THROUGH
‘68
‘18
2018 EDUCATION CONFERENCE & TRADE SHOW
MANAGING STRESS
HOW THESE FOUR SURPRISING STRESS SYMPTOMS
MIGHT BE SABOTAGING YOUR WORK
S
tress has become so familiar that
we think we know exactly what it
looks like. But sometimes stress can
fool us. Several symptoms of stress don’t
actually look like stress - and because of
that, we may ignore them. But untreated
stress causes conflict, burnout, and a
reduced quality of both work and life, so
catching stress early is critical.
To identify some of the more difficult-
to-catch signs of stress, be on the lookout
for these four hidden signals:
ARE YOU EXTRA FORGETFUL?
Not all forgetfulness is a sign of aging!
Stress impairs your working memory,
making it difficult to remember what you
are doing. Research suggests that if you are
feeling more distracted and forgetful than
usual, stress could be the culprit.
ARE YOU EXTRA AGGRESSIVE?
If we shove our stress down and fail to
acknowledge it, it has a way of cropping
up in other areas of our lives. Many people
who ignore their stress find themselves
behaving with misplaced aggression, acting
out on other people who aren’t the cause of
the stress. If you’ve ever seen a dog attack
its sibling when it can’t reach a squirrel
on the other side of the fence, you’ve seen
misplaced aggression. We sometimes lash
out at others when we can’t show our
anger where it’s really warranted.
ARE YOU EXTRA PASSIVE?
On the flipside of aggression, a brain
under stress can try to conserve mental
www.aamdhq.org
energy by “checking out.” If you
find yourself suddenly passive on
issues that usually get you excited, it
might be a sign of too much stress
in your life.
ARE YOU EXTRA FATIGUED?
While fatigue is a well-known
symptom of clinical depression, it
can also be a sign that your body
is trying to avoid coping with a
stressor. You may brush off your increased
fatigue as a natural reaction to working too
hard – which it could be – but if you are
getting a good night’s sleep yet still always
feel sleepy, stress may be to blame.
HEY, I WAS EXPERIENCING ONE
OF THESE FOUR SIGNS! WHAT DO I
DO?
Recognizing you’re suffering from one
of these lesser-known symptoms is the
first step to treating your stress level. To
reduce stress, start by taking control of
your workload. Are you spending time on
activities that are “urgent” at the expense
of activities that are more important?
Once you streamline your workload as
much as possible, be sure to build mental
breaks into your day. Particularly when
working on stressful activities, short
mental breaks allow your brain a chance
to switch out of the panic mode it can
sometimes get trapped in.
Finally, try to prevent “stress-bleed.”
Often, when we’re stressed in one
environment, we allow that stress to carry
COURTNEY CLARK
2018 PRESENTER
over into other realms of our lives. If
you’ve ever snapped at your partner after
a hard day of work, you kn ow what that
feels like! Create routines that limit stress
bleed, like listening to music during your
commute to build in a little mental buffer
between work and home.
Having a buffer doesn’t mean you don’t
talk about your work day at home and your
home life at work, but it does mean that
you don’t carry the stress with you from
one place to the other.
Don’t let stress be the boss of you.
Recognize these four often-hidden stress
symptoms and nip them in the bud before
they threaten your happiness and success.
I’ll see you on May 23rd at the
Conference and Trade Show, so we
can keep the conversation going about
managing our stress levels!
Courtney Clark provides content-based motivation
that helps individuals adapt faster, achieve more,
and develop Accelerated ResilienceTM. She is the
author of two books “The Giving Prescription,”
and "The Successful Struggle,” keynote speaker and
founder of a nonprofit. www.CourtneyClark.com
APRIL 2018
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