What Do You Know About Stress?

Stress is a serious problem of western civilization. Most people doesn’t know there are two kinds of stress. One of them is what we typically think of – negative tension that makes us less effective, destroys our self-esteem, and is really unpleasant. It’s called distress. But there is another type of stress that is really pleasant. It makes us feel extremely excited, and fills us with positive emotions. It’s called eustress. It makes us ready for new challenges, and gives us a lot of energy.

What is really interesting is that the chemical reactions that take place in our brains are always the same. There are exactly the same hormones released when we feel frightened by a dog, and when we feel joy of a ride in your new car. And they often cause the same symptoms, like pounding heart, vertigo… What differs is our perceptions of these symptoms.

What it really means? That what we feel (anxiety or excitement) depends on who we perceive the situation. If we’ll be able to change our perception of a given situation, we can easy change how we feel. And the ‘bad stress’ (distress) may disappear. Good example of that we can find in public speaking. Many people believes that if the speak they need to be perfect, know all the answers, and be the number one expert on the World to be accepted and appreciated. Therefore speaking in public is extremely stressful event for such people. And solution in many cases is quite simple. It’s enough to realise we don’t need to be perfect, to add significant value to the audience. Then just focus on this value, and how we can add it. And most part of fear may disappear, or even change into excitement. It all depends on what we believe in.

Distress make huge damage to the health and condition of nowadays people. It adds to the depression, heart attacks, and is a hidden cause of many other diseases. The high level of negative stress is  such common problem, that everyone should find the difference between these two kinds of stress, and do something to turn the bad one into the good one.