Stress the spice of life?
From: bnovotney.blogspot.com
In this post I'll be using and quoting a lot of stuff from the work of Hans Selye M.D. and his book "Stess without Distress". As many of you know the subject of stress has been on my mind allot lately. Since stress is associated with all types of activity, we could avoid most of it only by never doing anything. This to me sounds like an awful existence! Deprivation of motivation is the greatest mental tragedy because it destroys all guidelines. But how do we deal with stress? This for me is the $64,000 dollar question.
In my reading of Selye's work, he states "The best way to avoid harmful stress is to select an environment (wife, boss, friends) that is in line with your innate preferences-to find an activity which you like and respect. Only thus, can you eliminate the need for frustrating constant re adaptation that is the major cause of distress." For many people this is a lesson that can be hard to achieve. In my work, I am a course ware developer producing volumes of materials on this very subject for our aviation clients, we teach many techniques on handling stress such as breathing techniques, sleep habits, task management and more. Our course ware is oriented more to situational stress than than the subject of distressful stress. I think Selye's has addressed the root cause of why people experience distressful stress-the environment that they place themselves in. Most often the distress that we encounter is a matter of the choices that we make. This thought is supported by this excerpt from Selye's:
"I would say that, among people engaged in the most common occupations of modern society-the lower and middle echelons of business, industry, agriculture, and public life, from the simple handyman to the administrator or public servant with limited responsibilities-one of the major sources of distress arises from dissatisfaction with life, namely, from disrespect for their own accomplishments."
In my reading of Selye's work, he states "The best way to avoid harmful stress is to select an environment (wife, boss, friends) that is in line with your innate preferences-to find an activity which you like and respect. Only thus, can you eliminate the need for frustrating constant re adaptation that is the major cause of distress." For many people this is a lesson that can be hard to achieve. In my work, I am a course ware developer producing volumes of materials on this very subject for our aviation clients, we teach many techniques on handling stress such as breathing techniques, sleep habits, task management and more. Our course ware is oriented more to situational stress than than the subject of distressful stress. I think Selye's has addressed the root cause of why people experience distressful stress-the environment that they place themselves in. Most often the distress that we encounter is a matter of the choices that we make. This thought is supported by this excerpt from Selye's:
"I would say that, among people engaged in the most common occupations of modern society-the lower and middle echelons of business, industry, agriculture, and public life, from the simple handyman to the administrator or public servant with limited responsibilities-one of the major sources of distress arises from dissatisfaction with life, namely, from disrespect for their own accomplishments."
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