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What is Stress ?.. Is it Always Bad?In search of an answer! what is stress? You will not get any single answer to this. Stress is so subjective, it is different for different people. Let us see what stress means at different stages of life, and how it is an integral part of life. Life is like that only: you are always bombarded by demands and choices. We will see how good or bad stress is. Was there ever a time without stress?When you were a kid, you cried to attract your mother for satisfying your hunger pangs. Then you grew up, you entered school, and now you had to cope with the stress of passing the examinations and various tests. You grew up still more and went through the stresses of preparing yourself for some vocation.Then you get married – a time indeed to get a real understanding of what is stress. You have children, you are stressed. Now you have to deal with a different set of stressors. At this stage the main causes of stress are – how to divide time between work and family; attending to children’s demands, spouse’s demands, mounting expenditures, family members’ illnesses, etc. Now you get old. You get retired. Now you are stressed about health, pension, bereavement and loneliness. Can you ever get away from stress? Do you really want to get away from stress? Not really, since many of these stresses were brought upon you by yourself. You got stressed but you enjoyed it, it made your life worth living! You cannot imagine a life without stress. What is stress if not life itself?Lack of any kind of stress is boredom, disinterest, and depression. When stress is undesirable, you feel angry, anxious, and afraid; when it is positive, you feel excited, alive and thrilled. The stress is the response of body to any event for preparing itself for ‘fight or flight’. Many chemical changes take place in the body for gearing it to meet any contingency. This is the evolutionary response for survival of the species. The real question is not ‘What is Stress?’ or ‘Why Stress?’ The real meaningful question is ‘How to Manage Stress?’ You don’t fight it, you don’t avoid it, but you manage it. Half of the time you are worrying about ‘What’ and ‘Why’ of it, rather than ‘How’ of it, which by itself becomes another cause of stress! What, Is Stress Good For Me?Positive stress is desirable for your own good, and also for the good of your family and also for the society as a whole. When stress is positive, you are giving your best, you are trying to come up to the challenge. Almost all of the life’s important moments are experienced under positive stress. You try to give your best during examinations. It is positive stress which impels you to take your kid to the doctor. It is positive stress that motivates you to work on your negative traits. It is positive stress that drives a society to make laws. It is positive stress that agitates you and pushes you to seek out a better job even if you and your family have to go through many uncertainties and unforeseen changes. You never want to escape stress. You always want to manage it. It is only when the stress gets out of hand that it becomes a cause of concern. But is still managed and never eliminated altogether. What is life if it is without stress? What is stress if it is not managed! I cannot imagine. Good or bad, stress is here to stay. Let us learn to manage stress. Further ReadingThree Causes Of Stress That Lie Within You... Main Causes of Stress Due To External conditions Return to Home from What is Stress? More references Anxiety DisorderHow to beat anxiety and stress.
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