'Without stress, there would be no life'
One can hardly pick up a newspaper or magazine or watch TV without seeing or hearing some reference to Stress .Why all the sudden fuss and fascination? After all, stress has been around since Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden of Eden. Is it because there is much more stress today? Is it because the nature of contemporary stress is somehow different and more dangerous? Or is it because scientific research has increasingly confirmed the crucial role stress can play in causing and aggravating different disorders and the diverse mechanisms of actions responsible for mediating its multitudinous effects?
Stress is an unavoidable consequence of life. However, just as distress can cause disease, it seems plausible that there are good stresses that promote wellness. Stress is not always necessarily harmful. Winning a race or election can be just stressful as losing, or more so, but may trigger very different biological responses. Increased stress results in increased productivity -- up to a point. However, this level differs for each of us. It's very much like the stress on a violin string. Not enough produces a dull, raspy sound. Too much tension makes a shrill, annoying noise or snaps the string. However, just the right degree can create a magnificent tone. Similarly, we all need to find the proper level of stress that allows us to perform optimally and make melodious music as we go through life.
The body may contain its own best pharmacy. Good health is more than just the absence of illness. Rather, it is a very robust state of physical and emotional well-being, that acknowledges the importance and inseparability of mind/body relationships. There is no single level of stress that is optimal for all people. We are all individual creatures with unique requirements. As such, what is distressing to one may be a joy to another. And even when we agree that a particular event is distressing, we are likely to differ in our physiological and psychological responses to it.
It has been found that most illness is related to unrelieved stress. If you are experiencing stress symptoms, you have gone beyond your optimal stress level; you need to reduce the stress in your life and/or improve your ability to manage it.
