Essi Systems Customer Service
US & Canada: (800) 252-ESSI (3774)
All others: (415) 252-8224
email: essi@essisystems.com
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Essi Systems Customer Service |
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Frequently Asked Questions about Essi Systems: Why does Essi Systems do? How long has Essi been in operation? Resilience in General |
Essi: The Stress Experts |
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Why does Essi Systems do? Essi Systems provides a comprehensive range of products and services for business clients seeking to manage stress and improve workplace performance. With a commitment to and history of research, Essi Systems has a unique understanding of workplace stress, its costs, and the measurable mechanisms to transform negative stress into productivity. How long has Essi been in operation? In 1983, Esther Orioli founded Essi Systems Inc., specializing in transforming workplace stress into optimal performance. Orioli promoted the revolutionary idea of positive stress performance and developed the StressMap®, the stress assessment instrument honored with the National Health Information Award. The StressMap® has sold more than 500,000 copies. We used to think that peak performance, a term borrowed from sports and athletics, was the only road to excellence. We now know that optimal performance rather than peak performance is what we really seek. A peak is not a resting place, it is a point, the top, an exception to the rule. It is not somewhere you stay for long since once you arrive, there is only one place to go - down.Optimal performance and balance are terms we use to describe the concepts of personal harmony and productivity for performing at one's personal best. It is based on respect for the natural ebb and flow of one's personal rhythms - a rhythm determined by you and you alone. When under pressure, the optimal performer mobilizes and responds in sync with her or his own current physical, emotional, and intellectual abilities - tapping into reserves of energy and intuitive power to meet challenges and demands for effective personal and professional management. How can I stay healthy when stress is all around me and I can't escape it? Although most people perceive stress as negative and try to avoid it, Essi Systems’ research has shown that stress is actually essential and beneficial. If you think about stress the way you would blood pressure, then you can understand that high or low is problematic. Like high blood pressure or low blood pressure, too much stress or too little stress is problematic, but you would never want your blood pressure to just go away completely. It is the same with stress.Try this simple experiment: jot down the first word that comes to mind when you think of stress. Now look at each word and put a minus sign (-) next to all the words that carry a negative connotation, a plus sign (+) next to those words that are generally positive and both signs (+/-) for those that are neutral, situational or both.If you are like most people, you will have mostly negative words ( headache, tension, pain, deadlines, etc.), one or two positive words ( motivation, achievement) and a few neutral or situational words (pressure, the kids, the boss) that can go either way. The words that you use indicate the attitude you hold toward that subject. If you find that you have mostly negative words in your list, then we could say that you hold a generally negative view of stress. To think of stress as only negative is a serious error in thinking. Most of us will try to keep stress away from us at an arms length, thinking that stress is an illness or a disease.In fact, research shows that stress is actually a life energy force in the body. This means that stress is neutral and positive as well as negative. If you had at least one positive stress word in your stress list, then you know that this is true. Words like: zeal, passion, excitement, exhilaration, thrill, wonder - are all positive stress words and produce strong, growth-filled energy within the body. Stress therefore, is the essential ingredient in optimal performance and can motivate us to achieve creative and effective self management.So watch your language. When you mean positive stress say eustress or positive stress, when you mean negative stress, say distress or negative stress, and begin to bring more positive stress into your life every day. I exercise on a regular basis and yet I can't seem to control my stress, what am I doing wrong? Physical fitness is a very important, though not the only contributor to your overall health. In recent decades, scientific studies have supported what certain people have known for years: your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual selves are inseparable. Your mental, emotional and spiritual health are just as important in protecting you from chronic illness as diet and exercise. Feeling connected to yourself and others, having a sense of purpose in life, feeling hopeful, being loved and to love, all help you create the life you want for yourself and are the key ingredients for maintaining overall health.We used to think that people who know how to completely control their lives are more powerful and are to be emulated. We now know that people who try to control everything around them are, paradoxically, less in control than those who are able to "go with the flow." At the mercy of their conditioned attitudes and responses to stressors in life, controllers need to dominate all situations, including those they cannot possibly control. This leads to what we call "ceaseless striving behaviors" - that is, doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results, putting them at risk for many forms of heart disease and illnesses. True control in life comes from learning to recognize when we do and don't have control and to know when we should or should not take action. These Situation Mastery Skills are the new competencies for our futures, which will more than likely be filled with change, newness and challenge. Take a deep breath and learn to go with the flow. How will I know if my ResiliencyMap™ is good or bad? The ResiliencyMap is a personal snapshot of you, captured at a particular point in time. This is a freeze frame of your current life situation, pressures, changes and circumstances. As such, your ResiliencyMap™ provides you with invaluable information about your current stress strengths and stress vulnerabilities. Use this information to learn about your personal issues paying particular attention to areas in need of improvement.Many of us wish we could score in the Optimal Performance Zone in every scale. However, a straight line in Optimal Performance is no more desirable than a straight line in the Burnout Zone. As any EKG will attest, straight lines are not the goal, the up and down rhythm is the best indicator of life and energy. Look at your ResiliencyMap results as data available for your evaluation of your current life rhythm.. Where did the ResiliencyMap™ come from? Can I trust the results? The ResiliencyMap™ is a derivative work of the StressMap, which has been used by over 300,000 people in more than 2500 companies in the United States and Canada. Extensively researched, statistically reliable and completely norm-tested, the StressMap is scientifically sound and is extremely well-behaved as a measurement instrument, according to Dr. K. Trocki, Director or Research for Essi Systems, Inc. Professional articles on the instrument itself, or studies conducted using the instrument have been published by the American Psychological Association/National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health and Medical World News, to name a few.Data is constantly being collected internationally, and new norms and upgrades are regularly added to the StressMap. When you place yourself on the Scoring Grid, you are placing yourself in relation to others like you in the United States. If you score in the Optimal Zone, for example, you are well above the national average which is represented by the median line between strain and balance. Why does the questionnaire focus on the last thirty days? Scale One, Major Changes is the only scale in the On-line ResiliencyMap™ that asks you about the last 12 months rather than the last 30 days. Major changes require an adjustment period of up to a year, more in some cases, after the initial event or change. All other scales ask for your recent experiences within the last month. Our studies have shown that most people carry the experiences of the last thirty days in their bodies with some direct influence on their day to day life. If the time period were longer, say 6 months, you might have difficulty remembering an event, or you might respond only from your memory of an experience rather than from any current influences.Why does the ResiliencyMap™ list the names of all the Scales? Won't that influence my answers to the questions in some way? . In a way, yes, it will. The ResiliencyMap™ is designed to help you answer the questions as quickly and easily as possible. For this reason, each scale is named by the subject or issue being assessed, to allow you to focus on that particular stress area. In this way, the ResiliencyMap™is said to have face validity. As a self-scoring learning tool, it is important that each taker have as much information as possible to assist in their personal assessment and exploration. For these reasons, Essi Systems has defended the naming of each scale openly and without intentional confusions, as might be found in other instruments. |
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