, or bad stress, can cause performance anxiety, which hurts your health and does not allow you to be relaxed, confident, and focused. This is called distress (bad stress and can lead to anxiety, worry).

Think of stress as energy. Great athletes learn to harness this energy and lesser athletes get harnessed by it.

Performance is defined as the accomplishment of a given task measured against preset known standards of accuracy, completeness, and speed.

I’ve researched a few theories on stress and performance and the one that works best for me is the “Yerkes-Dodson law”. According to the “Yerkes-Dodson law,” a certain level of stress is needed for optimal performance. Too little stress expresses itself in feelings of boredom and not being challenged. At an optimum level of stress, you get the benefits of alertness and activation that improves performance.

Let’s take a look at the picture below:

The shape of the curve varies based on the difficulty and knowledge of the task. Different tasks require different levels of stimulation for optimal performance. For example, difficult or unfamiliar tasks require lower levels of stimulation to facilitate concentration; by contrast, you may better perform tasks demanding stamina or persistence with higher levels of stimulation to induce and increase motivation.

As an example from personal experience when I play tennis, my concentration and performance intensifies when challenged against a stronger opponent versus an opponent whose skill level is not as experienced. This is when I perform at my best.

Some key tips I recommend from my previous blogs on Mental, Emotional and Physical Strength are:

·     to continuously feed your mind with healthy thoughts and ideas, to achieve growth, learning, inner strength and positivity;

·     remembering your WHY; &

·     the more physically strong you are, the more you are capable of, and the more positive benefits you experience in your daily life.

Stay tuned, next month I will offer you some tips on relaxation techniques to help alleviate stress.