What is Stress

Understanding Emotions and Stress in Life

Humans are emotional beings. We can’t imagine a person without emotions. If life occurrences match our expectations, we will experience good feelings such as happiness or surprise. At the same time, if the circumstances are stacked against us, we will experience negative feelings such as rage and grief. However, people’s reactions to emotions differ from one another. We cannot control every situation in our lives. As a result, every person will experience a variety of happy and bad emotions throughout their lives.
As typical human beings, we will attempt to accomplish certain tasks in our lives, which will have either beneficial or detrimental consequences. Success in our attempts will generate favourable emotions and inspire us to pursue more complex job, resulting in tensions. On the other hand, repeated failures in our attempts result in negative emotions. It causes tension and worry. Thus, it is unavoidable for everyone to experience stress and worry. To combat these tensions, each individual will attempt to balance their emotions. If the person is unable to regulate his emotions, he will experience increasing tension and anxiety. This stage of life can be described as stressful.
Positive feelings can also sometimes cause tension. For example, love and happiness are good feelings. However, if the person is unable to balance those sentiments, they may generate tensions, worry, and stress in the body, similar to what happens in adolescence.

WHO Definition of Stress

According to the World Health Organization, stress is characterized as a state of worry or mental tension that arises from challenging circumstances.

Stress is a natural human response that pushes us to confront challenges and risks in our lives. Stress is a common experience for everyone. It can trigger a range of physical, emotional, and behavioral reactions. Nevertheless, our response to stress greatly affects our overall well-being [1].
Embracing a certain level of pressure can actually work in our favor, pushing us to achieve important milestones like acing an exam or landing a job. Excessive amounts of it, especially when it feels unmanageable, can have a detrimental impact on our emotions, physical and mental well-being, and relationships [2].

1. https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/stress
2. https://www.unicef.org/parenting/mental-health/what-is-stress

Key Points

• Humans are emotional beings.
• Success in our attempts will generate favourable emotions and inspire us to pursue more complex job, resulting in tensions. On the other hand, repeated failures in our attempts result in negative emotions. It causes tension and worry.
• If the person is unable to regulate his emotions, he will experience increasing tension and anxiety. This stage of life can be described as stressful.
• The World Health Organization defines stress as a state of worry or mental tension caused by a difficult situation.
• Stress can cause a variety of physical, emotional, and behavioural responses., The way we respond to stress has a significant impact on our general well-being
• Small quantities of stress can be beneficial for motivating us to attain goals such as passing an exam or acquiring a job.

How to identify Stress?