Research studies have shown that people perceive their stress levels to be quite varied. On a scale of one to ten, respondents run the full range for what they believe their stress levels to be. Sadly most people see themselves in the higher ranges rather than the lower ones.
Why is there such a wide variation and more importantly, why is it that most people perceive their stress levels to be high?
Photo(Bernard Goldbach)
Is it the economy?
The world situation?
Life in general?
We really have no way of comparing the stresses of life today with 100 or 200 years ago. It has been suggested that stress is not caused by the events or circumstances of life but by how an individual responds to those circumstances. Unpleasant events and circumstances have been described as adversities which when not dealt with result in stress.
Hans Seyle, PhD, a world famous neurologist who did work in this area over a generation ago, described adversity as stress and the inability to handle that adversity as distress. He theorized that stress was good. We all need some adversity in our life in order to grow, to adapt, to be able to handle greater adversities as they occur.
In the area of health, developing permanent immunity is merely a matter of handling the adversity of a disease so the body can learn to fight off the microorganism every time it comes in contact with it in the future. Permanent immunity makes you a stronger person. Lifting weights is a stress but if done properly with the right amount, this adversity can make a person stronger. Even emotional stress, if overcome, often makes us stronger. People even say, “Well if it doesn’t kill me, I’ll be stronger for it.”
We realize that certain adversities just cannot be overcome. They are just too overwhelming. Whether it is emotional, physical or chemical, if any given adversity is too great it will result in stress and that stress will reduce the quality of your life. Yet between insurmountable adversity and that which no one would even give a second thought to are the vast array of circumstances, events, and situations in life that cause tremendous stress in some people and do not affect others. From that we must conclude that there is a factor or factors inside of people that makes one person better able to handle adversity and not allow it to become stress and others less able to handle it.
One of those factors is health. How well you adapt to all types of stress is dependent upon the proper functioning of your body, and poor function or a low level of health not only reduces the ability of the body to work as well as it should but it is another stress upon the body compounding the stresses that you already have.
If you don’t regularly consume healthy nutritious food do you think your body would be able to adapt to all your daily stresses?
If you don’t regularly move your body in a healthy way do you think your health will improve?
If the communication between your brain and your body is interfered with by a improper functioning spine do you think your body will respond appropriately to the environment, both inside and out?
In this day and age when people are constantly faced with adversity and potential, stress-causing factors, why would you want anything like a low health level that can reduce you body’s ability to handle the adversities of life. Further, if you do have a low level of health would it not be wise to work towards improving it as soon as possible?
That is why we should all strive towards including regular health-promoting activities into our lives. This is why we regularly fuel our body with healthy nutritious food, regularly move our body in a healthy way and regularly get our spine checked by a Chiropractor. When your body is healthier it will overcome stress and when it does it makes us stronger.
If you know of any friends that can benefit from these ideas, please share with them by email or Facebook.
Have a fantastic day!
Ryno
