A press on stress

Stress was very much on my mind this week, as I navigated competing priorities, juggled travel and put a press on finishing up a good first half of the year.  A funny (?) episode took place relating to this topic.

Rude Hotel Guest

When I am traveling (was in Dallas this week), I tend to relax late in the evening at the hotel by picking out some stand up comedy act on Netflix on my iPad and watch it.  I tend to laugh loudly, perhaps louder than the comedy act warrants.

On this trip, I watched Craig Ferguson, the Scottish comics' show, "Does this need to be said?" - utterly raunchy and profane act and funny.

One of his funny lines was that it took him 3 marriages to realize this rule of good relationships; the rule was asking himself the following before saying something to his wife:

1.  Does this need to be said?
2.  Does this need to be said by me?
3.  Does this need to be said by me, now?

I let loose at his jokes, cackling loudly and letting my stress accumulated during the day, flow slowly but surely out of my system.

The next morning, I showed up in my professional garb at the hotel restaurant in the lobby.  My female colleague joined me for breakfast.  We got talking and I asked her if she had a good night's rest.

She said that she had some neighbor who kept disturbing her with his loud cackling laughter and could only go to sleep after the laughing stopped.

I stole a quick glance at her vexed expression, after which I kept my eyes firmly on the plate on my table and made mumbling sympathetic noises about rude hotel guests!

Masai Mara Baboons

I highly recommend the National Geographic documentary titled 'Stress'.  Forget all the mumbo jumbo you've heard about stress (causes ulcers) and check this video out for some serious, cutting edge scientific research on this topic all the way from baboon societies in the Masai Mara in Africa to government workers in the British civil service.  The research conducted spans 30 years by researchers from Stanford University and Oxford.

What you learn about how stress affects our 'telomeres' is utterly fascinating and scary.  Just learning about what these telomeres do is fascinating.  They are caps that protect either end of every chromosome in your body - holy mackerel!

Telomeres

The documentary shows how animals in danger use stress.  How animals in societies experience stress (baboons).  And finally how humans physiologically experience stress.

Some time ago in the U.S. the campaign against smoking took off like a rocket when pictures of what smoking does to one's lungs started being shared.

Don't be surprised if the same does not start happening to pictures of 'telomeres' and that of our brain cells.

Also the antidotes to stress documented in this engaging video are surprisingly surprising!  I highly recommend checking it out!  Available on instant view on Netflix.

http://movies.netflix.com/Movie/National-Geographic-Stress-Portrait-of-a-Killer/70107420#height1807
 

Short Answer

Recently a senior executive was promoted to one of the biggest jobs in our company.  He now manages tone of the most prized divisions in the entire enterprise (described to Wall Street as the 'crown jewel' of our enterprise).

In order to introduce him to the rank and file, there was an interview with him.  He was asked about his background, his experience, his interest, his approach to management, his vision for the business etc.

The last question to him was, 'What is the one thing you make sure you never miss every day?'

His one-word answer, to end the interview was:

Exercise.