Imagine with me for a second….
You’ve just returned home from an amazing, relaxing technology free vacation and upon arrival back to the office you get bombarded by 500 unread emails, 20 voicemails, and a deadline for a project that got pushed up.
Yikes…
Can’t you just imagine yourself cringing at the thought of this?
Hello S-T-R-E-S-S!!!
We think of stress as being associated with something bad – high blood pressure, headaches, and weight gain.
But if you think about it, does all stress have to be bad?
How stress affects you depend on the way you choose to think about stress, use stress and respond to stress.
Stress has the potential to motivate you to change your behaviors that move you closer to your desired goals, dreams and aspirations.
So, if you never experienced stress, you wouldn’t be moved to act in ways that bring about meaningful changes.
Those 500 unread emails, 20 voicemails, and pending deadline might’ve initially paralyzed you, but after you get over the initial shock, you can prioritize and focus on what needs to get done.
This is how you can turn a negative stress, which could potentially immobilize you, and convert it to a positive stress that propels you towards your desired outcome.
Is There Such A Thing As Good Stress?
What you may not know is that your body can’t distinguish between whether what you are experiencing is a good stress or bad stress. The flight or fight response will be triggered in your body regardless, from that adrenaline surges which allows you to perform the task at hand with confidence and efficiency.
Not only will stress motivate you to act in ways that bring about change, stress has also been found to aid in helping the body heal if experienced for short periods of time.
An article published by Stanford University showed that the natural stress response in combination with immune activation – for example during a surgery or vaccination – could enhance the immune response. Remember if stress becomes a chronic issue then it can gradually wear down your body and ultimately damage it.
The Human Function Curve
Therefore, when it comes to managing your stress, the key is to ensure that your stress doesn’t become a chronic issue.
Dr. Peter Nixon, a London cardiologist, developed a concept known as “The Human Function Curve” which illustrates the effects of chronic stress.
Nixon showed that, initially, performance increases under stress, but when stress hits a precipice (aka “The Hump”), fatigue introduces a decline in performance and, ultimately, ill health and breakdown.
Time To Start Living!
So the takeaway should be this; change is constant and each stressful event that we encounter daily, from the little things to the big things, presents an opportunity to respond in different ways.
Take a moment and determine how you can begin to change the manner in which you think about stress in your life.
Stress is inevitable, so why not choose to harness it for its motivating principles and create positive change versus allowing it to create pain and drain your emotional resources?
By doing this, you will be moving yourself closer to achieving an extraordinary life!