In a recent episode of the Happiness Lab Podcast Dr. Laurie Santos deals with the human response to stress. I listened to this episode on a day that I had just ran 8km that morning and generally was feeling a sense of general positivity.

As you already assumed, today has happened. I awoke with a sense of stress about a laundry list of things. Some of these are work related, such as whether equipment will arrive on time after I forgot to order it. Some of these are personally associated, such as the angst of some family relationships or the that one our kids is moving home again. It was interesting to note these feelings of stress and has Dr. Santos and her guests highlighted and then the coping strategies that were discussed.

In both work and home contexts, I often get praise for "being the calm one" in time of crisis. This of course is all about my demeanour. Being that person who appears calm probably comes from a mix of nature and nurture. My Dad has always appeared to be a calm person, rarely animated, either positively or negatively, and I guess that I just modelled that behaviour. Secondly as the child of divorce, I sense that I used calm as a means of providing stability in a world that felt was falling apart.

On the work side, I quickly learned that I was the calm one, people both respected that and it helped me lead a team of professionals. I can think of a number of times that this behaviour was specifically praised, and interestingly criticized as “You didn’t care enough to get visibly stressed about the problem.” That still makes me smile years after it was said...

Where I’m going with this that the episode made me aware of how much stress affects my health. As I type this (as a means to calm myself) I sense the increased heart rate, the dull headache, the sense of electricity throughout my body. This typing is part of both documenting and then coping with that stress. I have put these management techniques aside for so long is embarrassing. Today has reminded me that stress management has to be more than, “go for a run, you’ll feel better.” It must take on multiple techniques, so as not to wait for a particular event to happen, rather deal with it closer to when it is sensed to both ground myself in the importance of a given stressor (Does it actually matter? Can I do something meaningful about it now? Have I already done all I can even in light of a mistake to atone for it?)

I’ll still run for the benefits of overall stress management in building up those chemicals that allow me to handle stress but I don’t want to that or any one thing as the magic bullet. To that end, as a person of the Christian faith, prayer has also been a key element of stress management. The ability to have a meditative conversation with God, allows space to see issues in light of my faith and who I believe God to be.

I hope that however you experience stress that the podcast episode spurs you on to think through your own coping strategies and you can apply them both in the moment and as a healing practice.