When is the last time you said to yourself — or to others, “I am so stressed out?”
If your world is anything like mine, then you experience on-going stress. That’s a good thing and it could be a bad thing.
During this 6-part article series I’ll help you answer the following questions:
- What is stress?
- How does stress affect me?
- How can I minimize the health hazards of stress?
In order to do that, you need working definitions and clarity about stress.
Stress is a response to a stimulus, and when you respond to the stimulus you expend energy.
Anything in your life that causes you to expend additional energy is called a stressor – it can be anything from planning a family vacation to preparing for a tax audit. It can be as simple as an unexpected knock on the door or as complex as learning a new language.
Here’s an important concept for you to know. Stress is about energy. It is about our normal level of energy, about our need for sudden energy, and about the accumulation of energy hormones.
Many times during the day, our body responds to various stressors — events that require more energy than normal.
Your body responds to the stressor by releasing various hormones to give you the kick you need to respond to the stress. With this sudden burst of energy you are able to focus, to create, and to get the job done.
This stage of stress is defined as productive tension. It provides you the energy to do what you need to do – to produce, to respond, to react.
When the job is done, the “high” that you feel is quickly replaced by weariness and maybe even fatigue. Your body needs to experience calm – the stage of stress where you move below your normal energy level in order to re-group. During the stage of calm the hormones that have been created are able to dissipate, returning your body’s system to normal.
Let’s look at stress in a real life way. Just before Audrey leaves the house for work, her boss sends a text saying that he needs a specific report – only she can produce – by 10:00. She moves into high gear, getting out the door 20 minutes earlier than usual. (of course, she skipped breakfast altogether and left her closet a disaster). That’s okay. Right now, she’s got to get to the office. Audrey moves quickly through rush hour traffic for fifteen minutes, then traffic comes to a halt. Her heart races, and she reaches for her phone to check e-mails. Minutes pass and traffic starts moving. With energy pumping, Audrey arrives at the office, practically running to her desk. She feels energy surge through her body as she hammers out the report. She did it — with 5 minutes to spare!
Once the report is sent to her boss, she notices that her neck is really tight and she’s beginning to experience a bit of a headache.
At this point, Audrey can do one of two things.
1) She can keep going at this pace and before the morning is out, she will be operating at a level of stress called distress, which is prolonged and unproductive stress.
2) Or she can practice a relaxation technique that helps dissipate the stress hormones. It is the build-up of these hormones that are going to cause headaches, muscle pain, and an upset stomach. It is the increasing accumulation of stress that will cause her to become irritable, snap at co-workers, and overindulge at lunch.
It is important for you to know that your health is at risk when hormones build up in your system and are not able to dissipate in a healthy way through some kind of calming response.
Even so, most of us don’t give our bodies a chance to calm. When stressors build up, we move into a stage of stress that is called distress. Energy hormones continue to release and we begin storing them in our body, resulting in compromised health.
Here’s an exercise that might be beneficial to you:
Over the next week, pay attention to your stress level. It would be beneficial if you would jot down the cause – the stressors that you experience as you go through your week.
Have those handy for session #2 as we look at four categories of stress and how you can cope with each.
Until then, thanks for listening and remember to stress less.
