What is Stress?

Stress is a natural feeling of not being able to cope with specific demands and events. However, stress can become a chronic condition if a person does not take steps to manage it.

These demands can come from work, relationships, financial pressures, and volatile situations, but anything that poses a real or perceived challenge or threat to a person’s well-being can cause stress.

Stress is the body’s natural defense against predators and danger.  It causes the body to flood with hormones that prepare its systems to evade or confront danger.  People commonly refer to this as the fight-or-flight mechanism.

When people face a challenge or threat, they have a partly physical response. The body activates resources that help people either stay and confront the challenge or get to safety as fast as possible.

The body produces larger quantities of chemicals that trigger the following physical reactions:

• increased blood pressure
• faster heart rate
• heightened muscle preparedness
• sweating
• alertness

These factors all improve a person’s ability to respond to a potentially hazardous or challenging situation.

Stress also slows down some normal bodily functions, such as those that the digestive and immune systems perform. The body can then concentrate its resources on breathing, blood flow, alertness, and the preparation of the muscles for sudden use.

The body changes in the following ways during a stress reaction:

• digestive system slows down
• immune activity decreases
• muscles become more tense

If your stress responses don’t stop firing, and these stress levels stay elevated far longer than is necessary for survival, it can take a toll on your health.  Chronic stress can cause a variety of symptoms and affect your overall well-being.

South Africa’s first confirmed case of COVID-19 was on March 5 2020 and soon thereafter the country went into lockdown.  The country is now coping with the third wave, almost 16 months later.  It has been an incredibly stressful experience for people to try and deal with, affecting health, affecting livelihoods, affecting one’s future.

Added to this, the country is reeling with the shock of the violence which began with blockaded roads and the burning of trucks in KwaZulu-Natal after Jacob Zuma went to prison. Unrest then spread to Johannesburg, where shopping malls have been looted and burned, and highways blocked.

“Parts of the country are reeling from days and nights of public violence, destruction of property and looting of a sort rarely seen before in the history of our democracy,” Ramaphosa said.

South Africans are being pushed to the limit, trying to deal with this second threat to their survival.  Learning to deal and cope with stress is vital at a time like the present.

Dealing With Stress

In every moment, there is a choice – do we choose to be positive or negative, happy or sad?  The first positive thought will lead to the next, and the possible outcome of peace and harmony, love and compassion.  The first negative thought will lead to the next, and the possible outcome of indecision and fear, sadness and anger.   Each present moment allows the opportunity for a positive thought – the choice is in every moment.

Is it easy to break the stress pattern?  No, but it can be done.  The first thing we must do is to stop living in the “what if” zone.  What if I get COVID?  What if I get COVID and die?  What if my elderly parents get COVID?  What if I lose my job, what if my partner leaves me, what if I never meet a partner?  What if the looting doesn’t stop?  What if I can’t find food on the shelves? And the list goes on.

Of course at frightening times like this, our first emotions are fear and worry, this is natural.  But once we are over the initial shock of what is happening, we can take stock and as we see in South Africa, the good is overcoming the bad and things are getting back to normal.  We are strong people and we are standing together, as we always do when the chips are down.

Life is about energy, everything on this planet is energy, every one of our thoughts carries an energy vibration.  That is why it is so important to always try and steer our thoughts in a positive direction.  We all have an aura, the energy field surrounding the physical body.  This energy field has a vibration, which is determined by our collective thoughts.

Just like a finger print, we all have our own individual vibration.  This vibration determines who and what we bring into our lives, so it is very important to try and always be aware of negative thinking.  Negative and fearful thinking will lower our vibration and this will affect the quality of our life.  Just as important is how South Africans view their country, negative opinions will lower the vibration of the country.  Yes, every country has a collective vibration and the more people who believe that we are going to be okay, the more we raise the collective vibration of our country and the better the chance we have of being okay.

When you are feeling frightened and worried about the future, repeat to yourself with a feeling of conviction   “all is well in my world”.