What is this stress and why we under its ubiquitous thumb most of the times?

What is this stress and why we under its ubiquitous thumb most of the times

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'Are you under stress?' is an oft-repeated question to MBA aspirants. In fact, the very question creates stress in our lives! Now that we are through with most of the SimCATs and the trauma of a not-so-very-good performance is staring at us in our faces, stress levels are steadily rising.

What is this stress and why are we under its ubiquitous thumb most of the times?

Stress is a physiological phenomenon. It is the non-specific response of our body to any demand made on it. All the demands that we make on our brain, our liver, our muscles and our bones or whichever part of our body - contribute to stress in our lives. It is the state of reaction of our body to an external agent called a stressor. Common physical elements like cold and heat are also stressors.

So what happens when we are under this state of stress? Our endocrine glands respond to the stressors and produce a hormone that in turn stimulates the adrenal glands. We experience an increase in pulse rate and tend to sweat. We also become more irritable and are unable to sleep. We become less capable of concentrating on any task and have an increased desire to physically move about.

People have this misconception that stress is a modern phenomenon. They forget that the caveman had his own stressors, like being eaten by a tiger, or dying of hunger. It's not that people suffer more stress today - it's just that they think they do.

Whenever we experience something unpleasant, we say we are under stress, but stress is not always bad for us. There is something called 'good stress' as well. An Olympic winner in his moment of glory secretes all the stress hormones and feels ecstatic under their influence. This type of stress is known as 'eu-stress' or pleasant stress'. The kind of stress that we are more familiar with is actually 'distress' or unpleasant stress'.

However, even this so called 'unpleasant stress' is not all that bad. It has its own merits. Most people, who are ambitious and want to accomplish something, live on stress. They need it. But the amount of stress a person needs to be effective varies from individual to individual. 'Hyper-stress' or too much stress for one person may be 'hypo-stress' or too little stress for another. Every one has a different level of stress tolerance but it is inconceivable that anyone should have no stress at all. Read More...

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