Today’s age is called “The Age of Anxiety” and this century is called “The Century of Stress”. Today vast majorities of people are in a state of Stress. Their fast-paced lifestyle demands that they are raring to go always and are always under pressure to perform. This pressure usually leads to Stress. Stress can be due to various reasons. And Stress in many cases causes Tension, Depression, Anxiety, etc. A lot of research has been conducted into ‘stress’ over the last hundred years. Some theories about it are now settled and accepted; others are still being researched and debated.
Hans Selye was one of the founding fathers of research on stress. He stated in 1956 that “Stress is not necessarily something bad – it all depends on how we take it.” The stress of exhilarating, creative successful that of failure, humiliation or infection is detrimental. Since then, a great deal of further research has been conducted on the subject, and new ideas have come to light.
Stress is now viewed as a “bad thing”, with a range of harmful biochemical and long-term effects. These effects have rarely been observed in positive situations. Stress is that stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that “demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize.” In short, it is what we feel when we think we have lost control over events. There are very many proven skills that we can use to manage stress. These help us to remain calm and effective in high-pressure situations, and help us avoid the problems of long term stress.
Stress is something that occurs all the time and affects everyone one way or another at least some of the time. Stress can be a good thing. It can be a source of motivation to help get something done or help one to react quickly to a potentially dangerous situation.
