by Skylar Majesta King

Created on: March 21, 2009

We hear a lot about stress today, including the harmful ways it affects our health and the practical ways that we can manage it. But just what is stress? Stress is often defined as a tension or pressure or as a factor producing unrest or disturbance. Stress is also the opposite of tranquility or a state of complete rest or relaxation.

We experience stress in a number of ways. Individuals may tap their feet, scribble circles, or make other repetitious moves. They may sweat, pace the floor, have heart palpitations, racing thoughts or forgetfulness, toss and turn in their beds and have trouble sleeping. Individuals under stress may also experience disturbances in their stomach, chest, and face areas, the three major parts of the body that stress accumulates in. They may have stomach pain and discomfort that can lead to chronic digestive disorders and ulcers, if ignored or left untreated. Individuals may have migraine headaches or become more suspectable to sinus and other infections in the head area. Or they may have backaches, chest pain, or become more susceptible to heart attack. The particular area or areas of the body that become affected by accumulated stress, and predispose individuals to debilitating and even life-threatening illness, are not the same in everyone and depend, to a large extent, on hereditary factors as well as lifesyle influences.

Stress, furthermore, is significantly influenced by our thinking. This is very important because the understanding of how our thoughts contribute to, or help reduce or eliminate harm to our bodies, helps create opportunities to manage stress. For example, two individuals are laid off. Both are surprised but one feels that he has talents and will search for an appropriate job until he gets what he wants and deserves. He enthusiastically accepts each job possibility as a new challenge, cheerfully goes about his daily business, and continues to sleep well at night. The other individual, on the other hand, becomes anxious and pessimistic. He loses his appetite, starts to smoke more, increasingly loses his motivation to even try to get a job, and begins to take sleeping pills. He frets about his future and constantly worries about debt and how he will pay his bills.

Stress is not always unhealthy nor is it something we should try to completely avoid. Stress can be healthy when it is associated with positive events and positive thoughts and feelings. For example, getting married or competing in a contest can be stressful,

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