Stress Fitness: Keys to Stress Mastery

Date: 07/20/2000

It is important to recognize the effects of stress and our reactions to stress in our daily life, and more importantly, in our overall health and well-being. We must not under estimate the role of stress in all aspects of our existence. We live in a time of unprecedented stressors and they indeed are taking their toll upon mankind.

The purpose of this monograph is to learn how your body reacts to stress internally and then learn how to use self-help techniques to change how stress affects you. By understanding what stress is, where it comes from and what relieves it, you can develop the ability to avoid stress overload and actually harness the energy of stress to improve your performance, maximize your sense of joy and fulfillment, increase your health and guarantee success in your life. This is the key to Stress Mastery!

What is Stress?
Stress is not something that just happens to you; It is WHAT YOU DO with what happens to you!

Stress is our response or our reaction to an event in our life. This event is termed the stressor. Stress is not something that is negative and to be avoided at all costs. The natural physiologic body responses to a stressor include five phases. These responses have been genetically determined and have been "ingrained" in our systems for millions of years as an important survival mechanism. This unconscious response is vitally important to understand how stressors affect us in today's "modern jungle":

• Demand/Threat Phase- This is the stressor that initiates the stress response in us. For example, divorce, financial problems, an illness, being stuck in traffic or any thing that triggers our stress responses.
• Arousal Phase- After you encounter the stressor, a message is then sent throughout your body that you have encountered a demand or threat (Phase 1). This is a survival message ingrained in our system to prepare for "fight" or "flight" and is carried by your sympathetic nervous system and endocrine system (especially your adrenal glands). This message is then sent to your heart (increased heart rate), respiratory diaphragm (increased breathing rate), digestion system (slow down digestion), immune system (decrease in the function of the immune system), skin (sweating), muscles (tension), emotions and thinking part of your brain (anxiety, anger, concern, fear) all in an effort to deal with the demand or threat: run away with extra energy or fight with extra strength! This phase is often termed the Fight or Flight Response and is automatically triggered in our bodies when we perceive a threat or a stressor.
• Action Phase- Includes all the physical or mental things you do to eliminate the threat or demand. There are two types of actions or responses, a specific response (Type I) that you consciously choose to perform and nonspecific (Type II) responses that are automatic and non helpful to you.
  • Specific Responses (Type I Response) are things that you do that actually reduce or eliminated the threat or demand and moves you directly to Step 4: Resolution and Recovery.
  • Nonspecific Responses (Type II Response) are non-effective things that occur to you that do not remove or change the threat or demand. These responses (as listed in the arousal phase) are perfect to get the body ready to fight a bear or lift in tree off a loved one, but in this type II situation (no immediate action available to resolve the threat) they just sap your energy, distract you from careful problem solving and make you feel physically ill! This is what we usually call "stress" and it leads to "stress overload" (see below).
• Resolution, Recovery and Relaxation Phase- The normal period of recovery from a stressful event involves an increased state of relaxation mentally, physically and emotionally. You actually become more relaxed then before the threat. It is during this time that your body is repairing the negative internal effects of the stress response. This is the time of physical organ regeneration.
• Normal Function Phase- All body, mind and emotional systems have returned to normal.