Step 3: The route to stress

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(10 min)

Trainer notes

Explain the route to stress as on slide 6. One cannot feel an emotion without thinking a thought first. Your body will respond to the thought with a body signal. You will respond with a corresponding emotion, which will trigger an action.

Definitions

Responsive = responding positively, healthily, mindfully in a calm, balanced and understanding manner

Reactive = reacting negatively, unhealthily, in an ill-considered, aggressive or passive aggressive manner

For example:

Think a stressful, negative thought; your body will respond with constriction and fight or flight response. You will feel a negative emotion (anxious, frustrated or scared…) and potentially express the strong emotion by perhaps shouting, slamming a door or confronting someone.
Think a calming positive thought and your body will respond with expansion and the relaxation response. You will feel a positive emotion (content, calm, happy…). You are more likely to respond healthily with a smile, a wave or laughing.

Invite the same groups of four to apply the route to stress to the multitasking exercise and discuss whether they were responsive or reactive. What were they thinking? Distribute Handout 2.4: ‘Good luck, bad luck?’. Invite them to contemplate their perceptions of enforced change.