In these challenging times I have been able to work with several groups (online) and deliver workshops that explained the stress response. Participants received tips and strategies for managing stress.
After delivering these Stress Management presentations some participants have asked for copies of the slides. I have a conundrum…..to share or not to share – that is the question. There are polarizing views about slide sharing. One is if you have put up a presentation, then they are in the public domain and should be freely shared. At the other end of the spectrum the viewpoint is that the slides are secondary to the actual presentation.
After a recent presentation some participants shared slides, regardless of permission, that they saved by taking screen shots. With this in mind, I am going to share some of the graphics here, taken from a variety of presentations alongside some of the commentary I used.
The stress response is elicited when we realize that we can’t control events. When this happens, we can often start to feel anxious.
In turn this can lead to a cascade of other emotions or behaviours.
Clearly we need to have the appropriate tools and strategies to manage this response. Subconsciously our nervous system is on high alert as we look out for the risks in our environment.
Currently, many people are experiencing fear regarding either their or a loved one’s health with the end result of the flight/fight or freeze stress response.
One of the first things I suggest is to develop a regular deep breathing session which helps to dampen down the effects of the stress response. Wearing a mask can anchor your emotion to your subconscious mind. Therefore it is important to spend a few moments in deep breathing after removing your mask, so that you minimize your stress response.
The next step is to acknowledge the problem and then to view it from a new perspective.
By understanding the phases that we go through during times of change, we can come to a degree of acceptance.
This is similar to the five stages of grief that Elizabeth Kubler Ross wrote about in her groundbreaking work in 1969. Another helpful strategy is to use a Gratitude Journal.
The stress response causes various hormones to be released in our bodies. The most well known are adrenaline and cortisol. These are released in response to a fearful or dangerous situation. Long term stress can impact upon your health. Stress lowers your immunity, increasing blood pressure and has an impact on your digestive system.
This is why it is so important to have strategies that you can use automatically when faced with a stressful situation. However, not all stress is bad. There is a flip side. Eustress – when this is experienced, you get a flood of what I like to call “
happy hormones”.
By making sure you take time to look after yourself – remember when we could fly and the pre-talk was about using the oxygen mask for yourself first?
Meditation, being out in nature, exercise, eating healthy foods and love and laughter are all key elements how you can get these “happy hormones” and manage your stress response.
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Recently I had planned a series of workshops to offer to a local community at a heavily discounted rate to my usual hourly rate. I used the rationale that if I worked on getting discounted Emotional Intelligence sessions out into the local community during these difficult times, then I would be contributing to a grassroots movement in thinking in a more emotionally intelligent way.
gh to keep me busy with the 
herapy course and have to say I am loving it. It is as much for me and allows me to have a second chance at what I set aside all those years ago. The distraction is not about the the course content as such. Each unit requires a portfolio activity with an image/art work to be completed as practice for becoming an art therapist.
So….. just a few weeks on ….. here’s Lucy! Just 2 years old – a teenager in dog years and a very affectionate nature. Before second lockdown, we were able to take her up to the retreat where she really enjoyed the wide open spaces to run and do “zoomies”. In the city and in second lockdown she gets to go for twice daily walks. The two occasions she got to meet with grandchildren, she was overjoyed to be around little people and was exceptionally well behaved. There are moments…. when she gets over enthusiastic about my socks or shoes that we are not in sync with each other but as we get to know each other our respective boundaries will be observed.
Leadership can be interpreted in many ways and that is very evident in the differing styles of leadership exhibited by our world leaders. Today I drew this card – Leadership – from Doreen Virtue’s Archangel Oracle cards. The writing on the face of the card suggests that it is time to lovingly guide others and comes at a time where I am about to return to face to face delivery of workshops. In these workshops it is my intention is to inspire and guide others to learn more about how they can live with greater 
The past few months have felt like an early winter hibernation, with a reasonably mild autumn here in Melbourne. Usually the winter months are when we seek to withdraw from the world and hibernate, but the recent world events have changed all that.
So much has changed since I started this Ten Weeks of Intentions journey. Most of the time it has been a stretch not struggle to get a weekly post up in what started out as an “occasional blog”.
The book by the late Dr Wayne Dyer “The Power of Intention” is an easy read and over the Easter weekend I have delved back into it as a distraction from the current situation. I’m treating social distancing as an opportunity to have a pause from the “normal” and to re-visit many of the books on my shelves as part of my 
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My intention for this eighth week of intentions is to look at what gifts can I give 
The two cards I drew after setting an intention to discover what gifts can I give myself are :