Hey there! First off, I am truly grateful that you have found this blog! Either you are a family member or friend who feels obligated to check it out, or someone who is looking for a little help, I’m glad you are here.
So, what’s my story? Over the past 20 years, I have been an educator and coach in a public school in Agawam, MA. Working with teenagers and young adults has been an interesting ride. One of the things that I have observed over the years is that we are all terrible at managing stress. As a coach/teacher, that is basically the job. To be a stress manager. If I put too much stress on my students/athletes, they will breakdown and not improve. If I give them too little, they won’t improve. Unfortunately, what I do with them is not the only stress in their lives.
The older I get, the truer this statement is. So many people are fighting various situations. Health, job satisfaction, children having trouble in school, family issues, deaths of loved ones and the list can go on and on.
“90% of all doctor visits are stress related.”
alleh, M. R. (2008). Life Event, Stress and Illness. The Malaysian Journal of Medical Sciences : MJMS, 15(4), 9–18.
That stat is disturbing to me, and this was from over 10 years ago! I’m pretty sure that the amount of stress has gone up since then. Some of the diseases that they are referring to are:
Heart Disease
Asthma
Obesity
Diabetes
Depression
Anxiety
Gastrointestinal
Accelerated Aging
Premature Death
Autoimmune disease
Insomnia
Now, I am not an expert in stress. Nor am I a doctor or therapist. I am coach that looks at health and wellness through the lens of teaching and coaching. There are a lot of parallels. The way you get an athlete ready for competition has a lot of similarities to how you might deal with everyday stress. Things such as nutrition, recovery and exercise can be some of the low hanging fruit that can help you manage stress. Now, if you are severely in need, please seek out professional help. The goal of this blog is to educate people and try to manage their stress by trying to make little changes and manage what they can. I am going to try to put out some content and easy action steps a few times a week. If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, please let me know! Again, thank you for reading, and my hope is you can find a few gems to help you or someone else!
CoachBenj'sGamePlan 