Physiologist Walter Cannon described the involuntary fight-or-flight response to threat, where the body produces hormones (chiefly adrenaline) that raise the heartbeat, free fuel for energy and drive blood to the large muscles. This is useful when we face threats of immediate physical harm, because it focuses the body’s operations on basic survival.

However, the fight-or-flight response also operates when a threat is anticipated or remembered. And we can find an awful lot of things threatening. Dr. Herbert Benson, a Harvard Medical School cardiologist, estimates that the average person experiences 30-50 adrenaline hits a day, where the heart speeds up, extra fats circulate in the blood (they will later condense into cholesterol), blood vessels clamp down, and muscles tense.

If we are experiencing chronic stressors - say, constant pressure at work, or major difficulties within a relationship, the perfectly normal fight-or-flight responses are protracted and may lead to long term damage.

WHY DO DIFFERENT PEOPLE REACT DIFFERENTLY TO STRESSORS ?

Psychologists who conducted early work into stress thought that everyone would react in more or less the same way to crises or disruptions and that extreme "stressors" would always be hazardous to health. But people differ in their reaction to events and disturbances. One person's excitement at a challenge can be another's anxiety and dismay, and there can be major contrasts among people in terms of both positive and negative events on their health. The main reason for this is the extent to which the mind can influence the body.

This influence has been known to medicine from its beginnings. Hippocrates said health was a state of harmony between the mind, the body and nature. Attitudes, beliefs and emotional states ranging from love and compassion to fear and anger can trigger reactions that affect blood chemistry, heart rate, and the activity of every cell and organ system in the body from the stomach and the gastrointestinal tract to the immune system.

This is good news for those of us who wish to begin to manage our stress, because it tells us that we are not helpless victims at the mercy of uncontrollable stressful forces. In reality we are potentially powerful beings who can learn to use tools and techniques to bring our minds, bodies and spirits into a state of harmony with our surroundings.

GOOD STRESS AND BAD STRESS

It's impossible to be alive and live without stress, but this is not necessarily a bad thing. With zero stress we would be unable to achieve or accomplish anything. We also tend to think that only negative events cause stress, but this is not so. Stressors can also be positive things such as the birth of a baby, achieving a sought-after goal or winning the lottery (so I understand !). Stress is the spice of life, for any emotion, any activity causes a certain degree of stress. What we need to learn is the difference between good and bad stress, and how to bring our stress levels under control so that we can avoid harmful consequences whilst achieving our goals and ambitions:

GOOD STRESS which Selye termed EUSTRESS, is a well managed balance of stimulation and relaxation which helps us concentrate, focus and achieve goals.

BAD STRESS or DISTRESS, is the constant pressure and arousal which if unmanaged may lead to psychological or physical illness.

STRESS MANAGEMENT

Stress management isn't about learning how to escape or eliminate the pressures and turbulence of modern living. Not only is that impossible, it's also undesirable.

Stress management is about learning to recognise our own particular pressures, appreciating how the mind and body react to these pressures, and about learning how to develop skills which enhance the adjustment.

To learn stress management is to learn about the degree to which we can control our health in a positive sense.

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