joe's blog

A path to Wellbeing

November 2^nd 2011 was National Stress Awareness Day in the UK.  Wellbeing and Resilience at Work was the theme chosen by the organisers, the International Stress Management Association (ISMA^UK), for this year’s event.  Wellbeing; now there’s an interesting word.  Do we need it? And if we do, how do we get it?

I find it odd sometimes to call myself a stress manager, when I find myself in two minds as to whether there is such a thing as stress or not.  Of course, our bodies have a stress response which activates various systems to enable us to fight or fly when we are threatened.  This acute stress response describes what happens in our bodies when we perceive ourselves to be in at risk or in danger.  This is temporary stress and it causes changes in the body that prepare it for "fight of flight.