On the uselessness of stress…
September 28, 2007
You know, I see a lot of people around me getting stressed quite regularly (which obviously has nothing to do with my charming personality)… but no matter how much I try to understand why people experience this kind of negative stress.. I just fail to see what the use of it is. This probably makes me a social outcast, but like any social outcast: I don’t care ;-) Here’s how I see it:
Situational stress (external factors):
Almost all stress is caused by being in a situation we don’t like. Whether it’s in traffic, in shops or at work, it’s stress caused by external factors that we let get to us. Truth is:
You can either do something about the situation you don’t like (and stress will only get in your way when you’re working on it) or you can’t (In which case the only option is to accept that fact, again stress is useless). That’s about the only options there are. Now isn’t that nice and simple? A recipe for happiness I’d say ;-)
Mental stress (internal factors):
Mental stress is in essence caused by a phenomenon called “cognitive dissonance”, which is a fancy way of saying that you have conflicting thoughts, or that your thoughts/actions conflict with your believes. There’s no quick fix against this but there should be no reason to have this kind of stress if you:
- Have clear goals and visions
- Live according to your own set of standards and beliefs
- Are honest with yourself and others
So… now that that’s of my mind, I feel a lot better ;-)
Kisses,
Wafel
Comments
5 Responses to “On the uselessness of stress…”
Got something to say?
Nice view on stress, and I agree. But what when you face a situation where you can’t do anything about, but can’t accept either, for instance when your parents are difforcing and they use you as a communication station…this can be very stressfull.
I am very curious about your opinion on this one.
interesting article, i feel the same. Stress itself is not bad (in my opinion) as long as it’s not extreme and as long as it’s what we would call ‘gezonde spanning’, meaning a tension but in a nice, helpfull way.
I personally feel that i’m working more effectively when under this kind of stress.
Hi guys!
Steef:
Actually I would disagree that you can’t do anything about. You could refuse to be used as a relay station, or you could talk to them about why this situation is so nasty. Whether they’ll do anything with that is another thing of course, but I think in many cases people have a lot more options than they realize
Dennis:
Yeah that’s true. In some literature they call that helpful tension “eustress” which is the opposite of “distress” (what this post is about). That eustress feeling is lovely ;-)
………………………………true. Close to home (nr 1 specifically). My personal dimension: my external factors conflict with my internal factors. Food for thought this weekend. Cheers.
Dear Folks!
Let us not oversimplify it! It is hard to believe that a “stressless” life stage can be reached in other areas in the world other than in Tibet :-)
Let us not forget that there are borders between feeling stressed, acting under stress and losing control due to a high level of stress.
Furthermore, stress can also being seeing as a warning that something is not ok but there is a lack of time to solve it. Of course, high level of stress or loosing control of it can be harmful.
Moreover apart from our Tibetans’ example, who actually chose for an environment of no job, no kids, no wives, no parties, no alcohol then = no stress…. Talking about a “0 stress“ life or simply running away from your problems can be considered as alienation.