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MY
HEALTH
What
is Stress?
Posted:
Oct 2009
What
is stress exactly? What is
stress response of our body?
What is stress response from our
mind?
Probably
you
have
heard expression that somebody
had one drop too many. It takes
some time to fill the glass,
drop by drop. During some time,
the glass is containing all
water that drops in. But
eventually the glass becomes
full and the last drop will
spill the water out of
glass,
since the capacity of the glass
is limited.
The
same stands for our personal
capacities to cope with pressure
and stress that is caused by
pressure. We have a certain
capacity to absorb pressure, but
eventually we may come in
situation that our capacity is
reached. At that point we may
react different than in normal
situation. This is happening
simply since we had enough
stress.
So
what is stress exactly?
According to Hans Selye the body
passes through three stages of
coping with pressure. The first
stage is the familiar
"fight or flight"
stage when the body prepares for
action. In this stage we are
ready to confront situation of
pressure from our surrounding.
In the second stage the body
adapts to the condition of
pressure and builds resistance
to the influence of pressure. In
the third stage, if the duration
of the stress is sufficiently
long, the body enters a stage of
exhaustion. This final stage is
the moment when we had a one
drop too many.
Richard
Lazarus brought a definition
that is commonly accepted that
says that stress is the feeling
or a condition that comes when
our personal resources are not
greater than the demands all
around us. This means that the
stress becomes when demand from
our surrounding exceeds our
personal capacities.
Stress
is a very common issue among all
individuals. It has been
discovered that all people,
regardless of age and social
status, experience some degree
of stress. Children may have
stress while playing. Students
may have stress before exams.
Everybody is having a stress at
work, at some degree. Even if somebody
is
retired, he/she may be under the
stress caused by financial
uncertainty. When the body and
mind is introduced to more
stressors than it can handle
appropriately, it has a natural
tendency to react to the things
that it interprets as a direct
threat.
Now
we can see that the stress is
the psychical and physical state
caused by exceeding of our
personal capacities due to
outside factors that are
commonly called stressors.
Stressors can affect us in
different ways.
- If
we receive too much pressure
in specific period of time
-
If
we are being exposed to
particular event that shocks
our stress capacity system
- If
we lack of control over
events around us
Regardless
how different these stressors
are, they all occupy our stress
capacity. As more stress
capacity is occupied we are
feeling more stressed. Obviously
we must establish anti stress
routines that will refresh our
stress capacity. This means that
we need to find a way to relax
in period when we are not
exposed to stress to refresh our
stress capacity and to "empty
the glass". If we manage to
refresh from stress we will be
more ready to cope with
stressors in the incoming
period.
On
the other side, if we do not
fully relax between one stress
periods to another, we will be
accumulating stress over time.
On long run this can cause a
serious problems that can
reflect through our health,
mental capacity, energy level,
creativeness, social life, etc.
Anti stress program is something
that we all need. As the stress
influence increases, it is
getting too difficult to fully
relax just by being not exposed
to stress. This means that we
need to develop active anti
stress program for our self.
This program can include sport,
massage, sauna, traveling,
writing a book, or anything else
that makes some activity. It is
not important what that activity
may be, as long as it suits to
your personal preferences and
makes you happy. As long as
something makes you happy it
will help you to improve
your stress balance.
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