1. Are You Under Stress?
You know
you’re under stress when you rear-end the car in front of you on the way
to work (oops!), make it to work three hours late and get fired (no!),
then have your wallet stolen on the bus ride home (oh, that’s just
perfect!). But what about the stress when you get engaged to the love of
your life? Or, when you finally get the promotion of your dreams? Is it
stressful to graduate from college, or start an exercise program, or
binge on chocolate-chip cookies? You bet it is. What’s so stressful
about a few chocolate chip cookies? Nothing, if you eat one or two
chocolate-chip cookies now and then as part of a well-balanced diet.
Plenty, if you deprive yourself of desserts for a month, then eat an
entire bag of double-fudge chocolate chunk. Your body isn’t used to all
that sugar. That’s stressful.
“Too much stress can cause dramatic health problems.”
2. Look Out for Change
Any
kind of a change in your life can cause stress. Some of that stress
feels good, even great. Stress isn’t, by definition, something bad, but
it isn’t always good, either. In fact, it can cause dramatic health
problems if you endure too much for too long. Stress isn’t just
out-of-the-ordinary stuff, however. Stress can also be hidden and deeply
imbedded in your life. Maybe you want to start your own business but
you’re afraid to give up your current job. Maybe your family has
communication problems but no one is willing to address the issue. You
might even get stressed out when something goes right! Stress is a
highly individual phenomenon.
3. Don’t Get So Wound Up!
We have lots of ways to describe the feelings of stress. Keyed up, wound up, geared up, fired up—all those expressions contain the word up because
the stress response is, indeed, an “up” kind of experience. Muscles are
pumped for action; senses are heightened; awareness is sharpened. And
these feelings are useful, until they become too frequent. Constant
stress exacts a heavy toll on the mind, body, and emotional well-being.
Your health and happiness depend on responding to stress appropriately.
4. Determine What Stress Means to You
Most
people have a preconceived notion of what stress is in general, but
what does stress mean to you? Discomfort? Pain? Anxiety? Excitement?
Fear? Uncertainty? These are mostly conditions stemming from stress. But
what is stress itself? Stress is such a
broad term, and there are so many different kinds of stress affecting
so many people in so many different ways that the word stress may
seem to defy definition. What is stressful to one person might be
exhilarating to another. Stress has become a way of life for many, but
that doesn’t mean we should sit back and accept the insidious effects of
stress on our bodies, minds, and spirits.
5. Remember: You’re Not Alone
Almost
everyone has experienced some kind of stress, and many people
experience chronic stress, or constant, regular stress, every day of
their lives. Some people handle stress pretty well, even when it is
extreme. Others fall apart under stress that seems negligible to the
outside world. What’s the difference? Some may have learned better
coping mechanisms, but many researchers believe that people have an
inherited level of stress tolerance. Some people can take a lot and
still feel great and, in fact, do their best work under stress. Other
people require very low-stress lives to function productively.
6. Don’t Give Up, Even if You’ve Been Here Before
You’ve
probably tried stress management techniques before. Perhaps you just
haven’t found a stress management technique that fits your unique life.
Your personality, the kind of stress you are trying to relieve, and the
way you tend to handle stress all factor into your stress management
success. For example, someone who is physically drained by too much
interaction with people may not be helped by strategies that encourage
increased social activities with friends. Someone else who is stressed
by the lack of a support system might find profound benefit in increased
social activity. It all depends on who you are.
7. Why Does Stress Happen?
So
what’s the point of stress? Stress is a relatively complex interaction
of external and internal processes caused by something relatively
simple: the survival instinct. Life is full of stimuli. Some we enjoy;
some we don’t. But our bodies are programmed, through millions of years
of learning how to survive, to react in certain ways to stimuli that are
extreme. If you should suddenly find yourself in a dangerous
situation—you step in front of a speeding car, or you lose your balance
and teeter on the edge of a cliff—your body will react in a way that
will best ensure your survival. You might move extra fast. You might
pitch yourself back to safety.
8. The Fight-or-Flight Response
Whether
you are being chased around the savanna by a hungry lion, or you’re
being followed around the parking lot by an aggressive car salesperson,
your body recognizes an alarm and pours stress hormones, like adrenaline
and cortisol, into your bloodstream. Adrenaline produces what is called
the fight-or-flight response, increasing your heart rate and breathing
rate and sending blood straight to your vital organs. It also helps your
blood to clot faster and draws blood away from your skin (so that if
you’re injured you won’t bleed as much) and also from your digestive
tract (so you won’t waste time with intestinal troubles). And cortisol
flows through your body to keep the stress response responding as long
as the stress continues. But if you were to experience the constant
release of adrenaline and cortisol every day, it would tire you out.
You’d start to experience exhaustion, physical pain, a diminished
ability to concentrate and remember, and increased frustration,
irritability, and insomnia.
