Stress impacts all of us in one way or another, whether we are dealing with it ourselves or supporting others going through a stressful time.

Recently, PwC Christians welcomed over 60 people from companies across the city to Embankment Place for a great session entitled "A Christian Perspective to Managing Stress".

We were joined by Dr. Adrian Miles who has has over twenty five years' experience as a senior manager in Education and Social Care and worked for the Audit Commission (both as Lead Inspector and then Head of Operations for the West Midlands). He has developed a number of practical guides to help Christians demonstrate their faith in the workplace and written a PhD on the management of workplace stress.

Adrian talked us through what stress is and showed how stress is not a product of modern society, but a natural response. In Job it talks about how "the churning inside me never stops; days of suffering confront me" (Job 30:27). Jesus also suffered stress and anxiety- at the last supper "After Jesus had said this, He was deeply troubled" (John 13:21).

Stress is bad for us, our work colleagues, our clients and bad for our families. We shared how we manage our own stress and Adrian suggested that 5 factors can all play a part in how well we manage stress: individual (personalities, abilities), work (colleagues, managers), micro-social (family, friends), macro-social (recession, disasters) and spiritual factors (faith, values)

Finally, we talked about how to manage stress better. Often if things get tough at work, we just work harder, but other options are available. Depending on the situation the options open to us are: to avoid, to remove, to cope better as an individual, to cope better as a team or a combination of each. Sometimes our coping strategies is not the best option.

Why don't you spend 30 seconds reflecting on:

- How stressed are you currently?

- How do you cope with pressure?

- Are your coping strategies effective or ineffective?

- What enables you to truly relax?