What is Stress

Stress is an individual's response to any overwhelming or unfamiliar demands from one's environment. It may be caused by a build up of negative thoughts in the mind. Stress is an uncomfortable and undesirable state that we need to learn from and overcome. We need to understand these challenges so that we can develop positive strategies, such as strengthening our coping skills, to overcome these hardships.

With stress comes adaptation, and there are many times when we need to learn how to adapt to the various influences and demands which shape our lives. Therefore we need to learn how to cope with the many difficulties which we face in life, rather than run away from them. If we can learn about how the mind and our environment creates stress, then we can be on the way to finding good long-term solutions to overcoming these challenges and improving our overall health, wellbeing and quality of life.

We can also increase our levels of stress by remembering or dwelling on a negative experience or event, thereby re-living the negative emotions and any baggage associated with that past event or experience. We cannot change the past, but we can learn from our past mistakes and wrongdoings and not repeat them in the future.

If something in your life is creating stress (for example stress at work, raising children, and so on), evaluate the whole situation and try to see the positives. Once you have done this try to shift your thinking or perspective of the whole situation so that you are able to see the good in it; perhaps this could erase some or all of the negativity associated with the experience or event. However, if the particular experience or event is of a difficult nature and is too destructive to your personal wellbeing, perhaps it would be best to learn how to cope, deal with and control these negative emotions. When the time is right, it may be possible to move on. If you can't stop thinking about a negative experience or event, a good first step would be to try to have some stress free time. An ideal time to do this would be at night, when you can take some time out for relaxation to rest and clear your mind, while not allowing your mind to remember the negative experiences at all.

For more information on relaxation techniques please go to our meditation page, or for some strengthening positive thoughts please see our page on positive affirmations.