Page 32 - Workbook2E

A Stress and Your Life What is Stress?
Noted researchers Richard Lazarus and Hans Selye stated, “Stress is the inability to cope with a perceived (real or imagined) threat to one’s mental, physical, emotional or spiritual well-being, resulting in a series of physical responses and changes.” Stress is your body’s response to any demand you need to adjust to, whether that demand brings pleasure or pain. Money and finances can produce a great deal of stress.
Perception is Everything:
Kristen and her husband Dale were enjoying her Company Christmas Party. There was a lovely dinner and dancing, ending with a prize raffle. To her great surprise, Kristen’s name was drawn for the grand prize! It was an all expense paid, one-week trip for two to a fabulous Hawaiian Resort. Kristen was overjoyed and immediately began to plan what to bring. However, Dale was horrified. He hated to fly and couldn’t swim, how could he enjoy any of it? Each of them perceived the same situation entirely differently.
“I’m an old man and I have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.”
~ Mark Twain
Good or Bad Stress?
Even when a situation is perceived as good (a job promotion) or bad (losing a job), the physical response is very similar. The body enters a state of physical readiness when you’re about to get the results of your loan application, or walk in late to an important meeting. Just as it does if you sense someone is following you in a dark parking lot late at night. This same stress response kicks in whether the threat is real or imaginary.
Why all the Stress?
If you watch an old TV show, or read an old newspaper from the 1960’s, you’d be hard- pressed to find any references to stress. The whole stress phenomenon is fairly new to our culture. However, the actual physical stimulation brought on by stress can be traced back to the Stone Age as a survival mechanism of the “fight or flight” response. This response developed primarily against threats of a physical nature. When we experience stress, our bodies instinctively prepare for immediate action by getting ready to attack in defense or run and escape the threat.
28 Workbook 2: Improve Your Financial Life