Calm and Confident Under Stress: The Stress Competence Book: Recognize, Understand, Manage Stress

Description

"Stressed!" - "No time!" - "I don't know where my head is!" Stress is familiar to almost everyone, and many suffer the negative consequences of constant stress. So what to do? This book shows a variety of possible courses of action and encourages you to find your own way to a calm and healthy way of dealing with stress at work and in everyday life. It is written for stress sufferers for self-help and as comprehensible accompanying reading for stress management courses or in the context of a consultation, for personnel managers and executives in business and administration, for consultants and therapists who support stressed clients, and for everyone who wants to further develop their personal stress competence. From the contents: Instrumental stress competence: making everyday life less stressful, actively meeting demands - Mental stress competence: developing beneficial attitudes and evaluations - Regenerative stress competence: creating balance, relaxing and recovering - With checklists, exercises and numerous tips. The author: Prof. Dr. Gert Kaluza is a psychological psychotherapist and works as a trainer, coach and author in the field of individual and workplace health promotion. After working at various universities for over 20 years, he founded his own continuing education and training institute, the GKM Institute for Health Psychology, in 2002. Preface Contents About the Author I: Recognizing and Understanding Stress 1: Stress: What Is It Actually? An Introduction 1.1 The Stresstrias 1.2 Stressors: What Stresses Us Out Conclusion 1.3 Stress Response: Responses at All Levels Conclusion 1.4 Personal Stress Amplifiers: Home-Made Stress Conclusion 1.5 Stress Competence: From Victim to Actor 2: Physical Stress Reactions and the Consequences for Health 2.1 The Body’s Response to Stress: The General Adaptation Syndrome 2.2 The Meaning of Physical Stress Response: Preparation for Fight or Flight 2.3 Stress Originates in the Brain 2.4 If Stress Reactions Precede Thought... 2.5 The Two Axes of Stress Response: Dry and Wet Communication Channels Conclusion 2.6 Stress Shapes the Brain 2.7 Stress Reactions Are Individual 2.8 The Shaping of the Stress Response Through Early Experiences Conclusion 2.9 Does Stress Make You Ill? How Stress Endangers Health 2.10 Total Exhaustion: The Burnout Syndrome 2.11 Checklist: Warning Signs for Stress 3: What Stresses Us: Stressors in Work and Everyday Life 3.1 Requirements Promote Development 3.2 In the Foreground Today: Performance and Relationship Stress 3.3 Societal Roots: Looking Beyond the Horizon 3.4 Stress at Work: The New Work Creates New Demands 3.5 Resource or Burden: The Two Faces of Work 3.6 Stress in the Family: The Support Givers Become Weaker 3.7 Stress in Leisure Time: How Recovery Fails 3.8 Stress due to Uncertainty: The Pleasure and Burden of Choice 3.9 Severe Life Stress: Does Misfortune Make You Ill? 3.10 Checklist: Personal Stress Hierarchy 4: Personal Stress Amplifiers: How We Put Ourselves Under Stress 4.1 Stress is the Result of Personal Evaluations An Example Conclusion 4.2 Stress Aggravating Thought Patterns 4.3 Five Stress Amplifiers and What Is Behind Them 4.4 Perfectionist Control Ambitions 4.5 Addiction to Work 4.6 Checklist: Personal Stress Amplifiers II: Coping with Stress 5: What Can We Do? The Three Pillars of Stress Competence at a Glance 5.1 Instrumental Stress Management: Making Everyday Life Less Stressful 5.2 Mental Stress Management: Developing Supportive Attitudes and Evaluations 5.3 Regenerative Stress Management: Relax and Recover 5.4 Flexibility as a Goal: Finding Your Own Way 6: Actively Meeting Demands: Instrumental Stress Competence 6.1 Learning: A Lifelong Task 6.2 Maintaining Networks: Social Relationships as a Stress Buffer Social Network Analysis: Who Belongs to It? Maintaining the Social Network 6.3 Self-assertion: Representing One’s Own Interests Appropriately Setting Boundaries: For Yourself and Others Setting Boundaries (Examples) Seek Support and Hand Over Tasks Express Anger Appropriately 6.4 Self-management: Managing Yourself What Really Counts: Clarifying Values and Goals Looking Ahead: Developing a Positive Vision for the Future From the Vision to the Goal: Formulating Goals Correctly High Personal Attractiveness Approach Goals Instead of Avoidance Goals Action Goals Instead of Desired Goals Concrete and Verifiable Realistic Probability of Success Important or Urgent? Set Priorities A-Priority B-Priority C-Priority D-Priority Plan Time Correctly Plan in Writing and with a System First Things First! Observe Personal Performance Curve Schedule Regular Breaks Allow for Buffer Times Estimate Time Requirements Realistically Follow-Up 7: Develop Beneficial Thoughts and Attitudes: Mental Stress Competence 7.1 Accepting Reality: Simple and Yet So Difficult What Can This Acceptance Look Like in Concrete Terms? 7.2 Challenge Instead of Threat: Evaluating Requirements Constructively View at the Positive Reality Testing and Concretization Relativizing and Distancing Positive Consequences Thinking 7.3 Self-efficacy: The Conviction of One’s Own Competence How Can We Gain Such an Optimistic Self-efficacy Belief? 7.4 Defusing Personal Stress Amplifiers: The Development Square Development Direction of the “Be Perfect” Amplifier Development Direction of the “Be Popular” Amplifier Development Direction of the “Be Independent” Amplifier Development Direction of the “Keep Control” Amplifier Development Direction of the “Hang in There!” Amplifier 8: Creating Balance: Regenerative Stress Competence 8.1 Actively Shaping Recreation 8.2 Enjoyment in Everyday Life 8.3 Relax and Let Go 8.4 Doing Sport and Getting More Exercise in Everyday Life 9: For Acute Cases: The ­4-Step-Strategy 9.1 Accept 9.2 Cooling Down 9.3 Analyse 9.4 Action or Distraction 10: Finding Your Own Way 10.1 The 3 × 4 of Stress Competence 10.2 A Word in Conclusion Literature Index