-noun
- importance or significance attached to a thing; emphasis: to lay stress upon good manners.
- Phonetics. emphasis in the form of prominent relative loudness of a syllable or a word as a result of special effort in utterance.
- Prosody. accent or emphasis on syllables in a metrical pattern; beat.
- emphasis in melody, rhythm, etc.; beat.
- the physical pressure, pull, or other force exerted on one thing by another; strain.
- Mechanics
- the action on a body of any system of balanced forces whereby strain or deformation results.
- the amount of stress, usually measured in pounds per square inch or in pascals.
- a load, force, or system of forces producing a strain.
- the internal resistance or reaction of an elastic body to the external forces applied to it.
- the ratio of force to area.
- Physiology a specific response by the body to a stimulus, as fear or pain, that disturbs or interferes with the normal physiological equilibrium of an organism.
- physical, mental, or emotional strain or tension: Worry over his job and his wife's health put him under a great stress.
- a situation, occurrence, or factor causing this: The stress of being trapped in the elevator gave him a pounding headache.
- Archaic strong or straining exertion.
What does all of these possible definitions have in common? Disturbance from equilibrium or the status quo.
So another way to describe "Stress" is to understand that it is about change ... and guess what?
That is the nature of life, i.e. everything changes.
So when do we describe something as stressful? When some change or force appears to cause change in us that we do not want or cannot accept.
Stress (or Change) is not of itself a negative thing or event... for example: If we want to grow more muscle we need to 'apply forces' to stimulate muscle building. If we want to learn a new language, we need to study (apply attention). If we want to learn how to do ballroom dancing then we must get instruction and practice.
Is learning Ballroom Dancing fun? Well that depends on the internal experience of the student... if they have to learn because someone is requiring them then it might not be fun at all.
Is Muscle Building fun? Look around... some think it is great fun and some call it suffering! What is the difference? "Internal Perception"
Is learning a New Language fun? Well, if I was living in Italy and I could not speak Italian and I had a chance to learn it then it would be great fun for me... but not necessarily for someone else.
So in a nutshell, most times our sense of 'being stressed' is a matter of our perceptions, our goals, our desires, old emotional patterns, etc...
Which means that if we can change our perceptions then we can experience an even differently.
Note: We can actually measure "Stress" using science. Some hormones (like cortisol) and typically elevated when we feel stressed. Some hormones will elevate when we are in a relaxation phase (like DHEA). Physiological measurements of heart and brain activity can be recorded and 'fed back' to the participant, which is what we call 'Bio-Feedback'.
(A look at what two different heart rhythm patterns for "Stressed vs Relaxed" can be seen at Bio-Feedback.)
Next Blog entry will discuss how you can experiment and see how your perceptions affect your experience and how that helps you understand about stresses in your life.
Thanks for reading and posting!
Karl
