A Brief on Stress

To Survive Stress, Keep it Brief. By Cecilia Capuzzi Simon, Special to the Washington Post

Among the potential stressors in modern life are news articles that warn you about a threat but don’t give practical advice on what to do about it. To my surprise, I found that the article is not one of those.

The essence of the article is that brief stress (promptly resolved) is invigorating and empowering. That’s why people pay to ride a roller coaster. The resolution releases transmitters in the brain that are sensed as pleasure and satisfaction.
Persistent stress, however, is debilitating. You want to avoid it. But don’t get stressed out worrying about why you can’t avoid it. Start by understanding how stress becomes persistent.

According to Robert Sapolsky (Stanford University) the main reason is that humans can use imagination, memory and language to create psychological stress in the absence of any real threat. I would add empathy and learning by observation to those human skills that can build psychological stress.

So what do you do about it? Once you understand what it is, you are beginning to deal with it. Simply recognizing it may make it easier to turn this kind of stress into productive stimulation, Sapolsky said. Meditation, Sapolsky said, can focus the mind and bring the roots of your stress into awareness. For some, merely taking stock can do the same.

Here are two pages in the Thinkerer that might help.
Skills of Self
Tranquility Base