Stress GPS
Stress GPS
With careful navigation, you can get ahead and
maintain health. (No one-way ticket to the Bahamas
Although we wouldn't blame you.)
Hands up who's stressed. It's a trick question,
obviously .
Whether you're trying to get through to your
ISP after opening a thousand buck bill, facing a barely realistic deadline or
making sure the babysitter knows where to find the Stingose, chances are it
comes with a sense of prospective catastrophe. For some reason, even everyday
practical tasks have become mired in tension (you can feel it in your shoulder
blades). The thing is, while blowing a data cap and having to tell the boss you
can't submit your report until tomorrow feel life-threatening, they're actually
proxies for real threats to survival we envloves to meet but no longer face.
You know, saber-toothed tigers. As a result, our bodies enact the same
melodramatic adrenalin-inducing response in preparation to fight or flee a
power bill as a woolly mammoth.
This involves redirecting blood flow to the
muscles. Pushing glucose into the blood, increased sweating. A drop in immune
function and digestion (as these are no longer the prioritiv). Increased heart
rate and breathing and enlarged pupils. None of which actually help you find
that car-free space you desperately need if you're going to make the meeting
you're already late for.
But perversely we seem to like being stressed.
"Although the medical community has
established that a little stress is actually good for you – waking up your
creativity.
Fuelling your vitality, and keeping your immune
system vigilant – the qualifying and key word here is 'little', "says
stress management expert and autor of Addicted to Stress Debbie Mandel.
"When you find yourself rushing from activity to activity, doing chore
after chore, with no personal time for yourself, the problem isn't the external
world that's landing on your doorstep; rather, it's your own need to constantly
open that door and welcome stress into your life".
How you cope with stress – and how long you can
withstand it before kowtowing to burnout – is personal, says Jennifer Ackerman,
autor of Sex, Sleep, Eat, Drink, Dream – a day in the life of your body.
"How your body responds to stressful
events may be determined in part by your genes." She says. Whether you fret
like a chihuahua at a Great Dane show or cruise through unruffled depends on
genes known as serotonin transporter genes, which come in two sizes, short and
long. The short ones favour moodiness low selfesteem and neurotic behaviour and
are found in about 20 percent of the population. While long ones favour
resilience and belong to qbout 30 per cent of people. The rest of us have one
of each, meaning we are quite literally swinging votes.
Whatever your stress genes, self-management can
mitigate the deleterious impact of prolonged periods under pressure.
