Podcast 3 (out Friday 9 May) - Spotting The Signs Of Stress

What's in this podcast?
Life is full of potential opportunities to learn and grow in response to significant kairos events. To do that, we have to start by being able to spot them, and observe what happened. In the podcast, I'm sharing some examples of good kairos moments - like a birthday treat - and bad ones - like some unsettling news we had in the office. Spotting what's going on, and deciding to learn from it, has been key to chilling this week. There has been a lot more stress caused by people either trying to insulate themselves from shock, or keeping quiet when there's bad news which needs to be discussed.

Sometimes we're aware of stressful things as they come up, and we can deal with them. But often we don't know why we're stressed, we just are. Hopefully we can still spot the signs which tell us this is happening. For me, these include working really long hours, being quiet when I should be sharing, or being more abrupt, short and loud with people when I should be taking more time to go over things properly. I tend to try and take control and assume I should cope with everything by myself, which often increases the pressure and makes me even more stressed. If I can spot this, or a friend spots it for me, I have a good chance of changing track before I blow up!

The next step in the learning process, to get closer to a properly chilled life, is to take that observation that a kairos has happened and, if it's a bad one, that signs of stress are showing, and move on into reflecting on what's making us feel the way we do. Is there something to learn about who we are and how we work which can help us chill more next time? That's the topic for next week.

How can you join in?
It would be a great idea to make a note of some good and bad kairos moments you've had recently, and keep an eye open for more over the next week. Try and observe what happens - in your emotional reactions and, as much as you can see, what the kairos was which set them off. You'll feel the most encouraged if you note down at least one or two good ones, even if there are several bad ones at the moment.

Also, try and observe your signs of stress, as I have here. They can act as a helpful early warning, although it is really easy (and can feel like a good idea at the time) to ignore them and push through regardless. (I'll write an extra article here next week about the relationship between our stress level and our productivity. That might help if what you're really wanting is to get lots done, but sometimes get too stressed to work properly.)

I'd love to hear some more of your kairoses and experiences. If you would like to share yours with me, you can email podcasts@bernleckie.com or you can join our discussion groups to share with other podcast listeners here.