Some stresses involve other people: work requirements, family relations, critical boss, children's needs, too much responsibility and too little authority, too much work, not enough time to do it in, traffic.

Some stresses are psychological: worrying, fears, feeling helpless, feeling irritated, frustrated.

Some stresses are hidden. They affect you without your being aware of them.

Physical stresses are usually hidden stresses but they can have a powerful effect on your sense of well-being. Physical stress can come in the form of things we ingest: coffee, alcohol, drugs, prescription medications, pesticides, preservatives, or nicotine. Physical stresses can be environmental stresses such as smog, pollution, noise, humidity, or more common sensations such as heat, cold, pain, hunger, lack of sleep, injury, or effects of disease.

Stress is cumulative. If you feel stressed, try to eliminate some of the hidden, physical stresses first. For instance, imagine a situation where you have several stresses at the same time: driving in a hot car, with the radio blaring, with children making noise and you take a wrong turn. Suddenly you think that you're not only late but you're lost. If you reduce or eliminate some of the hidden stresses (turn the radio off to reduce noise and open the window to reduce the heat), you might be better able to get control of your stressful feelings and as a result, be able to think more clearly and cope better with your situation.

Copyright © 2000-2008 Jan R. Markle