CONGRATULATIONS! BY EMBARKING on this twenty-one-day program, you have taken an important first step toward living a less-stressed life. But there’s real work to be done if you want to see lasting change. First, you must understand what stress is and what impact it is having on your life.
People often think of stress as pressure at work, a demanding boss, a sick child, or rush-hour traffic. All of these may be triggers to stress, but stress is actually the body’s reaction to situations such as these. Stress is the body’s fight-or-flight response, which is driven by adrenaline and other stress hormones that are released when we perceive a situation as threatening. When we start to feel stressed-out, we are actually tuning in to some physical changes that occur in our bodies as a result of the stress hormones, including increased heart rate and blood pressure, faster breathing, muscle tension, dilated pupils, dry mouth, and elevated blood sugar.
By definition, stress is the state of increased physical arousal necessary for a living being to defend itself in time of danger. Let me show you how this plays out in the real world. I grew up in a rural part of Merritt Island, Florida. Our house was surrounded by wooded areas and orange groves, and I had many run-ins with a multitude of wild animals, including raccoons, opossums, wild hogs, and even alligators.
Of all the lessons I learned while growing up in this environment, the most important was that you never corner a wild animal. If you ever do, the fight-or-flight response will cause the animal to rear up and brace for a confrontation. It’s quite a scary sight to see an animal that feels threatened.
As strange as it may sound, you are much like those wild animals I encountered growing up. When you engage an environment that you perceive as threatening or overwhelming, your stress hormones release a tremendous amount of energy in your body. This stress reaction is in your mind and body, not “out there” in the situation or environment. Dr. Philip Eichling, a specialist in sleep medicine, defines stress as “the mind’s interpretation of an event in a way that causes characteristic physical effects.”1 Basically, stress is the body’s response to situations that we perceive or interpret as threatening, dangerous, overwhelming, or “impossible.” It is brought on by the way we think about the events in our lives.
Just like in those wild animals out on Merritt Island, the stress response in our bodies gives us the strength and energy to either engage the fight or run away from danger. One problem is that it is rarely appropriate for us to unleash all the strength and energy these stress hormones release. Think about it: we can’t just run out of the room and down the hall when we are asked a tough question during the morning staff meeting. The result is that our bodies go into a state of high energy when we perceive we are in a stressful or threatening environment, but there is usually no place for that energy to go. I’ve worked with many patients struggling to manage their stress whose bodies remained in a state of arousal for hours or even days at a time.
This, and even less extreme responses to chronic stress, can be devastating on our bodies. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health finds that stress-related ailments cost companies about $200 billion a year in increased absenteeism, tardiness, and the loss of talented workers. Between 70 and 90 percent of employee hospital visits are linked to stress, and as much as 90 percent of all visits to family doctors are for reasons related to stress.2
In a nutshell, stress is the number one health problem at work and at home. Stress-related physical symptoms include headaches, insomnia, muscle aches and stiffness (especially in the neck, shoulders, and lower back), heart palpitations, chest pains, abdominal cramps, nausea, trembling, cold extremities, flushing or sweating, and frequent colds. It is important to note that one of the most common symptoms of chronic stress is fatigue, which we tend to ignore.
In addition to its negative physical consequences, stress can manifest itself in a number of other areas of our functioning:
• Emotionally. Stress can cause us to feel “uneven” emotionally. This lack of emotional stability can feel like anxiety, nervousness, depression, anger, frustration, worry, fear, irritability, impatience, and short temper.
• Mentally. Symptoms of stress include a decrease in concentration and memory, indecisiveness, the mind racing or going blank, confusion, and loss of a sense of humor.
• Behaviorally. It probably comes as no surprise that chronic stress has a tremendous impact upon our behaviors. Stress-driven behaviors include pacing, fidgeting, nervous habits (nail biting and foot tapping), increased eating, smoking, drinking, crying, yelling, swearing, blaming, and even throwing or hitting things.
• Relationally. Of all the areas stress impacts, it might take its most stealth-like toll on our relationships. Have you ever come home and yelled at your kids after a hard day at work? Or have you ever had an unusually hard day at the office after a fight with your spouse? Although we don’t always connect these dots, the extra energy we get from stress usually seeps out as anger in our relationships.
• Spiritually. Positive and healthy spirituality is associated with a peace that exceeds human understanding. When we have a stress-filled life, our spiritual peace begins to fade because we end up exchanging a focus on the eternal for a preoccupation with our stress triggers. The bottom line is that chronic stress and true connectedness with God fight against each other.
I’ve included two exercises at the end of today’s reading to help you determine how stress is affecting your life. The Stress Assessment will give you an idea of whether you have more stress-inducing experiences or encounter more stressful environments than most. And the Effects of Stress exercise will help you gain insight into how stress is impacting your physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual life. These exercises not only will help you determine your stress level, but they also will allow you to measure your progress as you move toward a less-stressed life.
ASSIGNMENT
• Complete the Stress Assessment.
• Complete the Effects of Stress worksheet.
ASSESS YOUR STRESS LEVEL
This assessment was designed several years ago by psychiatrists Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe, who were doing research in the area of stress management.3 Although some people who experience chronic stress don’t produce high scores on this measure (you’ll find out why as you go through this program), it provides a gauge to determine whether or not you are confronting situations that are easy to interpret as stressful or overwhelming. Accordingly, your “score” on this assessment should be used only as a guideline for potential stress-inducing situations.
To measure your stress level for the year, mark every life event that applies to you and then add up your points. Three hundred points is regarded as a danger zone because those who score above that level have a 90 percent chance of experiencing a major health problem as a result of their stress.
THE EFFECTS OF STRESS
Stress can have a devastating impact upon several areas of your life. The problem is that most people never stop to examine just how destructive their stress really is. Think about how stress has affected your life in the following areas in order to gain insight into how stress is impacting you negatively. Write your answers in the spaces provided.
Your physical health
Your relationships
Your emotional and mental health
Your spiritual health
Your professional life