We have visited two tools to evoke positive emotions. First, we have written gratitude letters and thought about our achievements to evoke gratitude. Second, we trained “reframing” or “learned optimism”. Now, we will explore another topic that might help you to become an effective leader: stress management. This is an optional section for those of you who are interested in how to deal with stress.

We have seen earlier that today’s world is very complex. We are expected to produce more and more, while the external distractions are becoming larger and larger. This can cause significant amounts of stress, Stress has a negative influence on leadership, professional performance, and overall happiness. Therefore it is a priority that we learn to manage and prevent stress. 

Stress also has a negative impact on your body. Research has shown that 75 to 90% of all doctor’s office visits are for stress-related ailments and complaints. Chronically high stress can lead to serious problems such as burnouts or depression. Now we will talk about two tools that can help you reduce stress. 

The first tool helps you choose your reaction to external events rather than accepting the default response. Then we will learn how to prevent you from having so called amygdala hijacks. These are moments where you act in such a manner that you immediately regret it afterwards.  Let’s start with the first part; the freedom to choose your response.