3 Reasons Why Stress Management Programs Do Not Work

In todays high pressure society, stress comes from many things.. And it seems that more people succumb every week. Up to 90& of all visits to the doctor are for stress related conditions. And the statistics dont stop there. Every day the newspapers scream about how many days are lost due to stress, and how much this is costing industry. And new stress relief programmes and stress courses are springing up all the time. So why isnt all this working? Why are more people than ever suffering from stress?

There are three main reasons for this:

1.People like the concept but dislike the work

This has been said before. Many people buy weight loss videos, foreign language programmes, gym memberships and so on because they want to lose weight, learn a foreign language a, get fit etc. And this is all very impressive because these things do work. They all come with testimonials from satisfied customers saying just how easy this course was to follow and how much their life has improved as a result.

But buying the course, programme, membership is not what it takes to make it work. You have to take action. And It is just the same for stress relief programmes.

Many people Think that simply buying a yoga video will help reduce their stress levels; or that attending a stress relief workshop and returning to exactly the same stressful lifestyle without incorporating anything different is sufficient. It is not.

Bringing stress levels down is an active process. Just like losing weight or getting fit, stress management needs action if it is to be successful.

2.Little Motivation and No Stigma

Change can be scary but when it is clear to everyone whether you have succeeded (you lose 10 pounds) or failed (you are still smoking), it can be very scary. People like success. A strong motivational upside will encourage people to give it their best shot. But this is where Stress reduction programmes differ from other programmes. Whereas there is a social stigma by and large, to smoking, obesity and alcoholism, there is no stigma to being stressed.

And worse than this, big companies can make it plain that they need employees who can take the stress. Employees attending Stress management programmes could Lose out on promotion as not being able to take it. So there is actually a motivation for people to stay stressed.

3.Over Scheduled Lifestyle

When you are stressed out, you have very little space in your head to take on new ideas. In fact the very thought of attending a Stress reduction programme can make you more stressed! And people who already have very busy lives tend to focus their time where they think theyll get the best returns. So they spend more time trying to make their boss happy, or running the local school fete even though they know that following a stress management programme would make them happier and healthier in the long term.

Stress relief programmes work. But it will take a radical shift in the attitudes of most people and most employers before they are allowed to work. And in the meantime, our society will continue to get more stressed and over time, more ill. Dont we owe it to ourselves to make stress reduction a priority?