6. Part II: Your Stress Triggers
Tally up how many As, Bs, Cs, and Ds
you marked for this section. This will tell you if you are suffering
from environmental, personal, physiological, or social stress. In many
cases, you will discover a combination of two or even three of these.
Environmental stress comes from the world around you. Personal stress is
the stress that comes from your personal life. Physiological stress is
the kind of stress that happens to your body. Social stress comes from
your interactions and perceptions of others. Read the following sections
for each letter that you checked more than once.
7. Two or More As: Environmental Stress
Whether you live
in a polluted area, such as near a busy street or in a house with a
smoker (or if you are a smoker), or are allergic to something in your
surroundings, you’ll be exposed to environmental stress. Environmental
stress is also the stress you feel when your environment changes. Maybe
your neighborhood has changed a lot in the last few years. Maybe you are
remodeling your home, or moving to a new home, or a new city. Changes
in the household, such as the loss or gain of a family member or even a
pet, are considered environmental stress. So is a marriage or a
separation. These are also sources of personal and social stress, but
they are environmental stress because they change the makeup of your
household.
Environmental
stressors are largely unavoidable, but there are techniques that can
help you to turn them from stressors into nothing more than events. Here
are some stress management techniques to try if you are particularly
bothered by environmental stressors:
• Meditation (for perspective, distance from situation)
• Breathing exercises (for calming)
• Exercise/nutrition (strengthen physiological resources to combat environmental stress)
• Vitamin/mineral therapy, herbal medicine, homeopathy (to strengthen the immune system)
• Feng shui (to balance and promote the energy in your environment)
8. Two or More Bs: Personal Stress
This
broad category covers everything from your personal perception of
relationships to your self-esteem and feelings of self-worth. If you are
unhappy with your personal appearance; have a negative body image; feel
inadequate, unfulfilled, fearful, shy, and lacking in willpower or self
control; have an eating disorder or addiction (also sources of
physiological stress); or are in any way personally unhappy, you are
suffering from personal stress. Even personal happiness can cause
stress. If you are madly in love, just got married, were recently
promoted, or just started the business of your dreams, you’ll also
experience personal stress. Under these situations, it’s common to feel
self-doubt, insecurity, or even overconfidence that can undermine
success.
The most
effective techniques for dealing with personal stress are those that
help you to manage your own thoughts and emotions about yourself. Here
are some techniques to try:
• Meditation
• Massage therapy
• Habit reshaping
• Relaxation techniques
• Visualization
• Optimism therapy
• Self-hypnosis
• Exercise (e.g., yoga, weight lifting)
• Creativity therapy
• Dream journaling
• Friend therapy
9. Two or More Cs: Physiological Stress
While all
forms of stress result in a stress response in your body, some stress
comes from physiological problems like illness and pain. You catch a
cold or the flu and experience stress due to the illness. You break your
wrist or sprain your ankle; that stresses your body, too. Arthritis,
migraine headaches, cancer, heart attack—all of these physiological
ailments, some mild, some serious, are forms of physiological stress.
Physiological
stress also covers hormonal changes in the body, from PMS to pregnancy
to menopause, as well as other changes or imbalances such as insomnia,
chronic fatigue, depression, sexual dysfunction, eating disorders, and
addictions. Addictions to substances that harm the body are a source of
physiological stress. Misuse of alcohol, nicotine, and other drugs is
stressful. Even prescription drugs can be a source of physiological
stress. While relieving one condition, they may cause side effects that
are stressful.
The
best way to relieve physiological stress is to get to the source. Many
stress management techniques directly address physiological stress. Here
are some to try:
• Habit reshaping
• Nutrition/exercise balancing
• Massage therapy
• Visualization
• Relaxation techniques
• Mindfulness meditation
• Vitamin/herbal/homeopathic therapy
• Ayurveda
10. Two or More Ds: Social Stress
Social
stress is stress related to your appearance in the world. Getting
engaged, married, separated, or divorced, for example, while all sources
of personal stress, are also sources of social stress because of the
societal opinions and reactions to the forming and breaking up of the
marital relationship. The same goes for becoming a parent, getting a
promotion, losing a job, having an extramarital affair, coming into a
lot of money, or losing a lot of money. Society has a lot to say about
these events, which are bound to affect the opinion other people have of
you, right or wrong, warranted or not. If social stress is a concern in
your life, some good techniques for helping to equalize social stress
include the following:
Exercise
Attitude adjustment
Visualization
Creativity therapy
Friend therapy
Habit reshaping
