Health & Wellbeing Series - Session 1: Managing Stress

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morning everybody we'll just give it another minute until we kick off at 9:30
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all right well U Mor
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[Music]
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k h toi Stone
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to Oto tin well Mor everybody um it's fabulous
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to be able to be here with you this morning um beaming into a screen near you um it's always a bit weird sort of
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speaking across into this sort of ether um so I'm going to roll with it and sort of make an assumption that people are
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here and that you're all comfortable um can hear me um and are settled in um and
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ready for hopefully what will be a sort of enjoyable um next little bit of time together um I do have a couple of dogs
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in the background which I've hopefully successfully locked out um of this room but I can hear them scratching um so me
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popping off this screen before was to be my sort of grumpy dog mom um voice to
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them to stop scratching at the door um but my name is Alana Stone a proud member of the New Zealand Defense Force
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usually dusted in a little bit of green um and have been uh in the New Zealand Army a psychologist now for coming up
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almost 19 years which is sort of probably showing my age a little bit um but now proudly taking the helm is the
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director of New Zealand defense War psychology um so for those that don't know too much about us in the psychology
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directorate uh we cover a range of sort of brief interventions across areas like psychological support to operations uh
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critical incidence resilience performance well-being and as a as a range of sort of internal assessment and
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selection and psychometric activities across defense um we have a director of about 35
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psychologists across the Mutu um and all three services and our civil staff as well so I'm really pleased to be here
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today um as part of this really fabulous initiative supporting the well-being of our people um and even more so to be
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talking about a topic that's kind of close to a psychologist heart um and very topical I guess in light of the
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current um climate both within and um external to our organization as well um
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so before getting into things just a quick shout out to the team in the background I think these Shel Tracy and Ella so thank you very much who's
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supporting all the kind of it magic it's certainly not my forte um so we'll be assisting with the Q&A function um yeah
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as we go through so please pop any questions um into the Q&A function and we'll create some space at the end to
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answer and kind of get to those um and the chat the chat function itself is actually disabled so you will need to
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find the Q&A function um and I'm on an iPad and I was told this morning I did find it so if I can I'm sure everybody
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um is able to um but on an iPad anyway it's the three little dots and you'll see a Q&A piece in there um but if we're
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not able to get to your questions today um we will kind of w or address them as part of sort of a post presentation wrap
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up in summary yeah so I think that's all about my sort of house and grounds um
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yeah so I hope we can have sort of a fun and engaging next little bit of time
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together all righty so today we'll be dusting out the corners I guess a little bit and Shining a spotlight on the
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concepts of stress and Stress Management um for many as of of us in the context
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of Our Lives work demands choices uncertainty um change plans kids pets
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houses rent uh finances mortgage uh the list goes on um it's quite uh difficult
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at times to remind ourselves to stop and take stock or take on um you know what are we actually doing actively
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implementing to look after ourselves and help us manage our interactions uh with the stress stressors around us
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um and the demands that that places on us sort of often getting caught up and meeting the demands and needs of other people so being able to take a bit of a
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look over uh what we're doing to look after ourselves is really important and kind of how that manifests I guess into
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our well-being is an area that can get a little bit Dusty hence the sort of Spotlight when you turn it on you know
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sort of shows up the the kind of ethers and the bits and pieces that we haven't really been paying attention to very
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well um and spoiler alert I guess I no one would be surprised by this but we're
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constantly exposed to stresses around us in our personal and working lives so today what I sort of have planned um is
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a bit of a look at some of the basics on stress our stress response and spend a bit of time talking about what we can do
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to manage stress um and since it's all related I guess we we'll touch on a little bit of Concepts around well-being
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as well yeah so that's kind of what we have um I have planned for us
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today all right so to kick us off a little activity and it wouldn't be a a session facilitated by a psychologist if
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there wasn't at least one random activity where you wondered what on Earth the psych is doing um it's not
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intended to be anything Sinister at all but I will ask you to take a moment to close your eyes and um while I ask you a
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question um so you can close your eyes if you want or you can steer into space um or just keep looking at me I can't
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actually tell what you're doing so just whatever works for you um but I want you to if you if you want to close your eyes
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um and imagine if you're tapping into the Google search function uh stress um so you typing into your Google
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search bar stress and capture the first thing that sort of pops into your mind when you think of what would show up if
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you um tapped that into your search
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function so like the snapshot of what my search function showed um I'm sure for
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some of you uh you you might have imagined sort of heads and hands some sort of chaos or some kind of images to
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do with concepts of perhaps despair anxiety worry uh overload juggle demands
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Lots going on in the head so lots of these these were the images that came up um when I searched stress in uh in
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Google so whilst uh we wouldn't be wrong to have these associations and certainly like if it's on Google it must be right
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um but the concept of stress itself is actually a little broader um and this form of stress often you know depicted
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here on the screen is often Associated when um we perceive a situation or parts of our uh environment to be dangerous
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difficult painful overwhelming or that we might not have the resources to cope or
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manage but we know that stress is a little bit broader than that so I guess this is kind of um just to give you a
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bit of an overview about some Basics on stress itself so stress can be defined
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as a natural reaction that your body has uh in response to any kind of pressure um or demand and the reactions that we
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have as a result of stress can be mental or cognitive and they can be physical reactions they can be emotional they can
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be behavioral but not all stress is bad uh so use stress is a term that we often
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use to describe good or positive stress and it's experienced when we have um you know when we might find something
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challenging um or we might perceive opportunity or see a beneficial outcome um and this can be really helpful in
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terms of achiev our goals giving getting us motivated to achieve or enabling um quite good performance um and it also
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can help us um prevent boredom as well from sitting in and it's distress that's referred to when we think of those sort
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of negative or bad uh sort of bad type stress we might perceive a situation to be dangerous difficult painful or we
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might not have the resources to cope there is a relationship between stress and performance so um in
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performance psychology we often talk about hitting that sweet spot performance and stress called the peak
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zone or operating in the zone we have enough streets to keep engaged and our performance high but not enough to tip
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over to burn out or um at one end and the other end underwhelm or or boredom
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um both of which will have negative outcomes on performance but it's important to note that even operating at
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our Peak Performance area we can't sustain that all the time so it does it require an ability to come back down and
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into more of restorative phase so even our Elite Sports Teams designed their training programs like that where they
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might um engage and tap into the space of Peak Performance but they have that rest and Recovery
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period another interaction effect that we see with stress can have uh to do with intensity that we experience it as
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well so intense stress whether it's positive or negative is likely to have a more significant impact on us for
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example um involvement in critical incidents or potentially traumatic events uh we can elicit a more
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significantly felt an experienc set of reactions that may take longer to dissipate and equally those sort of
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quite intense positive um stress uh experiences can also leave us feeling kind of surprisingly tired actually in
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quite fatigue in the um in the days or the weeks following as
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well so there are several other considerations that come into play when we're thinking about a situation whether
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it might be stressful or something that we might consider um to be a stressor that elicits a stress response in our
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bodies and um that is what causes that stress reaction so these situations um
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is a list just here kind of around what some of those uh contextual factors might be so situations that might have a
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strong demand associated with them so that might be sort of the perception of life or death um situations or something
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that requires unexpected um or you know above normal amount of sort of effort or
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investment to kind of have an action um a perceived sort of sense of urgency um
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or pressure and pending nature of a situation um there there are things as
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well that can considered to be sort of significant life events or major disruptions or transitions in our life
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so this can cover a raft of things from sort of marriages um marriages uh deaths
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or loss of loved ones and prison a major illness or injury a loss of identity um
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and also loss of employment as well um timing can be another factor that can
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have quite an influence on whether something's considered stressful so whether something might be unexpected um
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and and you're not not necessarily prepared or expecting something um perhaps there might be some ambiguity or
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some sort of unclarity around um what's actually happening um and and that can affect our sort of sense of control as
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well on the situation and how we U Can cope with those demands and also whether we actually want that situation to occur
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or not um so that's that sort of desirability um
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conception and and what it's all sort of uh comes down to where this um I I guess
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uh the center of all of this comes from is uh something that you know believe it or not everybody has one the brain so um
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this is kind of at the center of where all these responses um originate
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from so our brains are incredibly clever they're very impressive there's something like 85 billion neurons uh you
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know wrapped up in there which act as storage and passing information through uh neurons and synapses it speeds of
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just over 500 km an hour uh and Rain run on the same um Power that I think can
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light up a light bulb which is pretty impressive um our brains are constantly scanning the world around us and
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receiving sensory information about uh what's going on we process millions of pieces of information but can only
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consciously take in around 50 every second uh so it shortcuts it compartmentalizes things and it tries to
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make sense of the world quite rapidly and quickly to keep us safe um so the information not only comes from the
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environment that's around us but also our cognitive thoughts as well and it's said that we have on average around 10
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to 15,000 thoughts a day which is pretty outrageous when you think about it um
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and sadly the majority of those are negative or actually caught up in the past or the future rather than in the
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present moment so um you can imagine how taxing that is for our brains to be constantly kind of processing um so how
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we how we then process and interpret those pieces of them information as well as notice them becomes really
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important um so our brains interpret all this information and and we have this sort of fabulously um you know inbuilt
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response system um which is designed to keep us safe uh which is referred to I guess is the stress respon or the fight
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or flight response which you might have heard of in the past so essentially it's designed to gear our bodies up to respond to a situation that it might
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perceive make a decision on whether it perceives it as a threat um yeah so that that little picture at the bottom is
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just an example of kind of where the where the evolution of the stress response has come
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from so I guess in the modern day context I guess hopefully we're not really being chased around by
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saber-tooth tigers although um some people might think their bosses are like that uh but what would uh I guess count
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us I have a moment I guess to think um about what might constitute sort of
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something that could be a stress or will be considered a stress or threat in a modern day context so just take a moment
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to think about that
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so um these are just a list of examples of stresses if I I feel like I'm talking
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quite quickly it's kind of weird not having this sort of interaction um so please bear with me and if you think I'm
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going too fast um hopefully someone can let me know um but uh these are just
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some examples of stress I guess or or major life stresses that have um an
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impact on our everyday lives um and you know spoiler alert most people are
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dealing with some element of stress uh at any given time and and some and more
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often than not it's multiple sources of stress at any one time so it's not easy out there um and our strength response
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can be activated to you know any or all of these types of events um through the more discreet things like um you know
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arguments with Partners kids' behaviors you know other people's driving uh poor customer service uh making a mistake at
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work uh interaction with other people um you know worry uh about past events or
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sort of anxiety and concern about those that are coming up um so they can be kind of quite quite big events or or
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quite sort of smaller discreet events as well so the list that I've got up there um is is kind of your most commonly
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experienced stresses and I popped a little link um because the presentation will be shared post um post today uh
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there's a a scale or a stress infantry scale which is quite a useful little kind of stop check sometimes that you
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can do and just but it' be pretty sort of self-explanatory if you're experiencing any of these things um that
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that is likely to have some kind of impact on you um so they cover yeah
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everything from major life events um you know through to sort of trauma experiences or potentially traumatic
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events um which can include things like um you know wanted sexual behavior um harassment bullying discrimination um
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you know social identity is actually kind of a a really interesting kind of space at the moment that I've been
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spending a bit of time thinking about but those sort of transitions between you know our our sense of belonging um
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you know whether that might be exiting an organization whether that might be um you know you know a loss of a loss of
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some kind of social belonging as a concept um relationships um and also
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individual ident and um you know Concepts like sexuality um and and maybe not necessarily fitting
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in or feeling like you fit in um to social groups as well um yeah attitudes
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thoughts mental health we sort of talked about and also um illness or injury or or physical health impacts it could be
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Transitions and life stages um you know there could be concerns about appearance household life demands and also a number
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of um workplace demands and what we call sort of so psychosocial hazards in the workplace um which can range from things
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like job demands you know you know job roll size a whole raft of things like
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that so understanding how we respond to these types of events um can be really important um so we might go back to
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having a think about kind of what happens inside our brains and our bodies when our stress response is activated by
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a range of these um different stresses so our aut autonomic our n
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nervous system is comprised of sort of two foure elements so the sympathetic and the parasympathetic nervous systems
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um and the sympathetic nervous system is the one that activates our fight or flight response during a threat um or
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perceived danger that enables us to respond quickly um and act uh in the
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situation to Keep Us Alive And while the parasympathetic nervous system restores um our body to a state of calm so these
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two systems are the ones that are responsible for sort of sensory input motor output when our stress response is
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activated affecting wide range of responses and reactions across the body
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um and a part of our um brain uh responsible for activating this response you can see on the diagram on the right
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um is the migdala um so it's just sort of nestled right there in the middle and um and by all accounts it attempts to
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keep us safe and it's doing its job really well um and and there's other parts of the brain kind of just just
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below there sort of hippocampus that have to do with memory which I won't um dive into because I'll I'll kind of chew
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through all the time um but essentially um you know it's those parts of the
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brain are kind of some of the ones that are quite responsible and quite active when our stress response is um
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activated um so another kind of interesting part to sort of notice I guess about the brain um when when our
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stress response is activated is uh the prefrontal cortex that you'll see sort of drawn attention to it the front there
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of of frontal L of the brain that's the area of our brain that is um responsible for really important kind of complex
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decision making thinking concentration um and energy gets sort of drawn away
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from there to kind of Orient towards more um uh sort of sensory parts of our
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brain which have to do with um you know receiving sensory information and also sort of processing that towards the sort
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of base of the brain so um that that sort of helps us I guess in those moments of stress when we're kind of
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trying to take in everything that's around us and make sense of what's going on um there's a really great model
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actually we use it a little bit with our daughter um so our daughter's ADHD so neurodiverse and um you know I'm sure
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many parents out there would have some fabulous U moments with emotional um
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regulation or sort of the complexities of that with with young kids um but there's a really great model that we use
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um called the hand brain model um that we that we kind of came across by Dr Dan seagull um which sort of describes the
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anatomy of the brain so right from the brain stem um and we have our amydala sort of tucked into the middle there and
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when our brain and it comes around to the prefrontal cortex so it's all kind of wrapped up nice like this um and
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everything's kind of working well when it's all together and um you know yeah nice and in control and when we get our
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stress response activated um we sort of flip our Lids so that's kind of the the context of how that model is described
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where our prefrontal cortex has popped up to the top um and it's not necessarily engaged in activated the way
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that it would be if we were kind of um you know in a normal state of sort of calm so it it kind of help describe and
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particularly as a parent I think when you're engaging with kids that are kind of you know having a bit of a wobbly um
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that uh you know no amount of reason is going to do anything uh so there's literally no point in kind of you know
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wait until they can kind of D you know regulate their emotions get things back down where they're able to engage that
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prefrontal quartex so um that's a really great model to kind of have a look at online as well um the handb brain model
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um yeah for those that are interested but it's a really nice kind of um easy to understand um you know concept around
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where that energy gets kind of drawn from within our body so just another little um kind of
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diagram here I popped in which is just around kind of the the um range of responses and reactions that actually
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get triggered as part of our um sympathetic nervous system when it's activated so um you know we get
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increased blood FL blood flow to parts of our brain we have a whole bunch of hormones and and Ne and chemicals sort
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of dumped across our bloodstream you know all designed um you know to to engage our muscles to to respond readily
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so our heart rate increases we have faster deeper breathing um you know we we we're primed and ready to react and
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respond um so we we tend to get a much more sort of ATT tuned to the environment around us from a sensory
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perspective um as well so that that there's a whole bunch of stuff that's kind of going on we kind of have um
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blood clotting agents that get dumped into our bloodstream we have um you know some parts of our some chemicals that
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sort of um might you might hear about uh ex examples or experiences of people and
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and sort of when stress responses are heightened where they don't they might um not pay attention or not notice
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injuries or or things that are happening because they they're sort of primed and ready to respond uh so that's sort of a
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chemical called cortisol and adrenaline that kind of help get everything kind of moving around our bodies so in a shortterm sense it's
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quite a useful um you know a useful response mechanism to allow our our bodies to engage and be primed and ready
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for action however I guess it's kind of on the long-term um basis um that this
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can be uh quite difficult and we do need to put some active strategies in place to kind of bring things back down or
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kind of activate that parasympathetic nervous system so um we tend to think about stress reactions in four main sort
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of areas um so we have that sort of the Mind space or the the mental cognitive area we have um behavioral uh we have
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the body or physical and we have um tional um kind of reactions as well so you can see there it's really common um
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I guess you know under stress and particularly kind of longterm or or cumulative stress um to have things like
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you know racing thoughts uh memory problems uh worry or rumination impulsivity poor judgment um you know
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finding it really hard to concentrate and perhaps even seeing things a little bit more negatively um and perhaps also
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um you know being being more stuck in sort of Mind Loops or kind of worry and and and and pieces like that
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um in terms of behavior this can kind of manifest in in in in a range of different ways whether that's um sort of
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an increased consumption in alcohol or drugs to help manage symptoms um procrastination or neglecting um
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activities that you otherwise would have been um you know able to do uh changes in eating so overeating not being able
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to eat uh and sort of disrupted sleep is a very common symptom um yeah we can get
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hypervigilant too so sort of pacing fidgeting nail biting um which all sometimes can be kind of automatic or
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without actually being kind of consciously aware grinding teeth clenching or jaw clenching um and also
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perhaps kind of withdrawing from other people or being kind of overtly um engaged with others in terms of a
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difference um and in terms of our body we might notice um sort of a weakened immune system so when when our body is
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sort of engaging in that stress response you know it sort of reduces um energy or
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expansion of energy into areas that our body doesn't need at that time so things like you know there's not necessarily
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any point I guess sort of digesting food at that particular moment in time uh nor is it kind of focused on sort of you're
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our immune system or um you know our reproductive system so there can be some quite kind of significant long-term
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impact on on those kind of body systems and functions where we might have sort of digestion issues nausea um you know
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loss of sex drive or even fertility issues as well for ongoing stress um and we can also pick up you know more often
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can pick up frequent colds and because of some of the things that are dumped in our bloodstream we can have um you know
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an increase like old injuries that might Fleer up and things like that so tense muscles aches pains um
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yeah um and the last one there is emotion so um again yeah this could be a
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change in in in emotions but this is a part of our brain that's kind of much more um responsive I guess during times
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of stress so it can come out for people sort of like quite a common one is around irritability or Ang anger or
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depression loneliness uh restlessness or f ftiness um feeling overwhelmed or or a
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range of combination of emotions so there's quite a raft of um of of stress
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you know responses that our body has um to the activation of our stress response
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and um you know and what we might see you know if someone's involved in a particularly sort of traumatic
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experience um that these reactions are quite heightened um and a you know the
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in the few you know 3 to 5 days sort of following an event and then we expect them to sort of dissipate but if we're
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kind of maintaining this sort of constant um level of stress um you know there can be some quite significant
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negative um impact on us so um I thought it would probably be good double click
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here um to reference the Defense Force mental health Continuum model here and this is really I'm sure most people
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would have seen this around it's been around for a little while um you know fabulously taken from Canada I think as
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Origins were but um anyway it's a really great model to sort of describe that you know mental health and sort of our our
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functioning I guess is on a sliding scale so we're not always going to be in the green which is where we kind of want
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to be we we are going to experience um common uh stresses and and and distress
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at some point um and you know if we leave it and and we don't do things to kind of help bring us back down it can
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turn into things that are quite severe and persistent um and even end up being kind of I guess at the red end of the um
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Continuum model and the ill end where we we will need to get some sort of um specialized help and um extra support to
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kind of get back into green so it's quite normal uh to sort of um oscillate in that space of sort of green yellow
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we're not always going to be in green uh so it's really important to remember that but we do want to try and you know
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do things that kind of help us sort of stay at that end of of the spectrum um
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yeah and I guess um you know that's another sort of useful concept to sort of think about is that we do we do tend
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unless it's sort of quite a significant um you know event that has another of those factors that we talked about you
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actually you know you'll gradually sort of slide down the scale um you know over
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time so things like you know you don't necessarily get straight to burnout for example um you know there'll be a period
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of sort of overwhelming and signs um that we you know may may or may not be so easily able to pick up on
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so I guess we get into the part now where we think about you know what can we do to deactivate our stress response
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so um this is a you know there's some technique to it um I guess and and um
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sometimes we might not even know that we've got sort of a lowlevel hum of of our stress response kind of being activated um all the time um and other
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other situations might be much more um easily able to identify yes I'm I'm
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feeling quite tense or I'm feeling like my stress response is going and I'm sure most people can think about um examples
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of when that stress response has been activated and um might be quite useful just maybe to sit there and think um you
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know yeah what does that what does that feel like for you um I know you know
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when there's certainly when I've maybe I don't know you kind of let's sort of a low level kind of example but um maybe
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if you have uh I don't know you you've Le the house or something like that and then you might kind of be thinking and
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then you realize oh you know I've left I've left um something on like that iron or oven or I don't know cook top or
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whatever um and you might experience a little bit of like a flood of of of kind of reaction at that point in time when
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your your body's kind of perceived a threat um and your body's ready to kind of respond with that and you might be
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able to apply some strategies to bring that back down um in the moment and then what you might do subsequently but um
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yeah just just you know it's useful to kind of think about you know what what does that feel like and then as the
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context to kind of you know how do we deactivate those kind of symptoms so um yeah maybe for those that are in groups
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maybe just have a a little conversation with the person next to you um or the people next to you and for those on your
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own just have a bit of a think about you know what do you do uh to deactivate your stress response whether that's um
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in the moment so in the- moment techniques or those that you might put in in terms of a slightly more kind of
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you know longer term sort of approach so I'll just sort of sit on screen for um a
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minute maybe while you kind of have a discussion around that I have a drink my
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coffee e
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all righty so um so there's a range of techniques that we can use to manage
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stress in the moment so there's going to be some things that won't be so helpful for managing stress in the moment so you
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might think you know when I'm when I'm stressed like I like to take a you know bubble bath or something like that it's not necessarily going to be um
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appropriate or workable in certain situations so in context where you um are you know your stress response is
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activated and you need to kind of um do something in the moment to kind of Bring It Back Down um you know there's a range
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of really um good techniques that that work um and one of the most effective
31:38
techniques is your breathing technique uh or breathing techniques and there's a range of them out there um you know even
31:45
just simple counting but it's sort of diaphragm breathing we we have some strategies in defense called tactical
31:51
breathing but it's essentially just um sort of like a military way of saying deep mindful breathing um but anyway it
31:59
it so that can be quite useful where you're sort of you know counting up holding and then counting back down
32:04
again and that is one of the most effective strategies to help kind of bring um bring down our stress response
32:11
and kind of activate again our parasympathetic nervous system um so there is some good uh evidence behind
32:18
that being quite effective and we know um you know even being able to apply things like um that tactical breeding
32:24
concept when we're um you know in a shoot or something like that where we're able to kind of really Center and focus
32:29
and slow things down so that we can engage in the activity that we want in a in a good way so um yeah breathing
32:36
techniques are really useful the concept of mindfulness so this is really like mindfulness for those that are like you know what what is this what is this
32:42
concept it's been around for a little while and it's taken traction um we've got a really good act actually um in
32:49
defense has a contract with at the moment called headp space um I think it's been uh ceased in April next year
32:55
but um that that is a you know you know a great place to practice um a concepts of mindfulness which is really just
33:02
about being mindful about bringing yourself into the present at that
33:07
particular period of time and there's a whole raft of different ways that um or strategies or techniques um you know
33:14
things like visualization or grounding or breathing are all kind of um techniques used within the kind of
33:19
practice of mindfulness but it's essentially um you know bringing bringing yourself into the present and
33:26
and slowing things down um so things like you know visualization it might be imagining yourself in a calm safe space
33:33
um or it might be um you know a grounding activity there's a there's a
33:39
whole handful that can be quite useful there's a you know it's a 54321 uh exercise so um you can just go
33:46
five things that you can see four things that you can hear three things that you can feel two things you can smell and
33:52
one thing that you can taste so it's kind of bringing you back into the present uh using all of your senses um
34:00
or simply techniques like just describing you know in in your head or or or or verbally if that if that's
34:05
better for you um you know what what you can see around you or focusing in on a
34:10
specific object as well that you can see um in front of you um there's yeah so
34:16
grounding techniques even just being able to kind of sensorily sort of feel where you're you know you know if you're
34:22
sitting in a chair or if you're standing up as kind of feeling yourself kind of being present and grounded you know what
34:27
can you feel in terms of your body you know body and the interaction with the environment um Progressive muscular
34:34
relaxation can be quite useful often these are slightly long you know they can be kind of longer activities that
34:41
you can do um you know which you might do lying down where you kind of go through parts of your um I won't get
34:47
into that part yet but um in terms of um Pro Progressive muscular relaxation like
34:53
in the moment um you know there's ways that you can kind of engage muscles so maybe tense your fists or tense your
35:00
feet or sort of mus muscle groups and and then you know hold for you know a count slow count to sort of two or
35:06
something like that and then release them so it kind of works on sort of bringing focus into parts of your body
35:12
and then sort of releasing that tension um so that can be quite useful as well
35:18
um sensory circuit breakers so sometimes um you know St certainly what help helps
35:23
at home sometimes with um young kids in sort of you know full um emotional um disregulation is is even just having a c
35:30
a sensory circuit breaker um so that might be something like you know even you know getting a piece of ice suying
35:36
on a piece of ice or something like that so it might not necessarily be um you know able to be achieved in every um
35:42
circumstance but sometimes thinking about a sensory circuit breaker that kind of helps disrupt um kind of what
35:48
the brain sort of locked on or focused on at that point in time um yeah and then positive affirmations as well so
35:54
reminding yourself that you know you're okay you're going to be be able to get through this um you've done this before
36:00
um or that you believe in yourself to cope so being able to actually kind of counter some of that anxiet or worry
36:06
with some sort of positive selft talk or positive affirmations so they can have quite a big um positive influence on us
36:12
as well feels I feel like I'm rolling
36:17
through this right okay um oops all right and then in terms of
36:25
sort of more um you know Pro you know managing stress in sort of a slightly
36:30
more long-term approach or thinking about sort of proactive stress management techniques um you know
36:35
there's a range of things that we can do um so social connection and actually um you know being with your people whoever
36:42
your people are uh but spending time with those that matter to you can be a really powerful um you know uh Stress
36:50
Management technique um and also sort of talking and engaging and actually processing so some people might need
36:57
that time to sort of spend inside uh and inside their own um head space I guess
37:02
but um it is really good to talk and share um and connect um so there's so
37:08
much power and evidence behind social connection uh and the value of sort of peer um peer support Family Support um
37:15
laughter um so actually being able to engage in something that can distract for for a period of time but I I be able
37:22
to kind of um you know release sort of other parts you know endorphins and things like that that can kind of help
37:28
with um mood um again mindfulness and the breathing the progressive muscular
37:34
relaxation techniques meditation visualization so this sort of little cluster of um of uh activities has a lot
37:41
of evidence base behind them being effect uh effective um so mindfulness um
37:46
again you know one thing I will sort of cave it with that is you do need to sometimes practice these techniques so I
37:53
wouldn't recommend kind of jumping straight into sort of like a 20 30 maybe but you know like a long session of of
38:00
of kind of you know meditation or something like that without having practice some of the techniques to sort of you know bring your thoughts back to
38:07
the present so um just maybe like a little bit of a a a self-disclosed sort
38:13
of experience I remember so my one um my one of my aunties is Buddhist and um she
38:20
had a sort of a Buddhist practice for a little while and anyway um I was a little bit younger little bit younger I
38:26
might have been in my early 20s or something like that and uh and I'd gone you know just come along to this sort of you know meditation session I was oh
38:32
yeah sounds cool you know I'll head along and um and uh was anyway sitting there and and it was something like a 20
38:39
or 30 minute session I think I I I couldn't get through like a single sort of count from zero to 10 uh and and it
38:46
was supposed to be 0 to 10 and then 10 back down to zero just to kind of help sort of be present and and sort of just notice things around you but not get
38:52
stuck in any kind of off you know thinking or thoughts and I didn't make it through a single a single one of of I
38:59
don't even think I got from zero to 10 to be fair um and I and I and I walked out after about six or seven minutes I
39:05
was like this is too much um I I have successfully done done that now but it
39:11
does take practice um to be able to kind of get into that space of being really grounded centered and um and and calm
39:18
and and there's some Merit to that in the science behind uh you know meditation and practices like yoga um is
39:25
that it brings us and makes us kind of in you know forced to be kind of in the present where we're not spending all
39:31
this time kind of forward and backwards of where we are um so there's some really good uh evidence around these
39:37
strategies being useful um yeah Progressive muscular relaxation I talked to just before and and and just kind of
39:45
broadening out the concept of rather than just kind of doing you know small discret body parts that um you know you
39:50
can do in the moment you know these techniques that you can kind of uh combine with practices of mindfulness or
39:57
or meditation but um you might sort of lie down and work your way up your body
40:02
so you might sort of you know focus on sort of tensing your feet for example and then you know counting holding and
40:08
then counting on release and then kind of working your way up until until you get sort of your head and that can be
40:14
quite um a useful activity to kind of really bring kind of um a sense of relaxation and kind of that
40:19
parasympathetic nervous system um exercise and nutrition so um
40:26
exercis is obviously um you know fabulous way to kind of help our bodies process um extra cortisol and and things
40:33
that are kind of floating around in our blood dream um you know but look if if you're not you know I'm not like a you
40:39
know 10k run kind of kind of person um but if if so you know you don't have to wear light you don't have to get out
40:45
there and go for a run like just you know but doing something active can be really useful so even if that's just
40:51
getting out there for a walk even if it's going for a swim um you know or or any of the exercises or activities that
40:57
you like doing they're all going to be really beneficial for just getting things moving around your body um and
41:03
nutrition is really important too so um you know if you're having uh you know
41:08
can be tempting to sort of just you know get stuck into um I don't know bag of
41:13
chips or something with sugar that you feel like you might need um because your body's kind of had this sort of Spike
41:18
and it's looking for something extra kind of top it off um it can just make your highs higher and the lows um much
41:25
lower so nutrition is really important as well um in the days kind of following any kind of major stress or even just
41:31
sort of to man help manage ongoing stress um yeah optimism reframing
41:37
positive selft talk and gratitude so there's a range of sort of um activities here that are kind of focused on our
41:43
cognitive thoughts so there's some Frameworks and models out there around um you know how do you how you can build
41:49
kind of a more optimistic sort of reframing um you know of how you might interpret situations um but the
41:55
influence of selft talk and the things that we say to ourselves are so powerful so there's um some practice techniques
42:02
that sort of sit in the cognitive behavioral therapy space but um you can just you know even typing into Google
42:08
CBT techniques um you know it's all about you know how we you know how we
42:13
perceive so our actions and behaviors and and then our sort of cognitions and thoughts as well so if we can kind of
42:19
catch that Loop cycle which is really hard to do um without sort of some practice of noticing that that these
42:26
kind of threads or or you know thoughts or cognitions have been kind of rolling around um but even being able to do some
42:33
things like gratitude exercises so it might be that you know at the end of the end or start of every day there's some
42:40
you know like three things that you're thankful for or grateful for um you know
42:45
about that day or the day ahead so even activities like that can really bring you back into kind of that sense of sort
42:51
of um you know previous positive experience and kind of building a bank um and helping your brain kind of
42:57
develop new thought loops and and um uh yeah thought Loops in that area um yeah
43:04
there's a range of selfcare strategies as well um that we can put in place so that might just be things like um you
43:10
know doing some of our hobbies and people often talk about doing hobbies that are um uh creative or H Hands-On so
43:17
things like you know painting uh Pottery um uh I don't know Woodcraft like what
43:23
what carving um you know things that kind of you know bring you into the prison and you can be still um with what
43:30
you're doing as well so um they can be quite useful um and things like you know
43:35
yeah taking a bath taking a hot shower just things that kind of are focused on um you know your well-being I guess and
43:42
and kind of giving you you know doing something that brings you Joy um yeah so
43:47
those are kind of just probably uh nothing new there but just a reminder I guess of um of some of the stress and
43:54
and proactive stress management techniques that we can um put in
44:00
place um and I've got a little list of sort of other um hopefully helpful tips
44:06
for managing stress um is finding something that works for you um and and
44:12
practice practice practice those things so visualization techniques are not going to work for everybody um and uh
44:20
and and likewise you know if if you um if you're if you're not a if you're not a runner you know don't don't go out
44:27
there and try and attempt to to you know do a half marathon as a way to kind of make yourself feel better um but uh you
44:35
know you'll just be running the whole time being like I should have picked the bubble bath or or whatever you might do so um you know find something that works
44:42
for you and sometimes that's not really a space that we spend a lot of time thinking about like what what is it that
44:48
brings me joy or what is it that makes me happy or makes me feel uh restored
44:53
but it is really important and and particularly for those um strategies and techniques that you need to practice
44:59
it's so important mindfulness um visualization even um some of the grounding techniques um and yeah
45:06
certainly need to have um practice so um you know the evidence around um your
45:12
mindfulness and the heads space appers it's not just you know going on when we we might think we only need it in that
45:17
moment but it's you know the more often we do it and even if it's in really small kind of um doses you know we Bank
45:24
our experience and we get better at the practice of that um and the effects become more
45:30
immediate um yeah it's really important like smart goals so setting realistic goals so um specific measurable
45:36
achievable realistic with a time frame and break things down too so um particularly if if we're getting in the
45:42
space or sense of kind of being overwhelmed um you know break the task down so it might seem quite
45:48
insurmountable the thing that's happened or the thing that you need to solve if it's a mistake that's been made but
45:53
bring it right down what is something tangible that I can control that I can do right now um so just kind of and then
45:59
kind of celebrate those um achievements when you um achieve them um boundaries
46:05
so um you know I'm not a fabulous kind of role model in this space with sort of boundaries around personal time but um
46:12
it is really important um you know to think about your boundaries and you know what are your what are your limits and
46:18
what are you going to put in place to make sure that you're getting that ability to have those periods of respite
46:24
um I know yeah just recently actually you know had a lot of you know there's a lot of work demands and job demands and
46:30
and so um you know there would have been every uh you know I could have easily worked
46:36
all weekend um but i' I'd pre-book because I knew that it was a particularly busy sort of um period And
46:43
I booked some sort of rest bite time down with my brother and his family and Nelson and I had such a nice uh time and
46:49
and it was hard at times going oh you know resisting the temptation to log on or resisting the temptation to do
46:55
something that I knew need to be action but I know how important that time is for me um to be able to kind of get that
47:02
recharge that I can keep going so it is really important to schedule that time the things that bring you Joy and and um
47:09
and kind of Rest by it an ability to kind of be in the present um yeah another really um good tip I think is
47:16
kind of getting familiar with your red signs so when you're pushing into the red space um you know what does that
47:22
look like for you what does that feel like how do you notice what do other people see um and so if you sort of
47:27
start noticing that in you you know how are you going to restore how are you going to replenish yourself or your
47:32
energy levels so um you know even strategies in the workplace could be things like you know a weekly or even a
47:39
fortnightly sort of um calendar reminder that you might ask yourself a series of questions like how many times did I eat
47:46
lunch you know how many times did I get out and go for a walk or do exercise during the day um you know in in the
47:52
home environment it might be you know when was the last time that I had 10 minutes to myself so um you know
47:58
questions that kind of um you know that might help prompt you if you're not so great at kind of um noticing when you're
48:03
kind of pushing towards that orang uh red end um yeah small but frequent so um
48:11
yeah I I think you know short bite siiz you know sometimes I think people go well like I don't I don't have time I'll
48:18
have to save all my self- care for when you know it's a girls weekend or or a weekend away or whatever it is but um
48:25
you know that then might not end up doing them because they'll get deprioritized so sometimes just that
48:31
small but frequent um yeah and in the presence or something that kind of brings you to where you are um in that
48:37
point in time is really um important to do um yeah and then just remembering that there's just one of you so um
48:43
there's only so much that you can um that you can give um and at some point uh you know something kind of give so
48:49
there's some really useful um you know lucky I guess being an Al but you know really useful Concepts around um health
48:57
and wellbe like the farm model that you know we we we give a lot in in different
49:03
domains of our life and we need a lot in different domains um and so you know
49:08
when we're out of kilter um you know we're at the center of all of that so we're all constantly sort of giving and
49:13
and not kind of having our needs met too um yeah there's only one of us so it could take its
49:23
toll right yeah and just a sort of a reminder I guess um of some of our defense um support Avenues as well so we
49:30
have our nzd for you um Services heads space mindfulness app so I do encourage you like it's a it's a free service um
49:39
and uh through to April so you know make the most of it there's some other really great um apps available um free for use
49:47
as well um I'll see if I can I won't get myself too distracted and I'll find the name of one that I've got on my um phone
49:54
which I've found quite um
50:00
useful it's called insight timer and it's got a little like Zen ball um in
50:07
the middle of it Insight time of it that's got like a range of um you know fabulous kind of meditations and and and
50:13
kind of breathing exercises and mindfulness exercises that um people have kind of communally sort of put in
50:19
in one space that you can kind of pick and choose from um sometimes there's some really good sort of sound type
50:26
therapy sort of stuff as well where you you kind of have have some noise and you're kind of doing a mindfulness meditation um in and listening and being
50:33
present using music to kind of bring yourself in and Center so um anyway so that was a big massive Divergence there
50:40
um and then we've obviously got our defense Health websites which have some really fabulous um information in there
50:45
about looking after yourself instead of managing stress so um yeah that is uh all I kind of had um
50:55
so I guess it's up to question Q&A um if there's some any questions or anything
51:02
that anyone has I feel like I literally rambled and I don't see anyone's faces so I have have no idea but um yeah I
51:09
appreciate everyone sort of um tuning in um yeah and I'll just open up Q&A so
51:16
I've lost on no question so that's that's okay for me but I'll um I'll wait for a
51:22
couple of minutes perhaps um if there's any questions in there
51:29
hi Alana it's just Shelly hi hi so we actually do have some questions would
51:34
you I can it's all right I can um ask them for them for the people yes that's
51:40
good sorry I'm not not an IT person so um I found the Q&A function but who
51:46
knows it's okay I can run through them for you it's absolutely fine uh so the first question here is are we able to
51:52
train our brains to compartmentalize to help us manage stress
51:59
yes and you can retrain new um new Pathways and so definitely by practice
52:06
so um what some of the kind of Concepts that sit behind some of the therapy types I guess uh is that your your brain
52:13
becomes sort of accustomed to following a circuit or or a loop that it's that it grows stronger so the the tendency when
52:20
it's when a situation happens again um you know that that that's the thought Loop that we will kind of continue
52:26
unless we're kind of really conscious about breaking it and disrupting it and giving it something else to kind of FOC
52:32
like to to do instead so um the concepts that sit behind some of that is exactly
52:37
that is kind of Shifting um into a new way of thinking or a new pathway for our brain to kind of focus and follow on um
52:45
so uh certainly but it does take practice and it does and it's not easy so sometimes even we we might start some
52:52
of that work with um you know someone who's providing some extra support or trying do that on your own it it
52:58
sometimes can feel like it might get a little harder before it gets easier and because our brains like they love a
53:04
routine and they love to go back to the the thought loops and the patterns that um they've developed to kind of you know
53:10
make sense of what's going on for them so um it can sometimes feel like it gets a little bit uncomfortable or a little
53:16
bit hard to start with before you kind of start to see that sort of progress so it is really important to kind of keep
53:22
at it um you know if you are doing work in that space to kind of help re bra I mean you know some of the things too
53:28
like when you think about um you know core belief sets and things that might influence how we think and and and and
53:35
see the world and perceive things around us you know they've developed over a lifetime and some of them are very well
53:40
ingrained I and can be really challenging to to kind of move past um so even the way then your brain will
53:47
perceive something it'll revert it back to some of those kind of core belief sets so um it is really important to
53:53
yeah I guess practice um and and just be aware that sometimes it can get um harder before it gets easier as
54:00
well yeah awesome thank you so much for that just bear with me uh we have
54:07
another question uh what could we do to support those around us that may be feeling stressed I think you've already
54:13
covered this um but if there's anything else um that you can think of that would be really helpful yeah nice um yeah I
54:21
mean such a great question to ask because it is a really tough time out there at the moment um you know I think
54:27
we're in this kind of like a massive Trifecta of um you know the these these
54:32
kind of global worries and yeah Global worries and concerns there's the the
54:37
kind of New Zealand context as well we've got coming out of a recession there's there's Financial stuff going on
54:44
uh so it's it's hard for so many people from a number of facets and um and uh
54:50
you know the the best thing you can do is be there be there as a human you know a good human being and and be kind to
54:57
other people and ask so it might feel weird and awkward to just be like you know hey you know how how you going I've
55:05
kind of noticed you know X Y and Z and and um you know how you doing um it can
55:10
be a bit uncomfortable in the but being there and just being able to ask that is much better than um than not and just
55:17
having that that door open for other people um and just to say Hey you know I'm here for you if you if you do want
55:23
to talk um or I'm here for you to um you know know I'm happy to just be an ear or I'm happy to um you know do something
55:30
that will help you take your mind off it and um and often you know um some people might need that that activity to kind of
55:37
um to be in a position to feel where they're able to kind of engage and and discuss things too so whether that's you
55:42
know going out um and socializing or whether that's um you know going and and doing you know a kind of a an activity
55:50
together like going for a walk or playing a sport or something like that so sometimes even just getting people out to those of spaces and being able to
55:57
kind of you throw that conversation out there and I think it's just the the invitation and and and not not being
56:03
afraid to just ask the question and the worst that can happen is they can turn around and say no I'm sweet ass um and
56:10
and that's okay but you know having that that opportunity to show that you're there and that you've noticed some stuff
56:16
um and that you're there for them I think is just a great place to
56:21
start right thank you so much um we've probably got time just KN we've got five minutes left uh we've probably got time
56:27
for another couple of questions here uh could you please confirm the
56:33
54321 order for grounding techniques for anxiety and
56:38
worry yeah sure so it's um five things that you can so it's based on your
56:44
senses and it probably doesn't really matter which way around you do them to be perfectly fair but uh it's based off
56:52
like five things that you can see um four things that you can hear um three
56:58
things that you can feel um two things you can smell and one thing you can taste and um the only reason it's
57:06
probably in that order is you're probably going to have less things that you can taste I'd suspect in a particular given moment so the seeing
57:13
thing is you're going to have more things that you can kind of bring in so by the time you get to that it just might be um you know that that you yeah
57:20
you'll be in a better place just to kind of focus on one so see here um feel
57:26
smell taste so just kind of drawing on the senses um but sometimes even just doing the um you know the the the focus
57:33
on an object and describing it even just kind of picking five things and and there's a really good um I think the I
57:41
can't remember the name of the book we've actually got it we' got it for um another one of our little humans who um
57:46
gets real Angry sometimes and um and it's all about kind of you know that implementation of calm and it's focused
57:53
on the same type of thing so describing you know the things we can see the things we can hear um yeah but it it's
58:00
not too much to get too caught up you could you could even just you know drop taste off and and even potentially drop
58:06
um smell off and just focus on on three senses but um but that's the
58:11
54321 yeah sorry ramble that's all right thank you I'm
58:16
sure that was very helpful uh so we have a comment in a bit of a question here as well so headspace is a great app and I
58:24
know of many who use it is there any scope for the contract to continue after April
58:30
25 I I you know um I can't answer that question um yeah the defense psychology
58:38
director were involved in some of the research early on in um you know advocating for the for the app um and
58:46
one of our um previous mcdf psychologists did a really great piece of research around its Effectiveness um
58:52
so defense did have the contract but we we have had some sort of you know not maybe so great use rates as well so
58:59
there are there are definitely people using the app but probably not as many as kind of maybe had been anticipated
59:05
and and we had kind of wondered about you know perhaps that was you know because people use it in the moment um
59:11
and and they maybe not continue it but you know we do you do need regular use so um certainly I think if there's
59:18
people that are you know strong strong sort of advocates for um for that
59:23
particular app um and the license to Contin you I certainly would recommend you feel free to reach out um to me the
59:30
most appropriate person would be our director of integrated Wellness um so Colonel CLA Bennett um and and the team
59:37
there that kind of put and has been responsible for kind of delivering that app um or the the access to that but
59:43
yeah um I've I've evaded your question but um kind of hopefully answered
59:49
it it's all right thank you um so I'm just noting the time is 10:29 so um we might actually just stop
59:59
the questions coming in there is still a few in there um and so we'll we will answer those after this session and we
1:00:06
will post it into ddms um and we'll provide you a link with that but I will just hand back over to Atlanta thank
1:00:14
you well thank you so much everyone for um for for stucking here for the hour um
1:00:20
and I hope that you found a few things um that you could at least take away um or that were useful from our time today
1:00:26
um so yeah so have a fabulous rest of your
1:00:40
day bye