Almost everyone experiences stress at some time, the line between motivation and stress is a narrow one and with modern day pressures it is too easy to feel a loss of control.

Motivation can turn into stress when we become overwhelmed and our thought patterns become negative. It’s the difference between one day when perhaps we have a long list of things to do, but we feel good, energised, motivated and up for the challenge, every time we tick an item off the list, it motivates us even more.  The next day however, we have a to do list just as long, but we look at that list thinking ‘I’ll never get all that done’, ‘I can’t do ..’ the pressure builds up and the stress increases and we’re overwhelmed. When this happens, everything can get caught up in our negative forecasting, our ‘stress bucket’ fills up and our capacity for coping reduces thus exacerbating the problem.

If things are left unchecked sand the stress is prolonged, many people can start to develop symptoms of anxiety, usually beginning with problems sleeping, irritability, inability to concentrate, but can lead on to more serious issues including OCD, IBS, insomnia, headaches & migraines or anger problems to name just a few.

There are many courses available to help you manage stress and many organisations provide stress management training as part of their employee welfare because it costs industry £billions every year in lost days, sick pay and reduced productivity.   There is still a taboo in the UK associated with being overwhelmed with stress – how comfortable do people feel in going to their HR department and saying ‘I need help, I can’t cope with the stress’, especially at management level where is it often prevalent and those employees don’t want to be seen as ‘weak’.   Which is isn’t of course, but when someone has become overwhelmed with stress, their own negative thinking will lead them to believe that others will perceive them in a negative way, preventing them from seeking help inside their own organisation.

Stress doesn’t only affect people in large organisations, stress can become part of anyone’s life and is part of our modern day world and, in fact, we need a certain level of stress to get us out of bed in the morning, but we are bombarded with advertising in all forms constantly setting our expectations and aspirations.  Advertising that subconsciously makes us compare ourselves to the ideal, telling us we ‘should’ be able to manage our 3 happy smiling kids, hold down a full time job and play tennis in our spare time with our perfect bodies!

We can’t change the world and advertising companies, and there are many other factors contributing to our stress of course, but we can learn to deal with that stress in a positive way which motivates us rather than overwhelms us.

At Old Town Hypnotherapy, our unique approach and understanding of how the brain works, helps you to manage the stress in your life, change the way you are thinking about things, focusing on the solutions instead of the perceived problem and redress the balance in your life.