We regularly hear that "stress is bad for us", however in all reality we need some stress!

We need it!

This may come as a shock, but without stress our bodies would not be prompted to progress and change, and life could potentially become very boring. Stress is an important motivator to make us try a bit harder at work to finish that tough project in order to get that bonus! It allows us to reflect with satisfaction that we conquered that ski slope that we thought was a little harder than our ability. In addition when you start a new exercise program, your muscles will decide they need to be bigger in order to cope with the increased activity, and your heart and lungs will become more efficient at getting oxygen to the working muscles.

So a little bit of stress is beneficial. The problems occur when there is too much stress, either physically or emotionally. Too much physical stress means increased risk of injury or illness. Too much emotional or psychological stress means we run the risk of mental health problems, illness or both.

So how does too much stress cause these problems?

The first thing to understand is how the mind works - we think in pictures. Each and every day we experience situations that cause pictures to be presented in the brain. The key is your mind can't tell the difference between what you imagine and what reality is. Dreaming is a good example. Scary pictures that you have imagined in your mind produce powerful physical reactions including increased heart rates, talking in your sleep, increased breathing rate and even movement in your sleep. The picture in your mind isn't real but your body acts as though it is.

The body orients itself towards thoughts and pictures in our head. Messages travel along nerves to large and tiny muscles in response to the picture in our mind influencing our response to the situation. This helps explain many phenomena, such as why you can easily walk along a narrow board if it is near the ground but things get a little more difficult if its metres in the air. In the air, we tell ourselves "don't fall", but we can't not think about something, therefore the mind only sees the falling bit of "don't fall" and as a result the body orients itself accordingly.

Stress becomes a problem when that stressful event i.e. a demand on your time, skills, emotions or physical being is perceived as a threat (i.e. above your coping skills) that then causes you to react with anxiety. So in other words stress, when experienced in amounts or degrees that are greater than our perceived coping skills, can lead to thoughts of failure, fearful thoughts or worry about the unknown result of that situation, this can then lead to feelings of anxiety. Anxiety can include feeling fearful, nervous, jittery or distressed as well as expecting unpleasant or threatening events, as well as seeing events as being unpredictable and out of your control.

So as you can see, the stressful situation creates thoughts of worry or fear that then creates feelings of anxiety. In other words we respond to situations via thoughts and pictures in our head which produce emotions that lead to physical reactions and behaviours.

The bottom line is that we all need some stress, however our emotions and thoughts have a huge impact on our health behaviours so we need to get them into shape if we are to achieve our health, fitness and quality of life goals.

For more information on your mental health go to www.lifestylemedicine.net.au.

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