Stress is a psychological and physiological response to events that upset our personal balance in some way. When faced with a threat, whether to our physical safety or emotional equilibrium, the body’s defenses rapidly elevate into high gear automatically.
This stresses our physical and mental natural state putting us in a place of fear, uncertainty, loneliness, and desperation. Our pulse races, our heart pounds rapidly, our muscles tense up, our breathing accelerates, and our mind becomes confused as our body reaches a state of red alert.
In today’s world we all have a lot of responsibilities and worries and are running on stress a good portion of the time. This condition amplifies every daily action making the simplest of tasks into an emergency mode (a traffic jam, a phone call from the in-laws, or segment of the evening news).
But the problem with the stress response is that the more it’s activated, the harder it is to shut off. Instead of levelling-off once the crisis has passed, your stress hormones, heart rate, and blood pressure remain elevated.
Furthermore, extended or repeated activation of the stress response takes a heavy toll on the body. Prolonged exposure to stress increases your risk of everything from heart disease, obesity, and infection to anxiety, depression, and memory problems. Because of the widespread damage it can cause, it’s essential to learn how to deal with stress in a more positive way and reduce its impact on your daily life.
Worry is sometimes caused by our overactive imaginations, when we don’t have enough “reality” to keep our minds better occupied. “Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.” ~Leo Buscaglia
Many of us worry or “over think” something and then in the peak of your anxiety we realize that most of our worries never came to fruition. The ugly factor about worrying is that it overtakes your healthy mind and sends it into a non-existent world of events that for the most part never take place.
We waste our time and energy on something that may or may never happen and cripple our chances to use our days to improve and increase our chances for success and happiness.
© Copyright – Hector Sectzer
