What is Stress?Stress is all around us. Stress affects our health and relationships. But what is stress? What is it doing to our health?This part of the website is an introduction to stress, we look at what is stress and also what is the definition of stress. So many of us are affected by stress in our lives, but for most of us it is not clear what stress is.
So what is stress?In my understanding, stress is a reaction which occurs in the body when we are faced with certain circumstances.For example, when we move house, which is a very stressful situation, the body reacts. It starts to pump adrenaline around the body, the heart rate increases and we have, in the short term, more mental clarity. This is the fight or flight syndrome. This means that the body is preparing itself for this stressful situation. And in the short term this ‘stress’ is very helpful. We get things done. We have more energy. But in the long term, the health affects can be disastrous. In our example of moving house, if the deal falls through and we have to wait another 6 weeks for the paperwork, our stress levels go through the roof. The body can only react to stress for a certain amount of time before it needs to rest. Imagine lions in the Serengeti. When they hunt, their bodies pump with adrenaline and their minds are focused to an extreme. But afterwards they spend most of the day sleeping and resting. They need to recover. Stress requires that. We humans spend most of our time ‘hunting’ and only a short period of time ‘resting’. No wonder we are so tired and stressed out! So in this part of the website we look at what is stress, the definition of stress , what causes stress and the symptoms .
Example of StressI remember working in sales in London. I had just graduated from university and needed to earn money.The job in itself was extremely stressful. I had targets to meet and lots of people to call on the phone – 50 calls a day was my target. It was challenging to say the least. But it was at this time that I started to question what stress was all about. I started to ask myself what is stress. I started to question what I could do to help myself. How could I have a more balanced lifestyle? I asked myself how I could face the stress that was in my life. I started to read self help books and started to meditate every day. My stress levels decreased. I started to understand the question of ‘what is stress’ and what I could do about it. It made such a difference. It made me feel that I wasn’t alone in feeling stressed and that there were other people out there in the same position. Most importantly I realised that there were things I could do to combat stress. So by asking myself about stress, challenging myself to look at how I was adding to my stress, I learnt. Effects of StressThis first chapter is this same process, the process of looking at our lives and looking at how stress affects it.By defining and understanding exactly what is stress, we identify the problem, the illness. And once we know what and where the illness is, then we can heal it. The following topics are covered:
We look at the definition of what stress is.
We look at the different causes of stress in our lives, from going on holidays to moving house.
We look at those tell-tale signs which show us that we are feeling stressed.
Looking at what is stress in our livesSo hopefully these articles will start to help you to see how stress affects your life. It is not always a pretty sight but it is a sight that we need to see. You need to see what stress is in order to start to gain stress relief. By knowing who you are up against is the first step in stress management. Return from What is Stress to Stress Relief Choices
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