We encounter many challenges every day – adversity, complexity, difficult decisions, loss and many other stress inducing experiences. The question is, do we have the capacity to deal with them without incurring serious damage? We need a level of resilience to handle them so that we can avoid mental, emotional or physical damage to our health. Maintaining well being is so important.
Unfortunately, long-term or severe sudden distress can result in damage, making it difficult to recover fully and move forward. So, our stress levels are certainly worth paying attention to. Stress is usually seen as negative and detrimental. Yet, the fact is that some stress is actually helpful. This helpful aspect of stress has been termed Eustress meaning good or beneficial stress. (The term Eustress was introduced by the endocrinologist Hans Selye in 1976. Eu is a Greek work meaning good.). A certain level of stress can serve to focus the mind, create alertness, and help us get into action to meet deadlines, prepare for exams, and so forth. All of this is helpful.
However, if our internal experience of stress elevates beyond a healthy level and becomes chronic rather than acute or short-lived, then we are at risk. It’s at this level that eustress becomes distress where it’s difficult to cope with life and we feel overburdened and overwhelmed. We might become less stable emotionally and experience high anxiety, depression, or anger. It can lead to exhaustion as our batteries run dry and we run out of energy. Burnout is increasingly likely and physical, emotional and mental health start to deteriorate. People often ask this question and the Five Lens assessment model has anticipated it to a large degree. The model defines and evaluates three sub-components that can be actively worked on to increase overall resilience.
These are:
Flexibility (related to Thinking and associated with the Head):
This is a mental-intellectual characteristic that indirectly suggests adaptability, optimism and positivity. It also suggests an ability to remain open to possibilities and apply one’s mind to overcoming difficulties. Focusing attention on seeking positive outcomes may well increase the chances of finding one.
Emotional Stability (related to Emotions and associated with the Heart):
This is an Affective-Emotional attribute referring to an internal state that is relatively predictable and not easily swayed. Emotionally stable people tend to act rationally and calmy in challenging situations. They are able to effectively work through daily issues without becoming overly upset, anxious or angry.
Self-Efficacy (related to the Body and associated with the Gut):
Originally defined by Psychologist Albert Bandura in 1977 this Directional-Motivational aspect suggests self-confidence. It’s a useful predictor of one’s willingness to take on challenges, learn new things and achieve goals. It includes a sense of personal power and a positive orientation towards one’s own wellbeing and health so that one feels strong enough to take on challenges. If any one of these is under-developed, the likelihood of an individual showing high resilience is diminished. All three of these factors serve to overcome fear and where they are less developed the specific type of fear they offset tends to surface. When fears are overcome resilience generally develops and self-assurance is established.
People can learn to develop in all three of these aspects and this is often accomplished through personal coaching or counselling of some kind. When chronically distressed, seeking help is, without doubt, the most sensible thing to do. There are various ways to approach this. For example, contacting a qualified psychologist for counselling or therapy, or perhaps reaching out to a medical doctor. In addition, many corporate organisations provide confidential counselling services to their employees via Employee Assistance Programmes or Wellness Programmes.
Professional coaches are often not qualified as psychologists or therapists and so don’t offer therapeutic interventions. However, they may be able to help clients find possible solutions to whatever is triggering the stress or connect clients with an appropriate professional who could assist further. Coaches do sometimes offer support in conjunction with therapists.
The Five Lens Enneagram approach
The Five Lens model recognises that stress affects behaviour and performance. A person’s level of Resilience (or Emotional Resilience as it’s referred to in the Five Lens model) in combination with Personal Mastery determines how well they show up within their primary Enneagram style – whether they are in the best version of self (healthy), in the worst version of self(unhealthy) or somewhere in between.
In Enneagram language, this is referred to as the level of ‘Integration’. The Five Lens assessment provides a very accurate indication of a person’s level of Emotional Resilience. Bear in mind that Resilience is the converse of Stress.
In other words, the higher the Resilience level, the lower the overall experience of distress; and the lower the Resilience level, the higher the experience of distress. 
Of course, stress levels tend to vary on a short-term basis through out the day depending on what we encounter. Nevertheless, there is a general experience of stress that we tend to carry with us. One might call it the internal ambient level of stress or the average overall feeling of stress that remains over a period of time perhaps with some short-term fluctuations. Stress is an important part of our internal context and influences our thinking, feeling, and observable behaviour.
I hope you found this article useful!
Colin Adam
Co-Founder: Five Lens People Development & LearnSmartly
