Stress and Good Stress

[Peg Herring]

We all whine about stress, and we certainly have enough of it. It contributes to all sorts of health conditions, which is enough to add stress to the stress you already have: What if all this worrying about stress is causing too much stress?
I think we should step back every once in a while and consider that life is all about stress. Primitive humans must have had stress, because they did not know when the next natural disaster would hit or how such things occurred. They must have worried about being unprepared, which led to all that sacrificing firstborn sons and whatever. Stressful to give up a child, but appeasing the gods seemed like the best stress reliever at the time. We, on the other hand, are warned about most natural disasters well in advance, so we can start worrying early on and avoid the last minute rush.
People in history certainly had stress. The fact that your job performance could get you disemboweled has to lend a certain edge to the morning commute as you ride a donkey to the local castle.
Stress occurs on two levels. First is the stress of having work to accomplish. Knowing you have a deadline, knowing there are multiple steps to master, knowing there will be obstacles. A healthy, functioning person can handle that type of stress. It might make him tired or cranky or frustrated, but it doesn't send him to a rubber room.
It is the things that we cannot change that stress us most. Tasks we don't feel capable of mastering, forces we cannot control, things we cannot fix.
For me, writing and publishing create good stress. I like the challenge, even when it is really challenging. Setbacks might make me sad or mad, but they don't diminish my overall determination. That's good stress, and it actually counters some of the other stresses life throws at a person. Weird, but there it is.