What Exactly is Stress Anyways??

Approx. Read Time: 5 Minutes

We hear the word stress A LOT lately (especially if you have been keeping up with any of our blogs). The word stress is almost always used in a negative context. If you read our last blog (Hidden Sources of Stress), you may have been surprised to read that exercise is a form of stress on the body. But we know that exercise is good for you, right? Let’s take a deeper look at the word stress.

Think about some of your biggest accomplishments in life; I bet you that there was some amount of stress involved in those successes. In many of these situations there is a challenge and there is some amount of stress involved that keeps you motivated and helps you get the job done. That is not a bad thing.

Stress can be broken down into 2 categories: Eustress and Distress

  • Eustress – Eustress is the good stress. It means that the amount of stress IS tolerable and that stress is acting like a motivator to help you successfully accomplish whatever it is you are working towards.
  • Distress – But there is a point when the stress may become too much to cope with. When the eustress is no longer tolerable it turns into the bad kind of stress: distress. Distress is what often leads to negative coping mechanisms (things like over-eating and alcohol abuse). It can also lead to lack of energy and lack of motivation.stress-curve

Here are a couple tips to keep your stress at the Optimum Levels:

  1. BALANCE: The idea is not to eliminate all sources of stress in your life. Not only is that completely unrealistic, it will also probably lead to a pretty unfulfilling lifestyle. The idea is to balance stress with rest and relief; Its to understand what stresses you out and what helps you to relax and do your best to include both into your schedule.
  1. Developing Stress Tolerance: Stress tolerance is your ability to cope with stressful situations and bounce back. Developing stress tolerance is a multi-million-dollar industry. Your tolerance comes from a variety of influences including: personality, life experience, and environmental conditions.  A couple suggestions to develop a stress tolerance and make stress work for you:
  • Set goals and priorities
  • Avoid being a perfectionist
  • Practice good lifestyle habits: Fuel your body with enough GOOD food, get enough sleep, and fit some sort of physical activity into your days.
  • Use Positive self-talk: This one sounds so cheesy but it can honestly be so important. Take the time to stop and congratulate yourself on your successes. Its well researched that humans work better when using positive praise opposed to negative reinforcement, so start with yourself!!
  • Practice mindfulness: check out our Meditation blog to learn more about the ability to train the brain and build a more resilient mind using mindfulness techniques.

References:

Eustress vs Distress. (2012) Brock University. https://brocku.ca/health-services/health-education/stress/eustress-distress