Stress in Modern Societies
Not all Stress is bad for us. The perception of stress is a powerful motivator for us to perform at our maximum mental and physical capacity. The experience of stress serves to protect us. Short term intense bursts of stress, followed by periods of recovery and rest, are a healthy balance in our lives.
However, when stress is persistent or becomes overwhelming, it can negatively impact our health. That’s why it is important to learn how to control our emotions and develop tools that can help us to relieve stress successfully, helping to relax and quieten the mind and the body. It is then, when we can think with clarity, and choose a plan that works for us.
But why do we seem to be so stressed and out of balance in modern societies?
For most of our species’ history, we existed in environments where extreme stressors were part of everyday life, like the danger of being attacked by wild animals. To be able to survive in these environments, we had to evolve to respond to stress effectively. Nowadays, most people live in a controlled and safe environment, where uncertainty shouldn’t be an issue. However, we act as if this was the case. Since the dangers are not the same we used to encounter in the past, we have switched our attention to others, which although they may not be life threatening, they can makes us feel out of control, like having financial problems. Despite not being as intense, we tend to focus on this problems more often, as they happen more constantly. But maintaining this level of alertness, for long periods of time, is detrimental for our health. Chronic stress reduces our immune response, diminishes brain cell growth and it has been associated with cognitive decline.
Body responses to stress
When we are stressed, our body prepares itself to respond to the threats, in the form of exaggerated physical responses, such as a faster heart beat, bursts of adrenaline or panic. This forces us to go into fight or flight mode, which is a evolutionary response that prepares us for something that is not going to happen in modern society. We basically generate unnecessary stress in situations that don’t require it in most cases.
Applying these insights to our own lives
This constant level of stress is not good for our health and we shouldn’t see it as normal. We cannot always be in charge of our circumstances, but we can learn how to react to them. Recognising the feeling and developing an awareness of the way we respond to situations, is key to be able to make choices. Other forms of help with chronic stress include exercise and sleep.
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Segerstrom SC, Miller GE. Psychological stress and the human immune system: a meta-analytic study of 30 years of inquiry. Psychol Bull. 2004 Jul;130(4):601-30. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.130.4.601. PMID: 15250815; PMCID: PMC1361287