article from JANUARY-FEBRUARY 2008
The Challenge of Stress
Overwhelming, never-ceasing, pressure-building, health-defeating! Stress—how do you handle it?
BY JEFFREY D. DAVIS
As you progress through life, your responsibilities inevitably grow. These often lead to rising conflicts, as well as handling difficult, unfamiliar tasks. The changing and advancing landscape of your life will sometimes leave you feeling overwhelmed and frazzled, commonly called “stressed out.”
Everyone experiences times when stress seems unbearable—but the real deciding factor is how well you manage yourself, your life and the situations around you while under stress.
To learn how to deal with stress you must first understand what it is. Stress simply means you are facing challenges greater than what you are normally comfortable with.
These challenges can be fun experiences you look forward to, such as a big soccer game or trying out a new, but difficult, hobby such as rock climbing.
These challenges can also be entirely unpleasant, such as family problems, an illness, or conflict with peers at work or school.
Because these situations are beyond your “comfort zone,” it puts a weight on you—pressure—to perform at a greater level. This means that stress will also stretch you as it forces you to grow.
However, all this stretching, pressure and weight can be quite painful when not properly handled.
Manage Stress
Recognizing that certain difficult events cannot be avoided, you must first realize that stress is a necessary part of life. In order to grow, you must face periods of tension. In fact, the Bible makes it clear that difficulties—even severe ones—are actually good for you: “It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn Your statutes” (Psa. 119:71).
However, like all aspects of your emotions and physiology, stress must be managed. You cannot afford to ignore or allow it to control you.
Like a rubber band stretched beyond its limits, recognize that there is such a thing as too much stress. If you push yourself too much, too hard and too often, it will break you.
While God promises to never push us beyond what we are able (I Cor. 10:13), it is possible for us to push ourselves too far. Part of developing into maturity is accepting that you are only human, which means there are certain things beyond your ability.
However, when things are within your ability, be willing to endure pressure in order to attain your goals. The conflict between pushing yourself enough and holding back to keep a reasonable pace highlights the necessity of managing stress.
Accept Difficulty
While some pressure is necessary, self-created stress is not. One of the greatest causes of stress is thinking there is something wrong with having difficulties in your life. Many people become worked up when things go wrong, unrealistically believing that everything should be easy.
Those who get caught up in this thinking often spend a great deal of time trying to completely remove difficulties from their lives. But because it is impossible to live a carefree existence—especially for Christians—they are always stressed.
Ironically, one of the greatest stress relievers and one of the most relaxing things you can do is to simply accept that it is not strange to experience challenges and endure trials (I Pet. 4:12). Learn to accept these as a natural and vital part of life.
Sometimes, when confronted with difficulty, you might have to say to yourself, “That’s life,” without any sarcasm or cynicism.
Additionally, as one growing up in the Church, you will probably find that you can help your friends by gently reminding them that challenges are a normal part of life.
Relax
With all this pushing, stretching, growing and dealing with hardships, don’t forget the importance of finding time to relax. Part of correctly managing stress is giving yourself enough “downtime” to unwind and sort through life’s challenges. You should never be continually stressed, nor should every day of your life be a difficult trial. There will be hard days and easy ones, all of which are perfectly normal.
Find some relaxing hobbies or activities you can do when you have free time. Some people relax to music. Others may find that a hot shower or bath can help them wind down. In addition, a good exercise routine will diminish the physical effects of stress and related health problems.
Perhaps the most important thing you can do when relaxing is to take a step back and try to put your life in proper perspective. Realize that whatever you are going through could always be worse.
Remember that the difficulties of this life are temporary—none of them will last forever. Keeping stress in proper perspective will help you to relax and better enjoy life!