Podcast 025: Stress is good

In this episode of the Ultimate Youth Worker Podcast ‘Stress is good’ Aaron speaks with us about how we as youth workers can reframe the idea of stress in our lives to gain some level of mastery over the experiences that often lead youth workers to burnout. Every year hundreds of youth workers leave the sector citing burnout and stress as some of the most likely reasons fr their departure. If we can’t master stress then it will destroy us.

Stress is good

In todays episode Aaron speak about the growing research into stress and how we have been taught to think about it all wrong. We have been told for many decades that stress is bad for us. That we need to run away from stressful situations because stress causes significant physical health concerns.

Well in a nutshell the latest research would argue that if we think stress is bad for us then it probably will be. However, if we believe that our stress reactions are there to point us in the direction of getting support then stress is actually a good thing for us.

Stress helps us to begin a process of emotion regulation. It helps us by bringing to the forefront of our minds the situation we are in and it asks us to reappraise the resources we have to deal with it. We have internal and external resources at our disposal and we need to use our rational brain to think about how we can use them to deal with the negative issues in our stressful situation.

Arousal reappraisal teaches individuals to think of stress arousal as a tool that helps increase performance. By reframing the meaning of the physiological signals that accompany stress, arousal reappraisal breaks the link between our negative experiences and feelings and poorer physical responses.

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Today’s resources

Here are links to some articles and training that have bearing on todays podcast.

Improving Acute Stress Responses:

• TED talk (Kelly McGonigal)
• The Power of Reappraisal (Journal article)
• Get some supervision

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