Parents, family, relationships, athletics, performances, speeches, exams, world/local news, politics, graduation, college, this weekend, appearances, hair, likes/follows on social media, and other such things consume the mind which, in turn, applies pressure to our thoughts and emotions. This pressure can also be known as stress. Due to the fact that April is Stress Awareness month, it is only fitting that we discuss this consuming aspect of life.

According to Webster’s dictionary, stress is a “constraining force or influence”. An example that it give is “a force exerted when one body or body part presses on, pulls on, pushes against, or tends to compress or twist another body or body part”. Going further with the definition, psychologists, such as Richard Lazarus, express that stress is “one’s perception of harm/threat” of a particular situation, thought, or feeling. Consider the picture below:

Essentially, a person feels the initial stressor (say studying for the Math Final Exam). That person is faced with the first appraisal (or question) is this a challenge (something I can overcome or find personal growth) or is this a threat (something that is too overwhelm and may cause me harm)? If the person decides harm, then the second appraisal is met: do I have the resources to appropriately deal with this threat. The answer to the second appraisal determines how the person sees the threat. How the person sees the threat determines how the person responds. Going back to the above-mentioned stressor, the Math Final Exam, the flow of stress perception could look like:

There are times that we are able to appropriately deal with our stressors of life with ease. This is because we see them as mere challenges. These challenges considered good stress: getting better in a particular sport, skill, increasing your grades in school, etc. These challenges motivate us to better ourselves, and we respond accordingly. However, it is the stressors that we see as threats that immobilize and/or debilitate our bodies, or push us irrational, self-sabotaging behaviors in order to cope such as violence, drug-use, and unprotected sex to name a few.

It is in these moments that it is important to implement positive ways to deal with the stressors in our life; after all, stress will always be a part of our life regardless of age, gender, socioeconomic status, religion, politics, or how many likes you have on your IG posts. Here are some suggestions for dealing with everyday stressors:

Author: Leo Preston, Teen CHARGE Production Manager

References

Stress. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stress?src=search-dict-box

Stress. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/stress

Stress, Lifestyle, and Health – Scientific Figure on ResearchGate. Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/When-encountering-a-stressor-a-person-judges-its-potential-threat-primary-appraisal_fig2_291348598.