While many people regard stress as the debilitating, overwhelming force that keeps them in bed or puts them in a bad mood, there’s an important distinction to be made.
It’s true: stress affects you, but like most things, stress in moderation can have positive impacts. A slight change in how you respond to the physiological stimulus of stress can make you more productive.
Stress is your body’s way of signaling something has changed and it’s time to react to that change. It might stem from looming schoolwork deadlines, career planning, or being faced with a threat or heuristic decision pertaining to sports.
The “flight or fight” response is commonly used when discussing responses to stress because it evolved as a survival mechanism. Luckily, we no longer have to worry about survival at every waking moment. For most of us, our most significant daily stresses are meeting deadlines or making the right decisions on the field, court, or ice.
When I was younger, I saw stress as a bad thing. If something was stressing me out, I would make conscious decisions to remove myself from that situation to avoid potential trouble. But as W. Clement Stone once said, “Thinking will not overcome fear, but action will.”
The only way to deal with stress is to confront it. The longer you avoid the necessary changes, the harder it becomes to make them.
By responding in healthy ways to your stressors, you can make the reasonable changes your body, mind, or environment are pushing you to make, helping you meet deadlines and make timely decisions in high-pressure situations.
The “flight or fight” response got its name for a reason: some are pushed to flee, and some are forced to stay and confront. Oftentimes, this decision is made subconsciously, but if you ever have the choice to remove yourself from those stressful situations, don’t. The more you face these stressful situations head-on, the better you’ll become at handling pressure, and the less it will affect you.
It’s important to note the stress I’ve been talking about thus far is referred to by researchers and psychologists as “short term stress.” Short-term stress is the healthy stress related to real and pressing situations in our lives, like deadlines or the need to make that split-second double play on the baseball field. Chronic stress, however, is a different story.
Chronic stress occurs when the autonomic nervous system doesn’t have enough time or isn’t able to activate or release endorphins, which counteract the effects cortisol has on your brain.
Environmental factors such as poverty, pollution, crime, and war can influence chronic stress. These impediments are much less simple to overcome, and long-term exposure to chronic stress can also lead to several health problems.
For those struggling to deal with the effects of chronic stress, there are many effective and well-studied methods to help combat the negative impacts from long-term exposure to stress. Still, for those of you scared of confronting the root causes of your short-term stress, don’t be afraid. It’s highly rewarding to tackle your problems head-on.
Whether it’s stress related to personal relationships or that nagging assignment, the earlier you address it, the easier it becomes. It’s time to invest in those stressful experiences; your future self will thank you.
Aidan is a fourth-year History student and The Journal’s Senior Sports Editor.
Tags
All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be ed, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to [email protected].