Stress, loops and the psychology of unfinished business ... Stress reduction is a major industry today, much of it based on flimsy evidence and producing even flimsier results. One reason for this may be that ‘stress’—the physical and mental response of the body to demands made on it—is deeply misunderstood. The issue really isn’t the ‘problem’ that occurs (the “stressor”), but our ability to respond. One way of understanding stress better is to think of it as ‘challenge’. Too much challenge and we burn or blow out; too little leads to boredom, inertia, depression and despair. Stress (or challenge) is an archaic adaptive response prompting us into some kind of self-protective action. Of course, this doesn’t necessarily explain the kind of free-floating stress from which many people suffer and which continues to make the pharmaceutical industry blindingly rich. Here’s one way to help yourself, you friends and family or your patients and clients reduce the impact of non-specific stress. Bluma Zeigarnik was a Soviet psychologist who studied what might be called the psychology of unfinished business. Back in the 1920s, she and her supervisor, Kurt Lewin, noticed that waiters seemed to remember orders that had not yet been filled. As soon as the customer had paid and left, the waiters forgot all the details of the order. They speculated that unfinished business—“open loops” in the language of Medical NLP—caused mild cognitive discomfort. But the discomfort was resolved as soon as the business was finished, or the loop closed. This has become known in psychology as the Zeigarnik Effect. One contribution to free-floating stress is an accumulation of open loops. Too much unfinished business can upset your digestion, distort your mood and disturb your sleep. Our suggestion: make a list of all your open loops: either all the unfinished business you can think of, or only that in a specific area, such as work. Go through your list and eliminate those tasks that are no longer important. Surprisingly, many of these ‘obligations’ will have withered on the bough. Get rid of them in clear conscience. Now, prioritise the remaining tasks. Decide on a reasonable time scale for each and make the commitment to tackle these regularly and systematically. Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to close too many loops. Aim for one or two a day. Finally, reward yourself (a movie, a new CD, a caramel cappuccino and a magazine at your favourite coffee shop) to celebrate completing each stage. The Zeigarnik Effect can be encountered in many different areas in your life. In our Medical NLP Health Practitioner Master Training, we teach our students how to harness this phenomenon to treat a number of worrying conditions, inTraumatic Stress Disorder. Let us know if you find this post useful ...
Posted on: Tue, 08 Oct 2013 12:38:43 +0000
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