In today’s society, the word stress is used in everyday conversations. What is stress? Is it good? Is it bad? Let’s first look at Merriam-Webster’s definition of stress, and then maybe we’ll be able to answer the other questions about whether stress is good or bad. Webster defines stress as “a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation” (Merriam-Webster, 1996). An example of a physical factor that may cause your body stress would be your muscles getting very tired on a long bike ride. An example of a chemical factor that may cause your body stress would be your body’s response to adrenaline that is released inside your body when you get really scared. An example of an emotional factor that may cause your body stress would be the death of a loved one. To simplify things, let’s call the physical, chemical, and emotional factors that cause stress stressors. So stressors are objects, people, places, and events that trigger stress. Well, we’ve been able to find out what stress is, but we haven’t been able to say whether stress is good or bad. Actually, stress can be both good and bad.
We will call stress that is good for you positive stress. Positive stress helps you to reach goals or accomplish tasks. An example of positive stress is when you set a goal to make the basketball team this year. You put yourself under the pressure to practice shooting two hundred free throws a day so you will have a better chance at making the team. In order to be able to practice the free throws, you have set the alarm for 5:30 a.m. to get them in before school starts each day. You know this is an added stress to your already busy schedule, but it is a positive stress, because something positive may result—you may make the basketball team.
We will call stress that is bad for you negative stress. Maybe it would be easier to explain negative stress by saying what it isn’t. It isn’t the kind of stress that helps you reach goals or accomplish tasks. Instead, negative stress would do just the opposite of helping you—it would hold you back. We will all experience negative stress throughout our lives. For example, not managing your time well can produce negative stress. If you add too many activities to your day, negative stress can result. Let’s say that you are on the soccer team and your coach has just increased practice time from one hour to two hours. You are still in school and have lots of homework. With the increase in practice time, you are now more physically fatigued when you get home. You sit down to do your homework, but you fall asleep before you get finished. The negative stress in this situation is not being able to get your homework completed. If it continues for long enough, it will affect your grades.
Now that we’ve defined stress and explained the different types of stress, let’s look at an illustration of how your body responds to stress.
The Body’s Response to a Stressor: (1) The brain is stimulated by the stressor; (2) The brain sets off a chain of events that signals the adrenal glands to send out adrenaline, a hormone that prepares the body to respond to a stressor; (3) Other organs also help the body deal with the stressor. The stomach and intestines slow down their activities to save energy. Once the stressor is dealt with, the body returns to normal; (4) Breathing becomes faster and deeper. More oxygen enters the body; (5) The heart beats faster, increasing the blood flow to the brain and muscles; (6) The muscles tighten, becoming ready for action (Merki, 1996).
Wow! I bet you didn’t realize how many ways stress can affect your body, did you? Remember Merriam-Webster’s definition of stress? Now focus on the part of the definition that read “and may be a factor in disease causation” (Merriam-Webster, 1996). Someone who has to deal with stressors for years might contract a disease because of it. The body would just get so tired of responding to stressors that a disease would be like a red light going on inside the body, telling it to stop! The disease would make a person have to slow down. Of course, preventing this from ever happening would help you maintain a healthy self. Because we all will experience stress in our lives, it is important that you learn how to manage stress.
You can prevent negative stress from getting out of control in your life and possibly damaging your healthy self. Let’s look at three simple steps that can help you with this quest:
Let’s say you come from a family with lots of brothers and sisters. You are the oldest. Your younger brother just adores you. He can’t wait to get home each day to see you. He wants to be your shadow when you are at home. You love your brother, but you also want time to yourself. Your little brother is starting to get on your nerves and you’re feeling pretty stressed about the whole situation. Let’s go through the three steps to managing stress and see how you could change this negative stress in your life.
There may be times in your life when you will be faced with unavoidable stress. There may be times in your life when you have a lot of deadlines all at once. Maybe your English teacher has a big paper due at the same time your science fair project is due. You can’t really avoid either of these stressors, but you can reduce stress by using certain techniques that will help you minimize the stress. Let’s look at ways to reduce stress now.
Your teachers are probably good about announcing due dates or deadlines, especially on big projects in the class. If you plan ahead and schedule time for both your English paper and the science fair project, then you will reduce the stress in your life.
Decide ahead of time which project is going to require more time, then put that project first, still allowing enough time to work on the other project.
Channel your energy in a positive direction. Everyone reacts to stress a little differently. Maybe this kind of stress in school makes you really uptight because you want to get a 4.0 grade point average, and you may get really worried about having two big projects due at the same time. If you can tell you are getting uptight, take a little time and do something that will help you not be so stressed out. I was a competitive swimmer from the age of nine all the way through college. After I was married and had four children, sometimes I would get really stressed out about the kids fighting a lot, so I would arrange for the kids to be taken care of and go down to the local pool and swim off my stress. It worked! You may find that doing something physical would help you too, or you may sit down and play a game on the computer or the PlayStation. Whatever it is that will help take your mind off of the stress and channel your energy in a positive direction, do it!
You’re old enough now to realize when your body is getting tense because of stress. Take time for you. Laugh with a friend. Go for a quiet walk. Play with your dog. These are a few suggestions to help you relax. I’m sure you can come up with some great ideas of your own, too.
Talk to someone. If none of these methods work for you, then talking to someone can help. A parent, a teacher, a school counselor, or a friend may be able to help you.
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