Giorgio Grossi on stress

Recently I was on a train trip from the west coast of Sweden to the east coast, and came across a very interesting article about stress in Kupé magazine – the Swedish railroad’s regular publication.

I’ve translated the article into English, as Giorgio’s comments on stress are extremely interesting to all people – but especially to us as performers.

Article from: Kupé, July/August, 2009 p.52

Text: Eva Gussarson

(Article summarised, and translated from Swedish)

When we become stressed, ancient survival reactions begin in the body. It can be easier to wind-down on holiday if you can understand how these reactions work.

“Stress reactions are like petrol in car”, says Giorgio Grossi, a professor of medical psychology and author of ‘Hantera din stress – med kognitiv beteendeterapi’ (Manage your stress – with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy).

“The entire body is affected: your pupils dilate, your rate of breathing increases, muscles become tense, blood-pressure and adrenaline rises.”

“The problem with stress today is that our stress reactions are really designed for short-term events, which should be followed by an unwinding process, preferably physical.”

“It can be difficult to wind down if you then have had a high tempo with a lot of stress during an extended period of time.”

“It’s like running in mid-air. It can feel uncomfortable for those that aren’t used to winding down. They can feel restless, and perhaps have the urge to throw themselves into further activity. But the best thing to do is simply wait until the discomfort passes.”

Why is it so difficult to wind down?

“The body is used to feeling stressed.  Thoughts race, your physical motions are hurried, and you have physical tensions.  It is these factors that can keep stress with you. What then happens when you wind down is that with time the adrenalin levels, pulse rate, and blood pressure go down. You eventually reach a state where you just are.”

How much time does it take?

“It depends on how much you go in for it, says Giorgio Grossi, and makes a comparison with how sufferers of arachnaphobia expose themselves to spiders to learn to melt their fears.”

“If you ignore the initial unpleasantness, you arrive at a new state of mind.  But if you try to flee – plan, sort out, organise – you end up just putting it off until later.”

“You should probably count on a week to 10 days to wind down if you are very stressed. But to wind down doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to lie in a deck chair and do nothing. It all depends on what you need. For example, if you have a job which doesn’t provide enough stimulation, you may be in need of new forms of stimulus.”

Is there something that can speed up the winding down process?

Absolutely. If you have had an traumatic or stressful experience during the day, physical activity can help you come back down to earth. Regular exercise can also have a cleansing effect, build up tolerance to stress, and calm you down.  But even if exercise is an anti-depressant and counters the effects of stress, it is not the answer for everything.  There may be other sources to your stress.

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And this where many of the exercises and techniques in Performing in The Zone come in. Techniques such as Going Peripheral, Qi Gong, and practicing Silence all have a direct impact on your stress levels. Bring your day-to-day stress levels down, and your performance arousal level in performing situations can also come down to a more relaxed, manageable level.