Is Stress Affecting Your Health?
Stress affects our physical health as much as food and exercise does. A combination of emotional and physical pressures, stress can either help you deal more effectively with challenges and problems or make them many times worse. Some common early signs of stress include; irritability, headaches, digestive problems, pain in neck and shoulders, dizziness and raised blood pressure. With prolonged or regular overstress, these can lead to or develop into conditions that are more serious.
Because the mind and body deeply affect each other, too much stress also affects us mentally and emotionally. Some of the emotional and behavioural changes we can experience include a change in the way we relate to other people. For example, people can become more depressed, withdrawn, and not able to listen to others or be less sensitive towards others. Emotions like anxiety, anger, and frustration can become heightened.
There is something we can do about our reaction to stress! Because of the nature of stress, drugs do not effectively treat it. However, an approach to living our lives that leads to reduced pain and suffering, physical wellness, and inward peace can be learned through a program called Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) originally developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. This program was designed for people who want to work with their own stress, pain, and illness in order to mobilize their own inner resources of mind and body for growing, healing, and taking charge in new ways in their lives.
I was reflecting this morning about amount of stress we create when we live trying to be perfect rather than just having experiences that we learn from. We are constantly judging our behaviour and that of others, needing to make someone to blame when something goes wrong; making sure we are protected against the feelings we have when we disappoint, or fail to think of how we might affect others through our actions. I believe that not understanding that we do this is one of the great tragedies of our culture. It leads to constant internal and external unresolved conflict.
While trying to get my stepdaugther to recognize the impact of her behaviour on others, primarily myself and my husband, I realized that my efforts were wasted and it was an act of futility. She had no awareness of how much she was defending herself and attacking me, trying to make me wrong, rather than trying to resolve our conflict. She could not listen to what I was saying, so convinced was she that I was out to get her.
We cannot do anything about the way others interpret our behaviour, as frustrating as this is at times. But we can always ask ourselves if we are defending ourselves in our communication with others, or are we actually listening to what they are saying, without taking it personally.
Trying to be perfect is a defense against a wounded self that has stopped trying to strive and mature. Beginning to live, experience and negotiate through life without the need to be right, perfect or doing what one “should” is a worthwhile struggle and one that is guaranteed to reduce stress.
Comment by Anne Dranitsaris — November 11, 2007 @ 5:53 pm