Stress is often seen as the villain in our daily lives, but let’s not forget its silver lining. Just like the adrenaline rush before tackling a challenging project at work, stress in short bursts can actually be beneficial. It’s the kind that sharpens our focus and boosts our confidence.

However, when stress overstays its welcome, it can become a burden. Major life events trigger our body’s stress response system – fight, flight, or freeze. This response is nature’s way of helping us navigate through tough times, enabling our minds and bodies to work together to respond to these significant challenges.

Unveiling Micro-Stressors: The Quiet Culprits of Daily Life

Yet, amidst the discussions of stress, there’s a quieter culprit that often goes unnoticed: micro-stressors. These seemingly insignificant stressors may not raise alarms individually, but as they accumulate throughout the day, they can have a significant impact on our well-being.

Examples of Micro-Stressors: A Morning Unraveled

Micro-stressors come in various forms, from the constant buzzing of technology notifications, wifi being down, not feeling good enough, traffic jams, unrealistic expectations of ourselves, conflict in relationships professionally and personally, interruptions to the pressure of meeting deadlines. Just take a moment to reflect on your own small annoyances from today.

As an example this morning: wet towel on the floor in the bathroom!,  another child couldn’t find their trainers for PE (even though they were asked to pack the bag the night before)!, running late for school run, the level crossing barriers were down, in my mind the deadline for this article, follow-up emails from a workshop, preparing myself for clients, new message from a client, how do I fit in making dinner?!….all by 8.30am

Individually they seem insignificant events but accumulated it is akin to ‘death by a thousand cuts’.

The Hidden Impact: How Micro-Stressors Manifest

These ‘annoyances’ often go unnoticed by the mind and the body because in isolation they are not really a ‘threat’, but as they accumulate you may become aware as they manifest. Maybe as:  headaches, muscle tension, low concentration, impaired memory, low confidence, emotional outbursts, anger, disagreements or higher sickness absence. Even though they are not enough to activate our stress response they elevate blood pressure, trigger hormonal or metabolic changes, and disrupt our sleep patterns.

In a study by Barrett, exposure to social stress within 2 hours of a meal led to the body metabolizing food in a way that added 104 calories to the meal, without activating the mind or stress response.

Breaking the Cycle: Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms and the Vicious Cycle of Stress

When stress grips us, it’s common to resort to coping mechanisms that ironically worsen our state, perpetuating the cycle. Whether it’s turning to alcohol, drugs, overeating, gambling, endlessly scrolling through negative news or social media, or isolating ourselves, these behaviours offer fleeting relief. Yet, the respite they provide is short-lived. Despite their harmful effects, they’re often our instinctive response to pain and distress. We are all human and these behaviours are a sign that we are hurting.

Empowering Solutions: Taking Control of Micro-Stressors

There is hope. On an individual level we can all begin to identify ways in which we can help ourselves by making 1 or 2 changes:

1. Limit the intrusion of technology notifications by switching them off and having set times we respond.
2. Become aware of our boundaries – why is it your responsibility to make ‘others happy,’ pick up their workload, etc? Otherwise, this can lead to burnout.
3. Connection with others who make you feel good helps us feel part of something bigger than ourselves, feel understood, and can provide different perspectives, which in turn can impact our self-worth.
4. Take a few minutes and find a breathing technique that works for you, eg: box breathing,
5. Be aware of your own patterns because our own actions can often activate a boomerang response. If you snap at someone there is every chance they will respond in the same manner, which then compounds your micro stress.
6. Talk to yourself with kindness because this releases oxytocin which is a cardio-protective hormone. It also helps us understand that we are doing the best we can to the best of our abilities which can begin to reduce our negative chatter of ‘not being good enough.’

Hope Amidst the Numbers: Addressing Work-Related Stress

In the UK the cost of work-related stress is staggering: £28 billion a year with 13.7 million days being lost to work-related stress, anxiety, and depression. Research is showing that younger employees are struggling with remote/ hybrid working.

Employers investing in employees’ resilience, mental well-being, and mental fitness see a 5:1 return on investment. Team-based training fosters a comprehensive approach to stress, benefiting productivity and organisational culture. Despite stress’s negative impacts, proactive measures show positive change is possible.

The Power of Self-Care and Support: Seeking Professional Help

Recognising micro-stressors empowers us to take action and regain control over our wellbeing. Small changes, like setting boundaries or seeking support contribute to greater resilience and reduced stress.

While self-help strategies are invaluable, there may be times when professional support is needed. Seeking help may feel daunting, but it’s also empowering because Quest therapists can offer the support needed for positive change and that means you can break the cycle.

References: Lisa Feldman Barrett | Deloitte | International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology | Harvard Business Review

Stress Awareness Month 2024