Konrad Wiesendanger
ESM - Embodied Stress Management
Escape the Stress Trap with Agile Mindfulness
A book is rarely only the product of its author’s mind. Countless inspiration, conversations, and encouragement supported me while writing this book. I want to name my wife and colleague, Franziska, whom I want to thank for reading the manuscript with a critical eye and for her many valuable suggestions. And I want to thank my stepdaughter, Annouc, for posing for the pictures.
Escape the Stress Trap with Agile Mindfulness
The exercises presented in this book and in the audio files are not overly demanding for physically and mentally healthy people. However, by no means whatsoever do they replace any medical or psychological support that may be required. The author and the publisher explicitly exclude any liability. You practice Embodied Stress Management (ESM) techniques at your own risk.
© 2018 Konrad Wiesendanger, Lucerne
Cover design, illustrations: Konrad Wiesendanger
Translation from German: Johanna Ellsworth
Publisher: Tredition, Hamburg
978-3-7469-0773-4 (Paperback)
978-3-7469-0774-1 (Hardcover)
978-3-7469-0775-8 (e-Book)
This book, including all its parts, is protected by copyright. Any use without the consent of the publisher and the author is not authorized. This applies in particular to electronic or any other method of copying, translation, distribution, and public access.
Stress designates all reactions of an organism to specific external stimuli. Today, however, we define stress more in terms of emotional stress factors, such as the pressure of time, noise, or unpleasant contact with customers/coworkers/supervisors as well as pressure that arises from these experiences.
Stress leads to the release of hormones, such as adrenaline or cortisol. Any long-term overstimulation with out an adequate regenerative compensation may lead to muscle tension, followed by back pain, overweight, high blood lipids, blood sugar level and blood pressure, which may lead to arteriosclerosis or even heart attacks and strokes. And psychological disorders, depression, and burnout have increased enormously in the past years.
The health report of the Federal Republic of Germany reports: As of 2012, 5% of all reported cases of illness and as much as 10 % of all days of sick leave were due to such psychological disorders. The economic damage is reported to amount to more than 200 billion Euros. Dealing with stress correctly can therefore distinctly increase the quality of an individual’s life, considerably improve a company’s productivity, and enormously increase the GDP as well as improve international competitiveness.
This book provides individual workers with strategies and very quick and specific tips for dealing with stress better and avoiding its fatal consequences. Businesses that make it possible for their employees to participate in such programs will be rewarded with fewer sick leave days, more contented workers and therefore a better market position. I hope this book will be distributed widely, and I wish its users all the success in the world!
Dr. Volker Schmiedel, M.A.
Volker Schmiedel is the author of numerous health guides.
Contact: v.schmiedel@paramed.ch
Not all types of stress are the same. Working as an architect in the 1980’s and 1990’s, I dealt with very different kinds of stress. Whenever I completed a bid for an architecture competition, it meant long days and nights at the drawing board, deadline pressure, and striving for perfection. I loved those times and the pressure. In everyday life, however, when supervising building projects, dealing with developers and companies, there was less of a challenge, yet I often felt burdened by stress. High expectations, little appreciation, scheduling conflicts, and disputes were the ingredients that diminished my enjoyment of this work.
It is often the experience of stress that prevents people from optimizing their wellbeing.
In 1994 I discovered the Feldenkrais Method and quickly realized that it could improve my state of mind at work enormously. But I also discovered that the new world this method of perception and movement offered new opportunities to me. So, I attended a 4-year training program to become a Feldenkrais practitioner and opened my own Feldenkrais practice.
I remained interested in the corporate world and applied my knowledge of architecture and movement to ergonomics consulting. I noticed that although many complaints at the workplace are linked to posture and office furniture, it is often the experience of stress that prevents people from optimizing their wellbeing. Stress stops people from reducing physical strain even in a well-designed workplace.
And that is exactly where I started. With Embodied Stress Management (ESM) I created a method that allows employees to observe themselves at their workplace at precisely the moment when they experience stress and to then restore access to their body’s resources. That is why every exercise is accompanied by a micromove: a discreet, invisible movement that can be carried out anywhere and anytime and that can smooth the edge of any unpleasant experience of stress.
Statistics show that the number of people who suffer from stress keeps growing. It isn’t really known if people’s physical, emotional, and time-related stress has really increased all that much, or whether stress these days just keeps getting more publicity. The fact is, however, that more and more people consider stress to be a burden in their lives.
There are many books and guides that can help you to reduce stress. Relaxation courses are very popular. However, they usually require even more hours from your already full schedule – hours in which you are supposed to relax by means of meditation, autogenic training, or yoga. There is nothing wrong with that, and anyone who can make time for such exercises will certainly profit from them.
ESM is an exercise program that also requires additional effort for a while. But after you have completed this program, it won’t demand any more of your time. You will be able to change your behavior while experiencing stress, thus improving your well-being.
ESM has two objectives:
• You can recognize how much effort you need for your actions. In which situations do you stop breathing? When do your muscles tense up? Are these activities necessary at this very moment or are there alternatives?
• You can perform your actions more satisfactorily, with more elegance and less physical strain. You can discover more options for action, freeing yourself from the control of others.
Since the human body is the sensor as well as the motor of our existence, the solution will be found in your own body. Usually, however, the human body is defined by its performance. It has to become stronger, lose weight or measure up to some ideal of beauty. These demands then lead to more stress and keep you from seeing the things that are really happening inside your body.
ESM accepts you just the way you are! ESM does not require you to implement anyone else’s expert knowledge.
ESM accepts you just the way you are! ESM does not require you to implement anyone else’s expert knowledge. ESM accompanies your perception in a playful way. ESM asks many questions only you can answer. These questions serve to train your perception of your own body. ESM assumes that your perception is perfect at any given time, that, however, you can enhance and further develop this perfect perception even more. Whether you are young or old, an athlete or a couch potato, physically fit or challenged by physical limitations: You are able to develop your perception, create new options for action and train your body intelligence with ESM.
By sensing and using your body through new perspectives, you will take yourself seriously in any given situation, even when stressed. You’ll be able to look after yourself, and you’ll have a loving relationship with yourself.
It is not stress in itself that puts us under strain and makes us ill. It is the amount and duration of stress. Stress arises from lack of time, in complex situations, when we experience fear or when we deal with conflicts.
In most cases, however, we are stimulated by stress. We can mobilize our power and access our reserves. A happy reunion, a fun tournament on the soccer field, a concert we have practiced many hours for or an exciting movie: These and many other happy moments in life create stress which is felt as something pleasant. If, however, stress exceeds a certain level, persists for a longer period of time, and especially if the experience is contrary to our own desires, our reserves are used up quickly, and we start to suffer.
In most cases we are stimulated by stress.