Comments on: What positive steps can be taken to minimise stress? http://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/blog/2008/07/17/what-positive-steps-can-be-taken-to-minimise-stress/ Just another WordPress weblog Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:03:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Reeta http://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/blog/2008/07/17/what-positive-steps-can-be-taken-to-minimise-stress/comment-page-1/#comment-51 Reeta Tue, 05 Aug 2008 20:17:21 +0000 http://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/blog/2008/07/17/what-positive-steps-can-be-taken-to-minimise-stress/#comment-51 Stress is a reaction to external events. Some things (such as a traffic jam) cause stress to one person but not to someone else. So it is the way that a person interprets this situation that leads to the stress response. Stress is the result of the Fight or Flight (FF) impulse that everyone has. Trouble is that this impulse kicks in when the mind interprets a situation as being a threat to survival in some way. Traffic jams (and other modern day stresses such as in-laws and evil bosses) are not a threat to survival in the true sense but the FF impulse is still triggered. Often this is due to the remnants of a long-forgotten situation. The body carries a remnant of the negativity associated with that event so that when a new situation occurs that "reminds" it of this negativity, it associates this new situation as being as bad as the original event. It wants to "save" the person from this badness and so the FF kicks in to alert the person to do something. The person is then so associated into the negativity that he/she becomes unable to see this situation for what it is. If they could see it, then they could react appropriately. But instead, being caught up in the highly alert state of the FF, they have increased adrenalin etc that has no way of being released... after all, you can't directly fight or flee a traffic jam, an in-law or an evil boss. I have written an article about this and have outlined a way to see stress as the alert system of the body and to regain control naturally and effectively. I hope others find it useful :-) http://www.paradoxofreality.com/stress_management_make_stress_work_for_you.html Stress is a reaction to external events. Some things (such as a traffic jam) cause stress to one person but not to someone else. So it is the way that a person interprets this situation that leads to the stress response.

Stress is the result of the Fight or Flight (FF) impulse that everyone has. Trouble is that this impulse kicks in when the mind interprets a situation as being a threat to survival in some way. Traffic jams (and other modern day stresses such as in-laws and evil bosses) are not a threat to survival in the true sense but the FF impulse is still triggered.

Often this is due to the remnants of a long-forgotten situation. The body carries a remnant of the negativity associated with that event so that when a new situation occurs that “reminds” it of this negativity, it associates this new situation as being as bad as the original event. It wants to “save” the person from this badness and so the FF kicks in to alert the person to do something.

The person is then so associated into the negativity that he/she becomes unable to see this situation for what it is. If they could see it, then they could react appropriately. But instead, being caught up in the highly alert state of the FF, they have increased adrenalin etc that has no way of being released… after all, you can’t directly fight or flee a traffic jam, an in-law or an evil boss.

I have written an article about this and have outlined a way to see stress as the alert system of the body and to regain control naturally and effectively. I hope others find it useful :-)
http://www.paradoxofreality.com/stress_management_make_stress_work_for_you.html

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