STRESS

Stress

Abstract

Today stress is present at every step of our lives and is inevitable. When people hear the word “Stress”, a negative perspective takes place in their mind. However, it is really unfortunate to consider stress as a bad thing. Stress is really a healthy ingredient for our lives; it makes us to function at our optimal level, gives us strength to move forward and face the challenges, motivates us to perform our best, and hence, makes a positive change in our lives. This paper aims at discussing positive impacts of stress and dismissing the negative perception of stress people have, supported by different researches, studies and examples. Stress

Introduction

In today's fast moving world, stress is unavoidable; you can find it at every step of your demanding life. Different people take different meaning of stress, but mostly people think that it is a negative thing and hence, want to avoid it. However, stress is not a bad thing at all; we all need a certain amount of stress to function efficiently. Stress channels our resources to deal with different challenges and mould us to perform our best. Hans Selye, who laid the foundation of stress science in 1930's, believed so strongly in positive stress and saw it as “the salt of life.” According to him change in life is inevitable, if a person is worried about it that means a person is not thinking creatively and carefully (Carmichael, 2012, n.d).

Discussion

According to Foot, (1991), "Stress is the gap between what is, and what you think ought to be" (p.9). Stress is basically a physiological process that starts when a person is under pressure. When a person faces challenge, he either deals with it or else run away from it, this challenge is threat to him which causes stress (Foot 1991, p.9). People react to stress in various ways, some cope with it much better than others and comes up with positive change in life. As Hense Selye said, “Adopting the right attitude can convert a negative stress into a positive one.” In the stressful situation one has to balance himself/herself effectively and deals with stress with positive approach.

Stress is a positive thing, reason behind this view point is that whenever a person is under stressful situation he/she comes up with strength to face the challenge and meet his goals effectively. It is the inner strength that triggers when we face a challenging situation. To support this point strong research evidence is present, as Henry and Micheal (2012) study shows that stress provides immediate strength to the person when they most wanted to have motivation and enthusiasm to meet their challenges (p.162). Example of an athlete can be taken here: while performing, an athlete experiences the heart beating at an accelerated rate, his respiratory rate increases, and energy supply directed towards muscles. These physiological effects are due to stress, yet, this response is what his mind and body needs to give him the ability to meet his challenge ...