Two office colleagues recently suffered a heart attack. You feel healthy yourself, although a healthy dose of stress is part of your job. You can only ask yourself: how do you notice when it becomes too much?

Where is the line between healthy and pathogenic stress?

That question is very justified, because victims often only notice that there is too much stress when they are physically ill. However, stress is not inherently unhealthy.Stress researchers distinguish between eustress and distress. Falling in love , for example, is eustress, so it is positive because it has a strengthening effect. Adventure holidays or challenging sports also have this beneficial effect.Every challenge activates and generates positive stress. Our cardiovascular system increases performance while our body adjusts to a greater load. This would benefit us, for example, to get us to safety in a dangerous situation or to defend ourselves against an attack. And it therefore allows us to perform better in a working environment. In principle, the body’s stress responses make perfect sense.

Rhythm is healthy

Distress, on the other hand, has harmful effects, mainly because the tension becomes chronic and no longer lasts. The remedy for preventing distress is therefore rhythm. Rhythms can be regarded as a basic biological principle:

• inhaling and exhaling;
• sleeping and waking;
• the beating of our hearts.

All elements of healthy living. Rigidity and one-sidedness are unhealthy.Everyone who works hard also needs to relax. This means that one should not take one’s work home with them. This also applies in a figurative sense. Anyone who still worries at home about problems at work or even keeps them awake at night has crossed the line into unhealthy stress. He must find ways to demarcate work and private life.

What to do if work stress causes illness?

• A simple tool is to immediately write down unresolved problems and everything that comes to mind about your work, even and especially in the middle of the night, in order to clear your head.
• Immediately taking off your work clothes at home and putting on something more comfortable as a “demarcation ritual” can also help;
• If all that no longer works, you need a coach to help you get out of that vicious circle.

After all, continuous strain leads to the drying up of mental resources. In the long term, this is an ideal breeding ground for the development of diseases such as a heart attack, diabetes or in some cases even cancer. Stress research clearly shows that effective recovery management is indeed central to prevention. Also central is adaptation to stress. Involvement is good, but self-esteem should not depend on performance.

Tips for reducing stress

• Always give yourself enough sleep;
• Pay attention to a balanced diet;
• Plan exercise into your weekly plan without pursuing ultimate goals with exaggerated sporting performance;
• Cherish family life and friendships. Social contacts are an important resource;
• Professionally, strive for a position that challenges you but does not exceed your capabilities;
• Don’t complete assignments at the last minute;
• Ensure a clear daily schedule with recurring rituals;
• See mistakes as opportunities and don’t try to be infallible or irreplaceable;
• Are you aware of being a valuable and respectable person, regardless of what you perform at work.