WHAT IS STRESS?

"God will never give you anything you can't handle, so don't stress." - Kelly Clarkson

You've probably heard people say, "Wow, I'm really stressed out" or "This is making me totally stressed." Maybe you hear adults say those kinds of things all the time. The truth is everyone (even kids) have lots of things going on in their lives that can cause stress.

Have you ever felt sick to your stomach during a test? Have you had days when you were so loaded down with "stuff to do" that you had trouble sleeping? Have you ever been so worried about something that you ended up with a terrible headache? If so, then you know what it's like to feel stress.

But What Is Stress?

It's what you feel when you are worried or uncomfortable about something. This worry in your mind can make your body feel bad. You may feel angry, frustrated, scared, or afraid. When you're stressed you may not feel like sleeping or eating, or you might sleep or eat too much. You also may feel cranky or have trouble paying attention at and remembering things at home.

What Causes Stress?

Plenty of things can cause stress in a kid's life, and there are such things as good stress and bad stress. Good or normal stress might show up when you're called on in class or when you have to give a report. Have you ever gotten butterflies in your stomach or sweaty hands? Those can be signs of good stress - the kind of stress that can help you to get things done. For example, you may do a better job on a report if the anxiety inspires you to prepare well before you have to read it to the class. Have you ever had to read a textbook (from beginning to end) sitting on a shelve almost all semester, a few weeks to a major exam? Then you get what I mean.

But bad stress can happen if the stressful feelings keep going over time. That kind of stress isn't going to help you, and it can actually make you sick.

Think about a wire on a tent. There is the weight of the tent pulling the post inward. There is the post, driven into the ground, using some physics, some force pull in the opposite direction. In between the two, stretches the thin wire. Properly adjusted, the forces that would cause the tent to collapse or be torn apart are brought into balance. Doesn’t it strike you that most people are not looking for a balance between competing forces, but rather are looking for "no tension at all?" Let’s assume the post in the ground is "the way things are" and the tent represents "the winds of change." Without change, the post is just a post in the ground. We can reflect on it and wonder as to its purpose, but there it is, doing, being nothing.

The tent, without support, will actually fall down and blow away. It is actually not a tent, but simply a piece of canvas. It only becomes a tent when put under tension. As it is with all tents. As it is with life. Not change for change’s sake. Not dull routine. Life is lived fully only under the tension of change. Thus, there is some truth to the idea that "If it wasn't for my stress, I'd fall apart."