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Dr. Hans Selye said stress is necessary for adaptation.
Charles Darwin said, "It is not the strongest or the
smartest of the species that survive but the one most able
to adapt to change." Stress is a requirement for adaptation.
Many times we think of stress as a negative or an overtaxing
drain mentally, physically or emotionally. Negatively
interpreted stress has been shown to initiate and contribute
to many disease processes and can aggravate current
diseases.
How two people perceive an event or situation may dictate
vastly different r esponses
by the body if one interprets stress negatively and the
other positively.
Selye's research showed that stress has two opposing
counters: "dis-stress," which is a negative interpretation,
and "eu-stress," which is the positive. Simplified, one is
processed as bad stress the other as good stress. The body
needs both.
To interpret our world, we use our senses: smell, taste,
touch, sight, hearing, joint and body perception. To
interpret an experience, we require a variation or gradient
-- opposing information. To see light, we need to understand
dark. To understand hot, we need to have the experience of
cold. To experience hunger, we need to know satiety.
Likewise, to build and have a strong muscle, we must load,
or "stress," it. By loading it, we cause elements of the
muscle to break down and reorganize into stronger and larger
components. The muscle doesn't become strong at the time of
stressing, but once repaired, its strength has increased.
Even our blood vessels are under stress, as the pumping of
blood through arteries meets the resistance of the vessel
wall. Our lungs inflate and deflate against a resistance of
the tissues.
Can there be life without stress? Our simple answer is "no."
Being alive requires a balance of stressors in the body.
This balance is called "Homeostasis". Our body is in a
constant state of creation and destruction, with formation
of new cells and removal dead cells. We need stress to live.
How we interpret our life within our body and our
environment is important. Have you noticed that stress may
lead to one person's demise while another may thrive? Is
this attributed to training, preparation and interpretation
by the individual? Or is it haphazard?
We affect how our body interprets stress through training.
This is why someone training for a marathon has to train
over many months to physically stress the body's tissues and
give them time to respond by strengthening and adapting to
the strain of the extended, prolonged running. If one were
to run a prolonged distance without training, trauma to the
body would probably result, but if one takes a number of
months to slowly allow the body to adapt to increasing
amounts of stress (yes, a form of trauma), the body can
interpret the event with much less damage and have a
positive experience.
The same goes for certain careers. For example, a
firefighter who has undergone basic training then prepares
both the body and the mind for further scenarios they may
encounter. For an untrained person, running into a burning
building without training could lead to his demise; fear and
lack of preparation could leave him unable to think
rationally and clearly. A firefighter, however, has learned
through experience and training what "limits" can and cannot
be breached. He'll experience stress, but the body will
demonstrate a controlled, effective response.
Selye says the general adaptive stress (GAS) response is
when we initially experience an event, interpret it as
stress and go into an alarm phase. In this phase, the body
prepares itself with physiological changes intended to deal
with the stress. Remember the fight-or-flight response? Our
body prepares to fight an invader or "run" to save
ourselves. With this come chemical and hormonal reactions in
the body, an elevated heart rate, faster breathing, greater
muscular tension and more mental acuity. If the stressor
recedes, our physiology returns to normal. Over time, if we
continue to confront the same stressor, the stress response
enters the resistance phase, which keeps us in an elevated
state of preparedness. However, our resources eventually
become fatigued or something breaks down and we hit a wall
-- the exhaustion phase. This is often when we see symptoms.
It becomes important to recognize how we each deal with our
stress, how we take it on and how we release it.
First, note what you experience when under stress:
Is there a pattern you can observe regarding where, when or
how you have this experience? What triggers it? With whom
you have it?
What do you feel when you become stressful?
How does your breathing change?
How do you hold stress in your face? And in your jaw,
shoulders, neck, and upper and lower back?
How are you holding your posture?
Is there tension in your stomach?
Is your heart pounding?
How are you communicating to others?
What is your rate and tone of speech?
What kind of decisions are you making with family, friends,
co-workers?
How are you communicating with your family, friends and
colleagues?
Are you planning your life, or is life happening to you?|
How are you sleeping?
What can be interpreted as negative
stress?
Perceived negatives may be:
Crowds of people
Unproductive meetings
Financial concerns
Negative emotions
Anxiety for others
Cold or hot weather conditions
Lack of sleep
Diet
Violence
Chemicals
Loud noise
Overwork
Poor fitness
Arguments
Lack of job satisfaction
Worry
Lack of time, over commitments
Not following your dreams
How can you reset from daily sources
of stress?
You might wish to investigate the following:
Mindful-based meditation
Deep balanced abdominal breathing
Exercises - research shows even a half-hour of walking daily
can relieve mild to moderate depression
Yoga
Music - chants, classical, ambient music
Nature walks
Journaling your thoughts
Movies that make you laugh
Safe exposure to sunlight
Healthy sleep patterns
A well-balanced diet of minimally processed foods
Being in control of your innermost dominant thoughts and
outward actions
Consider these questions:
How can you be thankful for your stress?
What is the stressor telling you about your life?
Is change needed in your priorities?
G -Assignments
Identify your stressors and journal them. These stressors
can also be labeled things that you resent. For instance
you may resent not feeling well, or a close persons illness
in your life making your life perceivably hard; or a
stressor could be that you resent your partner coming home
late at night; or that someone is selfish, mean,
greedy…remember that there are 4600 human traits and we all
demonstrate every trait…only we demonstrate them in
different forms (one may be greedy with money, and another
may be greedy with their time).
Identify your response for each item.
Now identify 5 other responses you could choose for each
item. Note what changes could occur by changing your
response.
What would be the benefit in choosing a different response?
What are the benefits to you in your spirituality, your
knowledge, your career time, your profitability, your
fitness level, your socialization? Finding the benefits of
an emotional charge causing the perception of stress, will
allow you to be grateful for the so called "stressors" that
exist.
What lessons have you learned from each stressor? This might
include increased awareness of how or where you hold stress
in your body or it might include new strategies in dealing
with situations or people.
Is there a benefit in staying with the present response you
are choosing and is there a benefit in changing your
response?
What are the benefits for both?
If your behavior stays the same and does not change, how
will the response change?
If your behavior, actions or response changes will a
different outcome occur?
Who controls how you respond to stress?
Who controls your ability to change your perception, your
action and your response?
Let us know what you come up with.
Remember, the greatest question that will serve your life
toward greater horizons is "How does this person or
situation serve me in my future growth and love for life?" |
