What Type of Stress Do You Have?
Stress is a mental and physical phenomenon. In all cases, the physical responses are identical. The triggering of the “fight or flight response” is at the root of all types of stress. But the experiences of stress are quite different. While occasional bursts of acute stress may be inconsequential, frequent episodes of acute stress, or episodic stress, can be as damaging as chronic stress.
Understanding yourself, your stressors and the type of stress you are experiencing is the first step to learning how to shift yourself from a state of stress to a relaxed state.
Most people who are under stress are unaware that they are stressed. It crept up on them over a period of time increasing intensity and frequency. Like the frog in the boiling pot, their tolerance for stress became so commonplace that they didn’t even noticed a difference. The signs of stress go unnoticed until the condition leads to a crisis.
Be aware that what is a stressor for one person is a re-energizer for another. Where an extraverted individual might find talking to people and going to parties a great way to let out steam, an introverted person may become more stressed by that very same situation. And where an introverted person may unwind easily by finding a space where they can have some alone time with they thoughts, an extraverted person may become stressed and feel the need to get out of the house.
Learning about who you are in relation to your stress, recognizing your stress behaviors, and knowing which actions contribute to your stress and which release it is necessary in learning to let go of stress.
The following categories of stress are to be considered only in that they have apparently distinctive and different characteristics. While everyone recognizes these conditions not everyone is aware that they are all states of stress.