Once Upon a Time… Stress Was Different. Or Was It?

Once upon a time, in a world that now feels like a lifetime ago, I worked for a company that no longer exists, another casualty of the economic recession of the early 1980s.

Life was very different then. There were no smartphones, no internet searches to answer every question, and certainly no artificial intelligence. Calculations were performed on comptometers, computers occupied entire rooms, and ledgers were written by hand on paper. It seems almost unbelievable now.

Yet one memory from those days remains crystal clear.

Stress was everywhere.

Stress was Everywhere

Whether because the company was struggling financially or because management lacked the skills to lead people effectively, the atmosphere was often unbearable. You could almost feel the tension hanging in the air. Raised voices echoed through the offices, faces remained permanently stern, and when the monthly figures failed to meet expectations, frustration quickly turned into blame.

As a young man, I found myself fascinated by how people behaved under pressure.

I noticed that stress was contagious. One person's anxiety would spread through the office until entire departments seemed to be operating under a cloud of fear. Tempers became shorter as month-end approached, arguments became commonplace, and ordinary employees often found themselves on the receiving end of criticism for problems they had absolutely no control over.

Looking back, some of the behaviour would be unacceptable by today's workplace standards.

Bullying was commonplace. Offensive language was often dismissed as "part of the job." I witnessed grown adults reduced to tears under relentless pressure. Many colleagues coped by smoking heavily, while others arrived at work still carrying the effects of too much alcohol from the night before, desperately trying to escape the stress they faced.

Even then, I knew I didn't want that to become my life.

Ironically, when the company finally closed and I was made redundant, I felt more relief than despair. It was frightening to lose my job, but it also became one of the biggest turning points of my life.

Those difficult experiences shaped the path I would eventually follow.

Stress Management

I came to understand how damaging chronic stress, toxic workplaces and poor coping strategies can be—not only to individuals, but to families, businesses and society as a whole. Little did I know that those lessons would eventually lead me into occupational health, clinical hypnotherapy, research, patient trials and the development of self-help audio programmes that now help people across the world.

Sadly, although technology has transformed our lives, stress has not disappeared.

If anything, modern life has created new pressures. Financial uncertainty, rising living costs, constant connectivity, social media comparisons and information overload leave many people feeling overwhelmed. Our minds rarely get the opportunity to switch off.

The body, however, still responds exactly as it did all those fifty-three years ago.

Ignore prolonged stress for long enough, and eventually your physical and emotional health will begin to suffer. Nature has a remarkable way of forcing us to slow down if we refuse to listen to the warning signs ourselves.

The lesson I learned all those years ago remains just as relevant today: we cannot always control the events happening around us, but we can learn to control how we respond to them.

That understanding has become the foundation of much of my work over the past three decades.

Drawing on my personal experiences, years in occupational health, clinical practice and thousands of client sessions, I developed my Stress Management Audio Program to give people practical tools to reduce anxiety, regain emotional balance and build greater resilience in everyday life.

If stress has become a constant companion, remember that you don't have to face it alone. With the right guidance and techniques, it is entirely possible to quieten the mind, calm the body and regain a sense of control.

Because life will always contain stress—but suffering endlessly from it doesn't have to be part of the story.