Mindfulness Perspective:
The Stress Model for Stress Reduction
Brendan Lloyd PhD, March 2017 v.2
If we’re interested in stress-reduction, then you may
well ask, how does stress work? Models are a way of
demonstrating how something functions or works. A
model will provide an overview of the total picture; it
will show us all the working parts; and how the parts
relate to each other and fit together.
The Mindfulness perspective brings our attention to
the process, which is the ‘how’ question. In other
words, we are not so much focusing on the outcome.
Rather, our attention is on he the steps that get us to
the outcome. According to Jon Kabat-Zinn (1990) this
focus on the process is the Mindfulness attitude of
Non-Striving.
A “non-striving” approach to stress-reduction has good
face-validity. To strive is to battle. A battle in your mind
is the opposite of stress-reduction. Striving is like,
“Quick relax.” The non-striving approach to stressreduction will acknowledge how it feels to be stressed,
but has more of a focus on how you got there.
If you take away the stress-symptoms then what will be
there instead? Well you’d feel good right? You could do
without that creeping anxiety or those irritable
outbursts. You’d have energy to do those things that
aren’t getting done. You can do without that constant
feeling of fatigue. You’d be surviving and thriving
without stress-symptoms holding you back.
The headline stress-symptoms are sleep disturbance,
irritability, anger, exhaustion, fatigue, withdrawal,
alienation, nausea, butterflies, agitation, tension,
anxiety, panic, depression and alcohol and drug abuse,
etc. If you have any one of these symptoms or all of
these symptoms, then you are stressed (Sapolsky,
1994, Selye, 1984).
The Stress Model describes stress-symptoms as an
outcome due to a process of four steps as shown in
Figure 1 on the last page. Our understanding of the
process will guide our Mindful efforts toward stressreduction.
The Process
Let’s just pause for a minute to understand what is
meant by “the process”. Think of a loaf of bread sitting
on the baker’s shelf. That loaf of bread is an outcome.
All outcomes are due to a process. All processes are
made up of steps. The loaf of bread didn’t just
suddenly appear on the baker’s shelf. There was a
Copyright © Brendan Lloyd PhD 2016, Byron Bay 0266 853 219
process that had steps.
Stress-symptoms are an outcome, just like a loaf of
bread. So when we experience stress, we’re in fact
caught up in the process of producing stresssymptoms.
Let’s use anxiety as an example as a common stresssymptom. With anxiety you can ask, “Where do you
feel it”? The most people will say, “I feel it in my gut, or
body, or chest, etc.”
Then you could ask, “What is it that you feel in your
gut?” What I actually feel in my gut is the adrenalin. So
in this example I feel the adrenalin and I refer to the
experience as anxiety. We experience the adrenalin
then we label the feeling depending on the context.
For example, if you go to Dream World and scare the
living daylights out of yourself on the Tower of Doom,
then most likely you’ll label that feeling as excitement.
Take the same adrenalin and put yourself in the
context of a domestic dispute, the feeling will probably
be reported as anxiety or anger or agitation or a
negative emotion of some sort (Schachter, & Singer, J.
E., 1962).
Then the obvious question is why would I have
adrenalin in my gut at all? We humans, and other
creatures of this planet, produce adrenalin for one
reason and one reason only. That reason is to meet a
demand or deal with a threat.
In other words, when we experience anxiety our
autonomic nervous system has registered a threat and
responded accordingly. So now already we have a
description of a process, which is made up of a
sequence of events where anxiety is the outcome.
For example, we have the apprehended threat; then
we have the sympathetic response in the autonomic
nervous system; then we have a body flooded with
adrenalin; then we have a report of anxiety.
The example above is over simplified because it is an
outline sketch of the stress-model. Before we do dive
into the steps of the Stress Model there is an important
matter that needs clearing up. We need to deal with
the difference between the words stressor and stress.
Stressors
The Stress Model shows that Unresolved-Stressors are
the beginning of the process and that Stress-Symptoms
are the outcome of the process.
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The term stress and stressor come from engineering
(Selye, 1984). In engineering, the stressor is the load.
For example, take a load of bricks and stack them on
the model-bridge to stress-test it. The stress is the
resistance to the load. The load and the resistance are
not the same thing.
Our internal stressors are not just any belief. They are
those fundamental beliefs that make up a significant
part of our personality. We are not likely to change our
personality to any significant degree no matter how
hard we try. Therefore we conclude that internal
stressors are by their nature – unresolvable.
Stress-symptoms, in engineering terms, would be when
the bridge breaks down under the load. An engineer
can adapt the bridge to the load by adding in more
beams, trusses, girders, etc.
Probably most external stressors are resolvable; like for
example the demands of daily living. Most of us most
of the time can at least bumble our way through life
with our adaptations and learning. Most people most
of the time do not need assistance with their external
stressor. We work; we rest; we work; we rest, etc.
Likewise, we humans need adaptive strategies to take
on the load of living. And when things change or
something out of the blue comes around, we need that
ability to adapt.
If there is an adaptive response to any stressor then
the matter is resolved; there is closure; there is
completion; an endpoint is reached. Resolved stressors
are not in the Stress Model.
Unresolved Stressors
To put it ironically, you can’t get stressed unless you
have unresolved stressors. The only stressors in the
stress model are unresolved stressors.
For an unresolved stressor the emergency, threat or
demand in the event or belief has not reached a
conclusion. In other words, whatever it is, it is still
incomplete, unfinished, in a state of uncertainty,
something is pending, it’s not over, or it seems too big,
whatever it is.
Of course, to resolve a stressor does not necessarily
mean that stressors go away. No, this would be a
mistake to believe that we can rid ourselves of the
demands and challenges of everyday living. For
example we take care of one demand or threat, which
is replaced by some other demand or threat. Or we get
ourselves from A to B, only to find that we now need to
get from B to A. Stressors are a never ending story in
our lives. You could say that the majority of our
stressors are simply the demands of daily living.
We are under some load all the time every day. Just
living puts us under a load. In other words, we will be
hitting or at least tickling the emergency button many
times throughout each day, every day, all of our lives.
There might be moments of stress throughout each
day, but at the end of the day, all things being equal,
there is no suffering from stress-symptoms if we are
sufficiently adaptive and these adaptations include
sufficient rest and recovery.
There are two types of stressor. There are the external
stressors that exist in the environment; and there are
the internal stressors that exist in our minds. External
stressors are events. Internal stressors are beliefs.
Copyright © Brendan Lloyd PhD 2016
Internal stressors are the fundamental beliefs that
were laid down as we were growing up. These are
beliefs that are our conditioning if you like. The internal
stressors are certainly well and truly woven into the
fabric of our personalities.
For more details on this step in the Stress Model please
read the article titled Unresolved Stressors: origins and
nature*. In the article I use Geofry Young’s
Maladaptive Cognitive Schemas to model and illustrate
internal stressors.
The Head-Chatter
Step two on the way to stress-symptoms is the headchatter. The head-chatter is the engine room for the
process that produces stress-symptoms. Head-chatter
is there mainly because of the un-resolvability of the
internal stressors.
If anyone is going to get stuck in the Stress Model, it
will be with the issue of head-chatter. Head-chatter is a
slippery customer and the master of smokescreens,
tricks and illusions.
With a Mindfulness perspective we can make a clear
distinction between head-chatter and thinking. The
difference is in the function. In other words, although
head-chatter might feel like thinking, or act like
thinking, the end result is quite different to what you
get from actual thinking.
To begin with, thinking is a present moment mental
activity. Likewise, head-chatter takes your mind
elsewhere. From the Mindfulness perspective we could
ask, “What is your mind up to whilst it is elsewhere”.
The stress-model does answer that question.
From the Mindfulness perspective we focus on the
process to understand the difference between headchatter and thinking. In other words it is not the
content of the thinking or the head-chatter that makes
it either thinking or head-chatter.
For example, if you are having a conversation with
someone about your plans for a future event, you
would be focused on the conversation which is an
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event in the present moment. Your attention could
easily be on the conversation; in other words, your
mind is present. The content of the conversation could
be past, present or future. So, with the head-chatter
your mind would be elsewhere and the content could
be past, present or future.
Thinking draws a conclusion or completes in some way.
Head-chatter just seems to go on and on, around and
around.
Have you noticed how you can find yourself in the
middle of head-chatter? On the other hand, thinking is
something that you do on purpose.
Have you noticed how head-chatter sucks you in? The
head-chatter is seductive in this sense. The headchatter is expressing perceptual-distortions and
unrelenting expectations.
The seductive quality of head-chatter is one of its most
damaging but also most interesting features. It’s the
seductive quality of the head-chatter that keeps it
going. The more we keep it going, the more stressed
we get; but yet we keep it going.
What we’re ultimately looking for is to get off the
emergency button. If we allow the head-chatter to
tumble on, we will just keep on hitting at the
emergency button.
To get more details on the topic of head-chatter read
the articles A Mindfulness Perspective: Head-Chatter
Verses Thinking and/or The Head-Chatter: qualities
and function*.
The Emergency Button
Step three on the way to stress-symptoms is the
constant activation of the emergency-button
(sympathetic response in the autonomic nervous
system) over and above the actual requirement. The
head-chatter will do that because thematically the
head-chatter is all about threat in one form or another.
The Emergency Button is a metaphor to represent the
sympathetic response in the autonomic nervous
system, which is sometimes referred to as the flight or
fight response. Mainly we’re talking about the
activation of a physiological response toward action to
meet a demand.
In hospital wards, there is an emergency button on the
wall behind the head of each bed. If you hit the
emergency button the emergency response team will
turn up within seconds. How would it be if anyone who
came along could just give that emergency button a
whack anytime they felt like it?
If you’re experiencing stress-symptoms then
metaphorically at least, you are on your emergency
Copyright © Brendan Lloyd PhD 2016
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button continuously. To put it ironically, this is what it
takes to get stressed.
The Emergency Button is a practical and useful
metaphor because it illustrates the problem with
stress-symptoms. The problem is that metaphorically
at least we just keep on hammering away on the
emergency button. We do the hammering with our
head-chatter. Our head-chatter is looping on some
unresolved or even unresolvable issue.
Ultimately we want to get off the emergency button.
Yes the issue is getting off the emergency button. You
will not succeed in preventing yourself from getting on
the emergency button, so getting off it becomes the
issue. The article titled Defusing the Head-Chatter*
provides more details about getting off the emergency
button.
The Emergency Chemicals
The fourth and final step toward stress-symptoms is
the function of the emergency chemicals. These
chemicals are not meant to be in our body for any
length of time at elevated levels. It is the continuing
presence of these chemicals in our body that will, at
the very least, disturb our sleep and make us feel
grumpy or ill, and rob us of our energy.
Let’s start with adrenalin. This is purely for
emergencies. It fires up the furnace, so to speak, like
the blacksmith’s bellows. In other words, the adrenalin
gives your muscles the ability to burn energy quickly.
Adrenalin is squirted into our blood stream from our
adrenal glands, which are located on top of our
kidneys. The chemical has evolved to be quick-in and
quick-out. Adrenalin doesn’t linger. Its affect is gone
within minutes.
Well hang on, if the effect of the adrenalin only last for
minutes, then how come stress-symptoms seem to last
and even persist for days, weeks, years?
In other words, it’s possible to walk around all day with
an anxious feeling in your gut; or it is possible to have
that ever-present feeling of dread; or it is possible that
you feel agitated for most of the day. The persistence
of these stress-symptoms is due to the persistence of
the head-chatter that continuously activates the
emergency button, which in turn tips the adrenalin into
your bloodstream.
Cortisol is the other emergency chemical of interest. Its
primary functions in everyday life are to suppress the
immune system, increase blood sugar, and to aid with
metabolizing fat, protein and carbohydrates. Yes, you
read it correctly; a normal function of cortisol is to
suppress the immune system.
All things being equal cortisol works well for us. But on
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the other hand, high levels of cortisol over an extended
period of time will wreck your immune system and
your kidneys, and will give you hardened arteries and
Type-2 diabetes. These are the long-term disease from
stress.
Cortisol is an anti-inflammatory steroid. It is often
termed a glucocorticoid steroid and is more accurately
labelled hydrocortisone. It is a complex chemical
indeed. It is synthesised from cholesterol in the cortex
of our adrenal glands. The more cortisol you need, the
more cholesterol you need, hence the relationship
between stress and higher levels of cholesterol.
In simple terms you could say that cortisol has two
main functions. One function is for everyday use as
described above; and the other function is as an
emergency chemical.
In an actual emergency your body will need the cortisol
for two reasons. One reason is to help prevent
inflammation that could slow you down if you were
injured; and secondly to provide the muscles in use
with extra fuel.
So whilst the adrenalin is fanning the flames of the
furnace, so to speak, the cortisol is shovelling in the
fuel. The problem is the cortisol is only fuelling those
muscles in use. So if you’re a zebra running like the
clappers from the lion, then your legs get the fuel. If,
on the other hand you are a human sitting on your
couch stressed but doing nothing much, none of your
muscles get the fuel. Your adrenalin is fanning the
flames and burning up the fuel and it’s not being
replaced. This is where you get that exhausted or
fatigued effect from stress.
That feeling of being keyed-up, that feeling that you
might be left with after a challenging board meeting, or
being dragged over the coals by your boss, that’s
elevated adrenalin and cortisol together. On one hand
we are ready to go, because of the adrenalin. On the
other hand we feel exhausted-fatigued, because the
cortisol is mucking around with our blood-sugar levels.
With this feeling of cortisol robbing us of our energy, it
is easy to withdraw, to hide, and perhaps even feel
alienated. This effect of the cortisol is what leads on to
the development of depression.
Drug companies, for example, use cortisol to get labrats depressed. They do this so that they can test their
drugs on depressed rats. My point would be that if you
don’t want depressed rats then don’t give them the
cortisol to begin with.
The cortisol lingers and accumulates and poisons our
body. There is a lot more to be said about the
poisonous effects of cortisol upon our body, but that is
another discussion (Sapolsky, 1994).
Copyright © Brendan Lloyd PhD 2016
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The Outcome
From the research in Psychology we are able to
conclude that humans are very poor at spotting the
incremental steps toward an outcome; but we will spot
the outcome from 50 paces. We humans are very poor
at noticing how things happen, but we will know that it
happened (Nisbett & DeCamp-Wilson, 1977).
When I say that we humans are very poor at spotting
the incremental steps toward an outcome, this does
not stop us from providing an opinion on the subject.
No, indeed we regard ourselfs as aware and observent.
We are quite likely to declare the “exact cause” of an
outcome. This is our attribution theory. In other words,
we have theories about how things happen. Likewise
we have theories about stress-symptoms.
It is likely that a human will experience stresssymptoms and then develop a theory as to why. Our
most common attribution is ‘other people’ (Zimbardo
et al., 1993). We are most unlikely to attribute the
cause of how we feel to the adrenalin and/or cortisol.
We are not likely to think about stress-symptoms as
something that we have done to ourselves. We very
easily lapse into the “why” question. The why-question
leads us into theories and up garden paths that go
nowhere.
Take for example the idea that stress-symptoms can be
managed with relaxation or meditation. Once you
understand the relationship between the emergencybutton and the relaxation-response in the autonomic
nervious system, then you’d conclude that relaxation
or meditation are unlikely to be effective in reducing
stress-symptoms in any kind of sustainable way.
In our autonomic nervious system there is the
emergency-button (sympathetic response) and the
relaxation-response (parrasympathetic response). The
two responses are antagonistic; in other words they
cannot act together. It’s either one or the other.
The key to the understanding is that the emergencybutton will override the relaxation-reponse anytime.
Even if it’s possible to trigger a relaxation-response in a
20 minute space in a busy day, the benefit will be lost
as soon as you stand up and walk out the door back
into the fray.
Stress Reduction
The answer for stress-reduction should be clear by
understanding the stress model. The answer is in two
parts.
1. One is to work on resolving stressors.
2. The other part is to defuse the head-chatter.
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The mindfulness perspective is to focus our attention in
the present moment with curiosity and interest. This is
what it takes for stress-reduction. This is just what’s
needed. There is a process for stress-reduction, just as
there is a process for stress-production.
The process for stress reduction will begin once we
have noticed the stress-symptoms. Most likely the first
thing that will draw our attention to the stresssymptoms is the feeling of being stressed.
From a Mindfulness perspective the feeling of being
stressed is our first point of curiosity. This is the first
step in the process of stress-reduction. There is no
value for us in rejection the feeling. The non-striving
attitude will settle us into the process. There are steps
to be taken to get off the emergency-button.
To get off the emergency-button we need some way
for our mind to signal our body that the threat is over.
For our external stressors, we need to just keep at it.
We need to keep living our lives the best we can with
our adaptations and learning. Most of the time, we all
do well enough in meeting the challenges of everyday
living.
If we are struggling with the demands of daily living,
then chances are there are internal stressors creating
invisible obstacles for us to get around. We need to
understand our internal stressors so that we have the
tools to defuse the head-chatter.
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References:
Kabat-Zinn, J. (1990). Full Catastrophe Living: using the
wisdom of your body and mind to face stress, Pain, and
illness. Delta Trade Paperbacks: New York.
Nisbett, R. E., and DeCamp-Wilson, T. (1977). Telling
more than we can know: verbal reports on mental
process, Psychological Review, 84(3), 231-259.
Sapolsky, R. M. (1994). Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers.
W.H. Freeman: New York
Schachter, & Singer, J. E. (1962). Cognitive, Social and
Physiological Determinants of Emotional State.
Psychological Review, 69, 379-99.
Selye, H. (1984). The Stress of Life. McGraw-Hill: New
York
Zimbardo, P. G., LaBerge, S., and Butler, L. D. (1993).
Psychophysiological consequences of unexplained
arousal: a posthypnotic suggestion paradigm, Journal
of Abnormal Psychology, 102(3), 466-473.
Here I have presented the Stress Model for StressReduction. The Stress Model can be a foundation for
our Mindfulness practices. From an understanding of
the model it is possible to step off into useful skill
development. In other words, the skills are not just
empty gestures or esoteric rituals. There is rhyme and
reason for the skill development.
For a more detailed discussion on the topics work your
way through the articles in the recommended reading,
in the order suggested…
• Unresolved Stressors: origins & nature
• The Head-Chatter: qualities & function
• Defusing the Head-Chatter
Email Brendan Lloyd PhD:
[email protected]
*No charge or costs.
Copyright © Brendan Lloyd PhD 2016
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Copyright © Brendan Lloyd PhD 2016
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