A recent publication from Goldster:
How I cope with Stress – Rosie Stancer reveals how she overcomes adversities
Rosie Stancer is a diminutive powerhouse with a formidable pedigree as an explorer and adventurer. Crisscrossing the globe, trekking the North and South poles – on some occasions solo, across deserts and land masses she has more than earned her place as Goldster Passion, Purpose and Grit presenter.
As if this weren’t impressive enough, a quick perusal of Google will also tell you she is a cousin of the late Queen – her maternal grandmother was Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, an elder sister of the late Queen mother.
Nevertheless, she is grounded, down to earth and self-deprecating, not at all what you’d expect from someone who’s achieved so much and continues to achieve, in their life thus far.
From skiing solo and without resupply to the South Pole in 2003, to trekking the frozen Lake Baikal and completing a marathon a day for 20 days straight, Rosie is well qualified to talk about stress. In fact the challenges she’s faced and the stresses she’s surmounted speak of a virtually superhuman ability for resilience in adverse conditions.
So what happens when she feels stressed? “I literally have to refocus on the end goal, which is often greater than the smaller problems that are stressing me,” she says. “It helps to edify the mental clutter in your mind. You can keep going through anything that will wind you up to the end goal. Focus on the bigger picture.”
According to Rosie, there are different sorts of stress. “Stress I can cope with quite well like physical danger and then various other stresses”. Rosie says people often panic when faced with stress which can disable them. “If you panic everything speeds up. I tend to remain calm and everything slows down, then you can work out how to get out of a pickle – you are in and out efficiently and effectively.”
Rosie had a team to think about too, of people who were travelling on the next expedition with her. “I coped by staying calm and almost looking at it in a disembodied way. Thinking out of the box. I thought why don’t we flip the route and do it back to front? By the time we got to the military zone security will have relaxed because the climate conference will be over.”
Rosie builds resilience by doing a lot of physical training every day of the week. “This helps build your mental strength as well, you’re gaining in confidence.” Being responsible for a team also increases your mental strength because you have to be strong for them, you’ve got responsibility for other people.
She has faced many many challenges in her life. “I look at a challenge as something that is to be overcome. I try to keep positive about it,” she reflects. “Every time you encounter and overcome a challenge it builds your mental strength. You learn every time.”
And although we are probably never going to encounter the extreme conditions Rosie has, we too can learn from her approach to stress and challenges and apply it to our own lives.