What is Stress?

In simple terms, it's the normal response of your body to any change.

You feel it when you pass from a warm to a cold room, when you run for a bus, when you give someone a warm hug, when you face a tough exam.

It's a very physical thing. Stress gears you up for change by pumping adrenaline into your system. In the process your muscles get tense, your heart pounds, your blood pressure rises, your hands get cold an clammy and your stomach tenses.

If you use this surge of energy to respond to whatever change is required of you and then let your body relax, you're having a positive stress experience. That's the way nature intended it. Just the right build-up to bring your energies to a sharp focus, and off vou go to a good performance in your studies, on the job, in athletics, even in social situations. And it feels good to wind down after.
	Unfortunately, many of us don't relax once the challenge has been met. The fast pace of modern life seems to be always getting at us. Again and again we find ourselves geared-up to face never-ending pressures. Stress has become for us a way of life and an on-going negative experience. This painful state is what many of us mean when we use the word "stress".

It's very uncomfortable and it hits us on all levels:

• Physically, we experience such things as headaches, neck and back pains, sleeping problems, loss of appetite, chronic fatigue.
• Emotionally, we become irritable, moody, impatient, over-sensitive, anxious, and we have trouble with memory and concentration.
• Our behaviour changes too. We may suffer from repetitive thoughts, compulsive eating, avoidance of work, and we may turn more often to alcohol, drugs and coffee.
• We are also more prone to sickness, both the every day and the life crisis kind.

Do you see yourself in that picture? You don't have to stay there. Reduce your stress and get back in control:

identify the demands that are causing you stress;

reduce the demands that are pressuring you;

cope better with stressful situations;

learn techniques to reduce unavoidable stress.