Why stress?
April is Stress Awareness month. I wanted to talk about stress and what to do about excessive stress.
Some is good
Some stress is good. It causes us to perform and get jobs done. It is a push. This is called Eustress. Eu stands for good. Stress that is positive in its effect. I know that if I didn’t have some push or pull to complete jobs, they wouldn’t get done. In this regard, it allows us to accomplish tasks but doesn’t have a negative impact on our emotional and physical well being.
Extended distress is bad for health
Distress or what we normally think of the bad kind of stress can be detrimental to our mental, emotional, and physical health. This could be the good kind of stress that is no longer fun or challenging anymore and it seems to have no end to it.
Different tolerances
Different people have different tolerances or levels of stress that they can handle. What may be a breaking point, or I am overstressed by a particular situation or person may for you be handled with ease by you or others.
It is everywhere
Stress and stressful situations are everywhere. They occur as I am driving down the road and someone starts to tailgate me. I may be waiting in line at the grocery store and this ‘wait’ is getting more and more stressful because it seems as if the line is moving slower than it was five minutes ago. Those situations happen when we least expect them. Stress just happens. It is a fact of life and there is nothing that is going to change that.
Can’t change the stress, change your reaction to it.
Stress happens. That is a given. You can change the way you react or the way you manage stress. That can make all the difference in the way your body perceives it and to help you cope with it as it occurs.
Finding stillness
As a way to deal with the stresses, it may be necessary to find stillness inside you. I came across this quote and I think it is very powerful when describing this concept and I thought that the way we react and think about our circumstances can make a difference in whether we feel stressed.
In the midst of movement and chaos keep stillness inside you. Deepak Chopra
All around there may be chaos, but on the inside find the stillness to help with stress management.
What do you do to find the stillness?
I play the fiddle as a way to find my stillness.
Best Health,
Juanita