The Danger of Stress in How You Deal with It.
Don’t mistake stressor and stress. The failure to deal with both can hurt you.
Dealing with your stress is different from dealing with your stressors. You need to address both if you want to live a happy and healthy life. So what is the difference, and how do you healthily manage your stress?
Stressors
Stressors are what causes stress. They can be anything you fear could do you harm. They include external factors such as your job, money problems, family issues, culture, and politics. Stressors can also be internal, like self-criticism, identity, self-worth, body image, and past events. Anything your body can interpret as a threat can act as a stressor.
Stress
Stress is the physiologic response your body initiates when it feels threatened. This response results in a cascade of chemical and biological changes intend to help us survive the danger. Your heart rate and blood pressure increase to supply your muscles with more blood. Breathing quickens to increase oxygen supply to your muscles. Cortisol floods your system, producing a rise in your blood sugar to feed those same muscles. In fact, much of the stress response is directed at your muscles. Why is that?
