Definitions of Stress:
They range from clinical to humorous. Most experts subscribe to the original definition of stress that Hans Selye proposed in 1926 as "the non-specific response of the body to any demand placed upon it."
Another thought is from Morton Orman, M.D. who states, "stress is merely a word that we use to stand for hundreds of specific problems and conflicts we experience from time to time."
Understanding that these problems and difficulties do exist in our lives and do wreak havoc on our lives from time to time, but these problems and difficulties are different for each of us and mean something different to each of us. Stop and take a momment and ask yourself the following questions:
1. What does stress mean to you?
2. What role does it play in your life?
3. How is it affecting your life and your health?
4. How do you know you have stress?
5. Where does it come from and how do you deal with it?
Origin of Stress:
Often times stress evolves from one's conscious thoughts and ideas that we have about life and how things are supposed to go and work out. In other words, the wrong results to an action we took or the opposite outcome of what we thought was supposed to happen.
Bottom line is this, you cannot deal directly with stress, but you can deal with the specifics of a problem or situation that triggered the stress to occur in your body.
Stress Risks and Factors:
When you and your body perceive something about to happen as a direct threat, your body immediatley triggers specific "alarms" within your body thus causing an immediate response of "fight or flight." Therefore, the body goes through it's check list of automatic responses to meet the threat head-on, such as:
- sugars and fats are released into your bloodstream for quick energy;
- your heart pumps faster to provide more blood to your muscles;
- your breathing quickens to provide more oxygen to your blood;
- your muscles tense in preparation for any action you might take;
- your digestion stops so more blood is available for your brain and muscles;
- blood-clotting mechanisms are activated to protect against possible injury;
- perspiration increases to reduce your body temperature;
- and your pupils dilate and your sense of smell and hearng become more acute.
This is all fine and dandy if you are defending your life or a loved one's life, but more often than not this is not the case when your "stress responses" are activated. However, you still must give your body a "healthy" outlet to purge or dissipate these responses or it may, with repeated occurences, create severe health problems.
Not all stress is bad:
Stress can be used for survival, for achievement, for personal development, to accomplish tasks and goals, and even for certain levels of just enjoying life. Stress can become a negative factor in one's life when the level of stress does not match the task or issue one is being presented or confronted with. Psychologists have discovered that having both a low level of stress and a high level of stress can decrease one's performance. It has been established that under a moderate level of stress, one achieves their best level of performance without adversely affecting one's health. Stress is the result of either too much or too little pressure. Right amounts of pressure and the right sort of pressure is healthy. You just have to figure out at what level of stress (pressure) you function at your best?
Learn the stress "factors":
Ask yourself what affects you the most? What upsets you, makes you anxious, angry or irritable? There are external factors (the things we cannot control) and there are the internal factors (the one's we can control and should).
For example:
1. Your lifestyle - (exercise, drinking caffeine, smoking, alcohol, drugs, not enough sleep or trying to do too much)
2. Your mental state - (unrealistic expectations, overly critical of yourself, pessimistic, taking things way too personally and not being flexible)
3. Your personality - (a workaholic, a perfectionist; the day is to recognize what causes you mental or emotional discomfort; this is a essential step in heading off or managing unwanted stress in your life)
