What is Stress?

Stress in a natural reaction, which helps us to cope when certain events place strong demands on us in the course of our everyday lives. Accidents, financial problems, work problems, family and relationship difficulties all lead to stress.

With proper coping skills we can meet our stressful challenges head-on and aspire to achieve our full potential. Some people even thrive on stress and it motivates them to get things done.
Stress and anxiety can affect your interaction with friends and family, your working relationships, and adversely disrupt the overall quality of your life.

Studies have also revealed that stress triggers panic attacks, irritable bowel syndrome, somatic illnesses, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, addictions, suicidal ideation, self-harm, low self esteem, and many other debilitating conditions. Studies have even shown that stress can increase the growth rate of cancer cells in the body.

Stress can manifest itself in sweating, palpitations, rapid heart beat, faintness, dizziness, dry mouth, shaking, crying, shouting irrationally, etc.

Your body produces adrenaline and cortisol (which is a by-product of adrenaline) in order to energise and prepare itself to face stressful events. Your body needs to relax between stressful episodes; otherwise your over stressed body is producing more of these chemicals than it can healthily manage.

Unless you learn to manage your stress effectively you are at a high risk of "burning out", and this will in turn have a negative and harmful impact on your physical and mental health.

Stress affects everyone differently and therefore requires a wide range of different coping strategies to manage. You should choose the strategies which work best for you in any given situation.
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It is impossible to eliminate stress from your life (in fact, a certain amount of stress is required to function normally). However, it is imperative that you learn the skills necessary to manage it. By effectively managing your stress on an ongoing basis, you improve and expand your coping skills and your life and health will improve accordingly.

The Empower Yourself Series of books (republished here as articles) evolved as a common sense step by step approach to personal dilemmas that can happen to anyone, at any time, during their lifetime. Our aim is to reach as many people as possible in order to help them to empower themselves.

You are the person best equipped to identify what you need to live a happy and satisfying life. In these articles we aim to provide you with essential information and therapy skills to enable you to deal with your immediate problem on a 24/7 basis.

Think of this collection of articles as a toolbox that will assist you in building up your own skills and in so doing, help you to use the talents that you have to deal with what is causing anxiety, stress, panic attacks, and anger in your life.

Each category of articles in the series is a stand alone, single problem solution based aid.

The strategies outlined in this series can be used by anyone as needed throughout their life, regardless of gender, culture, religion, political affiliations, ethnicity or sexual orientation. However we stress that this series of articles is not an alternative to prescribed medical interventions, or to therapy itself, but rather to support them.

Those considering therapy, or those who have no knowledge or experience of therapy whatsoever, or who are fearful of what therapy involves, will benefit greatly from the articles extracted from the Empower Yourself Series. The series is also a helpful reference / guide to those who are already in therapy.

The strategies and information outlined in these articles may give the reader an insight into what might happen during counselling sessions. This in turn may help to reduce the mystery, stigma, and fear-factor sometimes associated with the counselling process.

Embracing the strategies detailed in the Empower Yourself Series will empower you on a personal level, and will also promote both your physical /mental health, and help to improve many other aspects of your life.

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The information above is extracted from The Empower Yourself book series, written by Mariad Burke and Dr. Phil Robert. Dr. Phil Robert can be found online at: www.philrobertcounsellor.com.

Some more of Dr. Robert's work can be found at : www.youtube.com/channel/UCvf7cfpoDr1aXPJco6edbVA

Disclaimer: The material presented above is provided for general information purposes only and does not constitute care, treatment or other professional advice. Should you require specific help, you should seek the assistance of an appropriately trained professional person.