Stress

There are many definitions of stress - the one, which we find most helpful is; 'Stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize.' Richard S Lazarus

It is common to use stress as an umbrella term connoting all thevarious pressures we experience in life – unfortunately this confuseswhether stress is the cause of the pressures we feel or the effect ofthose pressures, i.e. whether stress is the stimulus or the response.

It may be more helpful to define stress as a response to a stimulus orevent i.e. a ‘stressor’ that produces the physical and psychologicalstress response.

The important aspect to note is that a stressor can be:

Weare continuously making efforts to adapt to the pressures and demandsthat we face, which may or may not be adequate. It follows that themore we can bring attention to the effectiveness of our efforts to copewith the stressors we experience the more able we will be at managingthem and avoiding feeling overwhelmed and over stressed and perhapsavoid making ourselves ill.
It is not the potential stressoritself but how we perceive it and then how we handle it that willdetermine whether or not it will lead to unmanageable stress.