Among the three major strategies of stress management, response strategies include two aspects:

In the field of stress management, intervention strategies are generally divided into three categories: proactive prevention, situational adjustment, and stress response. Among them, the core components of response strategies are very clear, which is Instant adjustment at the physiological level and Cognitive level bias calibration Two parts, no other vague extensions.

To be honest, I have been working as an EAP supporter for the Internet team for five years. I have seen too many people scold themselves at the first second when the pressure is on, "Why are you so useless? I can't handle this thing." They miss the best window for intervention. In the end, the small pressure turns into insomnia and migraines, which in turn delays things even more.

Don't believe it, when people are stressed, they will enter a state of "amygdala hijacking" and the rational brain will go offline directly. At this time, it is useless to tell yourself "don't be nervous" a hundred times. The first thing to do is physiological adjustment. The operations intern I led gave a quarterly project report to the entire company for the first time. She stood in the background with a pale face and was speechless. I pulled her and did 478 breathing three times - inhaling for 4 seconds, holding for 7 seconds, and exhaling slowly for 8 seconds. After the third breath, her tears were gone. Her first sentence on stage was so steady that I was surprised. Previously, there was a school of thought in the clinical psychology community that physiological adjustments were a "quick fix" that treated the symptoms but not the root cause. Until 2022, the Stanford Stress Research Center released tracking data: people who make physiological adjustments as soon as possible every time stress is triggered have long-term cortisol levels that are 37% lower than those who endure it. The incidence of chronic stress-related hypertension and insomnia is also much lower. Now few scholars will deny the value of this step. Of course, the specific method does not need to be rigid. Some people squeeze a stress ball for 5 minutes. Some people go to the corridor and blow cold air for 30 seconds to slow down. Some people even secretly bite a popsicle to suppress the heartbeat. As long as it can quickly activate the parasympathetic nerves and bring the excited sympathetic nerves back to normal levels, it is a good method.

After the heartbeat stabilizes and the brain can turn around, the next step is to calibrate the deviation at the cognitive level. Let’s talk about the intern just now. After the report, she came down and told me that when she was standing in the background, all she could think about was “What if I failed in my presentation and the boss fired me?” She waited until her breathing slowed down to realize that the entire team had been working on the project for two months. Even if there were questions that were not answered, and I, the supervisor, was there to make up for them, even if the presentation was not good enough, at best, she could just practice again next time, and she would not lose her job. There are quite big differences between different schools in how to deal with this step: CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) pays attention to "breaking it over", asking you to write down the extreme ideas that pop up in your mind one by one to find counter-evidence. If you list two or three, you will feel that the idea just now is outrageous. ； The method of the mindfulness school is more "soft". You don't have to argue with your thoughts. You just need to be aware of "I have an idea that I want to be fired. This is just an idea, not a fact." Without judging or entangled, just focus on what you need to do at the moment. The pitfall I have encountered myself is that in the early years, I always recommended CBT methods to visitors. Later, I found that people who are already prone to internal friction will fall into new self-attacks by arguing with themselves. For them, the mindful awareness method is more labor-saving. There is no absolutely better method, just whatever suits you.

Oh, by the way, many people tend to confuse reactive strategies with proactive strategies. For example, if you exercise regularly and adjust your work and rest to reduce stress sensitivity, that belongs to the category of proactive prevention and is not included in the reactive strategy. The core of the reactive strategy is "immediate intervention after the stress has been triggered." In essence, it is the cup of cold water you rush to immediately after you are burned. It makes sense to suppress the burning sensation first, and then think about how to prevent the burn later.

When I share stress management with the team, I never say, "Everyone should be a stress-free person." Stress is a survival mechanism evolved by human beings. There is no need to treat it as a scourge. With the support of these two reaction strategies, even if pressure suddenly comes to your door, you don't have to panic. Spend two or three minutes to stabilize yourself first, and everything else will be easier to handle.