Stress and Fear- End of the Financial Year

As it's the end of the financial year for most companies, I have been witnessing levels of stress from people all around me. Many are falling sick, some are in horrible moods, and others are having trouble sleeping, eating, or eating too much. People are worried. Worried about the Global Financial Crisis....if they'll have a job, if their business will survive, if they can pay their rent, feed their kids, heat their homes. The tone of the country is not happy, and many look at the future wanting to be optimistic, but watch the world crumble around them. I felt it is a good time to touch on the topic of stress.

Stress

Definition: Stress is a biological term which refers to the consequences of the failure of a human or animal body to respond appropriately to emotional or physical threats to the organism, whether actual or imagined. It is "the autonomic response to environmental stimulus."

It includes a state of alarm and adrenaline production, short-term resistance as a coping mechanism, and exhaustion. It refers to the inability of a human or animal body to respond. Common stress symptoms include irritability, muscular tension, inability to concentrate and a variety of physical reactions, such as headaches and accelerated heart rate.

Fear

Definition: Fear is an emotional response to threats and danger. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of pain.

BUT- The one thing that causes us more stress than anything else is our imagination when we use it to anticipate the worst things that could possibly happen. The trouble is, the body can’t distinguish between an actual emergency / threat that’s here right now, and one which exists only in our minds. Whether the threat is real or imagined the body’s “fight or flight” response is triggered and a series of changes take place in our body.

FEAR = Fantasy Expressed As Reality

Adrenaline is released which gives us large amounts of short term energy to deal with the emergency, our senses are heightened and we react more quickly (including having a short fuse), our muscles tense, breathing becomes shallower and blood pressure rises - we are primed for action.
If that energy isn’t discharged then what you are left with is a state of tension which can have adverse mental and physical effects. The longer you live with that, the more potentially serious the consequences are - including such things as fatigue, high blood pressure, migraines, ulcers, chronic diarrhoea, and much else.

In modern society stress is considered normal, acceptable.
Fear is considered normal and acceptable that fear has so many clinical phobia names for itself!
Doctors come up with new names all the time.

Some stress is necessary, it drives us, keeps us on our toes.
Some fears are healthy, necessary for protection and common sense.

Take a time out and think about fears that are stressing you for no good reason. We have to wake up, be aware, take action and fight these negative influences that bombard us from every direction, the news, radio, tv, even film. Life does not have to be this way. It is not as bad as you "think."
You have the power to conquer your fear, your stress, and to heal your body.
We need to change our perspective. Me included.