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I find it useful to think in terms of healthy pressure and unhealthy stress.

 We all need some pressure in our lives – just to get out of bed in the mornings – but its when the pressure builds up to be greater than we have the resources to cope with it that we can begin to talk about stress.

 Those pressures can be external – working too long hours – trying to meet unrealistic deadlines or juggling work, children, demanding friends, an impossible mother-in-law and imminent global collapse!

Or the pressures can be internal - a feeling of never being quite good enough – got to try harder – must hurry up – everyone relies on me!

 Either way the result of being stressed is the same – we put more effort into achieving less – our perception of the world and other people becomes more and more negative - memory and concentration begin to let us down and we become more irritable, fearful and anxious. Ultimately we may end up unable to work and heading towards illness and – yes – even death.

 

Stress management is about understanding how to maintain our bodies at their optimum best. It’s not necessarily about doing less. It may be about doing more – using our bodies more economically and efficiently.

 

Managing stress is about developing the body’s resources and maximising the body’s potential within those resources.