Stress management: An essential part of employee wellness
According to the Gallop Poll 80% of workers feel stress on the job and a massive 51% say they need help in learning how to manage their stress. With economies crashing and our fears getting bigger, it seems that in today's world stress seems to come at us from all sides. But surprisingly stress seems to actually come from our insides.
As stress in our modern lives is caused primarily by anxious thinking & worry about all the demands and the thought of losing control over our lives and work, it seems that the fear of our problems are actually most damaging to our health. This anxiety based stress leaves our minds whirling, our hearts over beating, our emotions wired and our bodies too exhausted to fall asleep at night.
According to the Grant Thornton Global Stress Report, SA has the highest stress levels within the Eurocentric population. Stress in the workplace has an impact on employee absenteeism as well as presenteeism and is a significant component in disability claims. It is well documented that anxiety and stress are part of every illness-complex and, if treated, will have an impact on the patient’s overall well-being and ability to cope in the workplace. It seems logical then for employers to consider stress intervention as part of improving productivity and long term wellbeing of their employees.
So, how can you manage stress in the workplace?
Katannuta Wellness has teamed up with Dr Justin Kennedy, a research psychologist with extensive experience in the management of work place stress and anxiety. In collaboration with Katannuta Wellness he has designed a practical intervention programme that sustains stress resilience. This programme has been designed to control stress symptoms based on extensive scientific research and uses the principle of guiding participants in attaining the “Relaxation Response” .
The Relaxation Response is a physiological state opposite to the well-known fight and flight response of the “stress syndrome”. By mindfully engaging this response the physiological results of chronic stress such as sympathetic autonomic activity as well as hormonal activity are literally reversed. Stress symptoms are as a result, dramatically eliminated.
The programme uses a technique that monitors heart rate variability (HRV) with focused respiration to aid the subject in attaining the relaxation and sustaining mental, physical and emotional wellbeing. The Relaxation Response has been extensively studied by Herbert Benson MD, associate professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School who coined the term in his book of the same title published in 1975.
Want to find out more about the Stress Eraser and Relaxation Response?
Are executives in your company suffering from elevated levels of stress? If you would like to find out more about Katannuta's approach to stress management and how the Stress Eraser and Relaxation Response can help your company, please feel free to contact us.