Stressed Out?

That's what I asked myself as I left the admissions office here at school and saw this huge sign saying, "Are you stressed out!?"  It then went on to list everything you can imagine that might make you stressed, then how to recognize it, followed by the appropriate Rx.   Geez, talk about stress - it's hard enough to live with it, much less having to read about it around every corner.  Like this post, if it's stressing you out - please, just close the tab right now! :)

Often misunderstood though is the true meaning of stress.  A common definition goes something like this:

"a specific response by the body to a stimulus,as fear or pain, that disturbs or interferes with the normal physiological equilibrium of an organism"


However, what some might not know is that there is good stress (eustress) and bad stress (distress).  We want the first, not the second, duh.   But what causes each of these?  Distress is most commonly associated with the word 'stress' and invokes thoughts of crying, worrying, forgetting, and losing.  Distress can also have much more than just an emotional consequence, but it can cause health issues.  It can lead to hypertension, loss of oxygen to you brain, neuronal death, and shorten your life.   It can even kill you.  It was supposedly documented that during the recent World Cup, some Brazilian fan died of heart attacks after watching their team lose.

Moving on to eustress.  How can we replace the common distress with eustress.  Common acts or feelings of eustress involve accomplishing a task or goal, riding a rollercoaster, happiness felt during the birth of a baby, or any event that induces feelings of nervousness or anxiety in a positive manner. Eustress unlike distress, has absolutely no deleterious effects on your health and in contrast helps bring meaning to everyday life.  Without these positive stressors, we might not feel or anticipate positive events in the same light.

Stress in the mainstream has primarily been seen as outside stimuli that affect the way we feel.  But I offer another side to this argument.  I believe that a large part of our management of stress is psychological.  When placed with a stressor, it is our option to choose to have it positively or negatively affect us.  We decide if our anger will get the better of us, or whether we see the situation as an opportunity to learn and grow.  If you are stressed though and feel out of control with your emotions, you should definitely seek help.  There are many useful websites and people that have dedicated their lives to helping and teaching others to cope with stress.

WOD:  50,40,30,20,10,20,30,40,50  situps/double unders
time-  20:29