What is stress, and what is the best way to manage it?

Have you been feeling stressed or mentally strained? How can you overcome this strain without becoming more anxious?

What is stress, and what is the best way to manage it? Common causes include the work environment, family responsibilities, people's expectations, health conditions and financial difficulties. Yet, more than any of these, the most important source of this stress is your own mind.

Extensive health research has been conducted on stress. How do health researchers measure it? What methods do they use to determine its severity? Do they carry out numerous tests? The answer is no. They simply ask a question to establish how much stress the patient is experiencing. This is not determined by checking blood pressure or heart rate. Nor is it identified through skin reactions, EEG recordings of the brain or MRI scans. It is important information obtained simply by asking a straightforward question.

The truth is that everyone experiences mental strain, or stress. According to a major study conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the most common causes of stress include poor health, disability, chronic illnesses and low income. Other causes include facing unsafe conditions at home or at work, raising children as a single parent, or caring for adolescent children. Many of us have to cope with one or more of these circumstances.

This brings us to the most important finding from research on stress: the importance of how we perceive or view things.

In one interesting study, patients were divided into groups with “no stress at all”, “a little stress”, “moderate stress” and “a great deal of stress”. They were also asked whether they believed their stress affected their health. Of all these groups, those who experienced a great deal of stress and believed it adversely affected their health had the most health problems. This means that even if you experience a great deal of stress, it does not adversely affect your health if you believe it will not harm you.

In another study, patients who had suffered a heart attack were asked about their mental wellbeing or stress levels. The study found that those who reported low levels of stress faced fewer health risks and further complications after a heart attack than those with high stress levels.

Stress is a reality, but what matters most is how we respond to such situations. Our thinking and temperament provide an important foundation for navigating these circumstances. The main finding across all studies conducted in this area is that having a hopeful or optimistic outlook reduces the risk of heart disease by between 10 percent and 73 percent. Conversely, people with a pessimistic outlook face a 32 percent to 42 percent greater chance of encountering such health risks.