Coaching Stress Management

This 18 page coaching stress e-book is your essential guide to coaching stress management and will quickly give you a solid grounding in the subject.

The tools within this e-book can be used to understand and manage stress when coaching others or for your own personal development.

Stress enables us to describe in a single word, the range of issues and difficulties we face when adapting to changes and challenges within our everyday life.

Stress is seen as more than simply a natural process of adaptation, but acknowledged as potentially having a negative impact on an individual. It is no longer defined only by the existence of a stressor, but also by the result of the ‘struggle’ the individual has going on with them. And the stress reaction is considered to be a sign that the individual can no longer cope with what is being asked of them.

Example:

A difficult job will stimulate you as long as you succeed, but if difficulties arise and you are unable to manage them, the result will be feelings of stress.

One issue has been, we have no medical definition for stress and some health care professionals are unable to agree if stress is the cause of problems or the result. It can therefore be hard to understand why somebody feels stressed.

We do however know what stress feels like, it’s just difficult to describe it. So, we can use terms like “I feel stressed” or “this is stressful” when we talk about having a lot of work to do, not having much control over what is happening or having demands on us that we simply find difficult to cope with.

Dealing with stress

Many strategies exist to help us deal with stress and understand how we react to it, so we can cope with the modern world. Some people have a natural ability to manage stress and others learn through experience or training. Here are some of the more popular approaches and strategies you can discuss when coaching stress management:

• Logical analysis – Take a step back and look for the source of stress
• Finding the positive – Look at the situation from a different angle and try to be optimistic
• Taking responsibility – Learn to recognize and accept when you make a mistake and let go of anger so you can forgive others
• Adjusting your standards – Nobody is ever perfect, so don’t set yourself up to fail and be willing to compromise with others so you can agree what is OK or acceptable
• Problem solving – Look for a way to solve the situation or find a solution that will help reduce the pressure or impact it is having on you and others
• Gaining control – This may not always be possible and we must learn we can’t control everything in life, but look for options or see what influence you can have on the situation
• Saying no – Try not to take on too much and focus on the things that must happen now
• Talking it through – Sharing how you feel can really help if you are feeling overwhelmed, so talk to a loved one, trusted friend or colleague and listen to their feedback
• Finding more information – Getting all the facts will help you better understand exactly what is happening and why, so you can list the possible options available
• Getting help – Sometimes professional support and guidance is exactly what we need when our normal coping mechanisms are not working

Full content list:

Understanding stress
What is stress?
The definition of stress
The role of stress
Signs of stress
Personalities prone to stress

Can we have good and bad stress?
Using stress to your advantage
The psychological aspect of stress
Behaviors associated with the stress reaction
Stress, anxiety and depression

Stress events
Life events and micro stressors
Understanding the impact of Long-Term Stress

Stress Management
Learning to cope
Healthy living
Stress at work
Karasek – Demand control model
Example of corporate stress

Coaching Stress Management
Coaching individuals
Hierarchy of needs
The Process Communication Model®

Managing stress as a coach
Managing your stress levels
Are we more stressed today?

Meditation & Mindfulness
Meditation exercise
Mindfulness exercise

Further reading

• We are constantly adding content to the site, so please check out our on-line shop or read the blog posts written by our team of international coaches

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MyCoachingToolkit.com – 2020