listen—the child will talk to you. Before long, you
can replace self-criticism with self-approval and
greatly reduce your stress levels.
which are more passive than reactions
to acute stress, include depression and
increased secretions of a hormone
called cortisol, which depresses the
body’s immune system. Other bodily
changes include increased blood
pressure, increased gastric secretions (which may lead to ulcers) and
decreased production of sex hormones.
Stress itself is not the culprit. It does
not assault you from the outside like
a virus. It is created from within. The
problem is how you perceive stress and
how you react to it. Handling stress
means controlling anger and depression
in stressful situations.
Learn to manage and control your
inner self. Blaming clients, bosses or circumstances, or trying to change people
is a waste of time. Instead, you must
change your reaction to the situation
that is causing stress.
What Is Your Stress Type?
Stress affects people in different ways.
A speaking engagement may be pleasant
for one speaker but stressful to another.
People handle stress according to their
personality type. There are three
distinct types:
Logical. In some, logic predominates. They approach life from a
cause-and-effect perspective. They
focus on the here and now and make
decisions only after gathering all of the
necessary information.
Creative. People dominated by
creative energy are future oriented.
Their main source of inspiration is
intuition, and they consider a wide
range of possibilities when attempting
to solve problems.
Emotion. These so-called “
relationship people” are driven by emotional
energy. Their decision making is based
on how they perceive others will feel
about their actions.
Stress sources vary among these different energy profiles. For example,
a logical speaker is most stressed by
illogical people, who want things done
“yesterday” but who are disorganized
and haven’t gathered the facts.
Creative speakers are stressed by
those who resist change and focus on
“useless” details. These attitudes burden
the creative person with an environment of stagnation.
Relationship-oriented speakers
are stressed by working alone, which
deprives them of personal contacts.
They are also stressed by insensitive,
critical people.
The Inner Child
The negative conversations, or inner
dialogues, that people have are
destructive and disempowering. When
people focus on negative feelings or
events, they will become realities in a
phenomenon referred to as “self-fulfill-
ing prophecy.”
Negative thinking often stems from
childhood experiences. The inner child
likes to be acknowledged, recognized,
loved and hugged. In adulthood, this
may emerge as the “hugs”—sometimes
literal—that a speaker receives after a
glorious speech. The adult, by contrast,
is the part concerned with financial
commitments, social aspirations, dead-
lines, etc. Ideally, the child and adult
parts of a person should acknowledge
and respect its reciprocal needs.
Bruno Cortis, MD, FACC, is a renowned health and wellness peaker, cardiologist and author. Dr. Cortis has over 30 years of experience as a surgeon,
interventional cardiologist, and as a spiritual
cardiologist. As CEO and founder of Mind Your
Health, Inc., a health strategy and management
consulting firm, he has given presentations to
audiences on five continents. Visit BrunoCortis.
com and www.stresstoday.info.
