Executive Stress: When is Stress Good Stress?

More and more executives are beginning to acknowledge and accept that they are being stretched in too many directions these days and that the consequential stress that this places on their ability to make clear and confident decisions, to maintain stability in their mental and emotional health, and to sustain meaningful and successful relationships with friends and family is being severely compromised.

The adage that "some stress is good stress" is coming under greater fire as executives begin to experience symptoms of burnout that may include: feeling constantly tired, loss of motivation, low self confidence and self esteem, self sabotaging habits such as an increase in the use of alcohol and other addictive substances, anxiety, panic, confusion, depression, relationship stress and/or failure, lost time at work, tendency to become more controlling at work, feeling overwhelmed by even small or inconsequential tasks, irritability, poor sleep, obesity, onset of such illnesses as heart disease, diabetes mellitus, high cholesterol counts, and suicidal thoughts to name a few.

Burnout is clearly a final common pathway to a work life lived out of balance. The signs of that imbalance are experienced by executives as what is termed "stress".

Unfortunately over the years the rationalization that "some stress is good for you" has caused many executives to avoid questioning the very nature of their emotional experience caused by their work life. Indeed, up until recently, emotions were felt to be a hindrance to the organizational goals of achieving growth and profits at any cost. Emotions have been thought to create too much "muddled" or "soft thinking" and thought to undermine strategic plans thrashed out in executive meetings. The pressure to accept and conform to such goals, usually out of fear, has been one of the chief causes of the personal stress or imbalance that has ensued.

So what is to be done about this situation? Clearly the business environment is becoming increasingly more complex and competitive and the threat of not surviving is looming that much larger in the minds of executives than ever before.

In order to address this question let me step back for a moment and address the nature and purpose of one's emotional life and how it can be used to steer one back into balance.

As human beings we are hardwired to experience both positive (i.e. happiness, contentment, inner peace, joy etc.) and negative (i.e. sadness, disappointment, loss, emptiness, anxiety, depression, fear etc.) emotions.

As the human race has evolved there has been greater and greater interest in why, we as human beings experience what we call "emotions" at all. For many generations humans have attempted to run their lives with their intelligently wired brains and minds? For instance haven't many of us wished that we were all like the Star Trek character Mr. Spock who with his purely logical brain was able to escape the self doubt experienced by his "emotional" human counterparts?

Clearly, if we have emotions, as some are beginning to realize, then they must have a purpose!

Well what is that purpose?

Well, what is the purpose, for instance, of knowing that you are feeling happy about something, as opposed to feeling sad about it?

If you look at it closely I think you'll begin to see that "feeling happy" isn't just a state of mind, it's also a "message".

What is the message?

Well the message goes like this:

If "Event A" makes me feel happy, then "Event A" is desirable or good or right for me.

In other words the feeling of happiness about an event basically is telling you that you should be having more of that in your life. It gives you a sense of direction in the same way that the GPS system does in your car.

The interesting difference is that you had to program the GPS device on your final destination where as you are already "preprogrammed emotionally" in what makes you happy or unhappy. Another way of saying that is that the feelings of happiness arise "spontaneously" from within you without you having to do anything to elicit them once a desirable event occurs in your life.

They already exist within you about any and every possible event that may occur in your life even if you've never thought about or ever experienced most of them. For instance we all desire abundance but how many of us have actually ever experienced true abundance?

Very few!

So you see emotions are what I have termed your internal emotional wisdom or truth about what is right for you.

Now when you are experiencing stress, is that making you happy, content, joyful or peaceful?

Somehow I doubt it.

Yet through rationalizations we tend to "over-ride" these internal emotional signals and effectively keep ourselves "off balance" or "off track" of what is actually good for us.

Now I know that you may say that there are so many competing choices that it becomes impossible to truly tune into what your feeling about anyone of them at any given moment and that even to attempt to do so would tire you out.

Well that is because you have been so disconnected from these feelings that you are naturally unfamiliar with your true emotional nature and path in life. In other words you are so off track in your life you are actually lost in the wilderness!

Reconnecting to your emotional wisdom is the only thing that will eliminate the stress in your life (because one does not feel stress when they are feeling happy, joyful, content and peaceful) and put you back on track.

This of course can and will entail making courageous choices that once made will actually start to feel natural and right to you, and hence in retrospect will not feel "courageous" in the least.

If you would like assistance in this journey back to happiness kindly contact me.