These days, stress is even more rampant than it was in 1983, when Time magazine declared it to be “the epidemic of the eighties.” Stress is growing and so is the health care cost for treatment of stressed employees.
But what exactly stress is? Classically it is defined as - 'a non-specific response of the body to any demand made upon it or to an external stimuli.' Generally speaking, “stress” refers to two simultaneous events: an external stimulus called a stressor, and the emotional and physical responses to that stimulus (fear, anxiety, surging heart rate and blood pressure, fast breathing, muscle tension, and so on).
Stress is not always harmful. Good stressors (a ski run, a poetry contest) inspire you to achieve. In fact it is the spice of life. Only thing is that, one has to learn - how to cope with stress?
Commonly stress refers to our internal reaction to negative, threatening, or worrisome situations-a looming performance report, role ambiguity in organization, a dismissive superior, rush-hour traffic, and so on.
Oxford Dictionary defines stress as 'a state of affair involving demand on physical or mental energy'.
Accumulated over time, negative stress can depress you, burn you out, make you sick, or even kill you. This is because, as our research shows, negative stress is both an emotional and a physiological habit.
How to identify stress
How to identify stress ? In the human context, stress is synonymous with goal striving.It is by and large a matter of perception. Therefore it is impossible to measure stress completely because 1:- it never stops, and 2:- the complexity of stress – involving psychological and emotional and spiritual components...See More