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Even calm and stable people are stressed today — there are too many events and changes at once. But you should not rush to fight this condition — perhaps a competent approach will help you manage it and even use it for your own benefit.
The famous physician Hans Selye defined stress as a non-specific reaction of the body to an internal or external stimulus. This means that our body is preparing for action in order to cope with a possible danger. The mechanism of self-defense laid down by evolution works: fight or run. Both of these activities require a lot of energy from us, and the body begins to prepare us for this.
Is it possible to jog out of fear? Or balanced to go into a rage? In both states, energy overwhelms a person. However, if it remains in the body and does not find a way out, stress begins to act destructively. Remember the emotional state of anxiety. The heart is beating, breathing has increased, the body is ready to act, but there is no activity. It is good when the object causing the alarm is external. Then you can run away from him or defeat him. But if the object is internal, then, not finding a way to agree with yourself, you spend all your resources on maintaining a state of readiness instead of the action itself.
Why do we need stress
And here the main question arises — do we really need stress? Remember how, when you woke up early in the morning on a day off, you looked at your watch, scolded yourself and went to sleep on. Waking up a second time already closer to noon, you sleepily wander around the apartment for some time, trying to disperse the remnants of drowsiness. How is that, after all, you slept? ..
A little stress is necessary for the body — it allows you to be in touch with feelings such as interest, excitement, passion.
If you’re skiing or snowboarding, you’re definitely familiar with this condition. Approaching the slope, you experience inspiration — this is the so-called eustress. Stress that works for the benefit of your body, encouraging it to experience the joy of life.
However, when there is a lot of stress, constant tension becomes unbearable, the body’s resources are depleted, and we find ourselves in distress. This is very similar to the painful state of overtraining in athletes, where recovery takes much longer than usual.
In what cases does the euphoria of eustress give way to toxic distress? Let’s look at the process of formation of this state.
Three waves of stress
The First Wave needed for orientation. Imagine you suddenly hear a car horn behind you. And immediately: instant muscle tension, palpitations, perspiration, cold, itching, heat in the face, trembling hands. This reaction cannot be controlled by the will, its task is to prepare you for action.
If the emotional memory has identified the situation as familiar and/or the trigger has ceased, acetylcholine is produced in the nervous system to neutralize the tension. But if this did not happen, it starts to act second wave. It is there to inspire you to make decisions and take action.
If stress is assessed as unknown, dangerous, the limbic brain begins to generate psycho-emotional energy.
Depending on our perception, we identify it as anxiety or inspiration. Characteristic for this wave are tension, headache, dry mouth, diarrhea, frequent urination, hyperactivity, haste, grumbling, crying. Duration — from two to six hours. If you manage to find a solution, then the nervous system allows you to reduce tension and even experience a subjective experience of pleasure or fatigue.
If you cannot accept the situation and / or it continues to look frightening and hopeless to you, which probably happened because you were not able to let go of your expectations that were no longer fulfilled, an offensive third (long) wave stress that lasts up to two to three weeks. Physically, we feel that we are in it if we observe sleep disturbance, apathy, fatigue, boredom, weakening of attention, excessive anxiety, decreased immunity, tics, loss of sense of humor, the need for self-isolation.
Risk factors for long-wave stress also include the tendency to suppress one’s reactions without changing the situation and attitude towards it.
And also the unwillingness to allow yourself, at least for a while, to act outside the box, that is, in a way that is different from your usual way of responding.
The purpose of this wave is to help you overcome a protracted crisis. During this period, the body manages to use all its resources. After such a wave, a long rest and recuperation is required. If stress has not stopped in three weeks, then it becomes chronic from long-wave stress. And depletion of the body leads to dysfunction and disease.
Stress management
Our task is to shorten stress waves from long to medium. If the process becomes chronic, then the root cause that triggered the stress may be lost in memory. And then the task of the psychologist is to help find it, as well as concepts and attitudes that interfere with the processing of stress.
To transform stress into medium waves, try to determine what exactly caused it.
Highlight a list of factors that cause the most concern.
Determine what nature each of the factors has — hypothetical or real.
Is there anything you can do about it.
If the situation is real and/or action is possible, take responsibility for making a plan of action, start or schedule a start time for action.
If the situation is hypothetical or change is impossible, try to accept the changed reality as it is. What is the best thing you can do in the current situation without changing it? You don’t have to worry anymore — stress prepares you to take action to make changes that are not possible right now.
Accepting the inability to influence the situation, you can feel dreary and sad. This is a normal stage of acceptance.
How to make every stress become an inspiration, not an anxiety?
Our psyche classifies a stressor as eustress, regardless of its type, only through perception. If we believe that we can do it, and that our efforts are worthwhile, we gain a sense of hope and self-confidence. Thus, in order to feel full of excitement and inspiration, it is necessary to seek contact with hope within yourself and determine the purpose of your own efforts.