While some stress can be good for the body, some stress disorders can cause major health problems and some types of stress can even be life threatening. Stress is a natural function of the body but understanding the different types of stress can help you better understand how to deal with the stress you encounter in life.

Major Types of Stress

While stress may have many subcategories, the major types of stress can be broken down and categorized into four types of stress: Eustress, Hyperstress, Hypostress and Distress. Let us discuss each type of stress further.

Type of Stress #1: Eustress

Eustress is one of the helpful types of stress. But what is eustress exactly? Eustress is the type of stress you experience right before you have the need to exert physical force. Eustress prepares the muscles, heart, and mind for the strength needed for whatever it is that’s about to occur.
Eustress can also be applied to creative endeavours. When a person needs to have some extra energy or creativity, eustress kicks in to bring them the inspiration they need. An athlete will experience the strength that comes from eustress right before they play a big game or enter a big competition. Because of this type of stress, they immediately receive the strength that they need to perform.

When the body enters the fight or flight response, it will experience eustress.  Eustress prepares the body to fight with or flee from an imposing danger. This type of stress will cause the blood to pump to the major muscle groups, and will increase the heart rate and blood pressure to increase. If the event or danger passes, the body will eventually return to its normal state.

Type of Stress #2: Distress

Distress is one of the negative types of stress. This is one of the types of stress that the mind and body undergoes when the normal routine is constantly adjusted and altered. This type of stress can actually be subcategorized into two types: acute stress and chronic stress.

Distress Type #1: Acute Stress
The first type of distress is acute stress. This type of stress comes immediately with a change of routine. It is an intense type of stress, but it passes quickly. Acute stress is the body’s way of getting a person to stand up and take inventory of what is going on, to make sure that everything is okay.

Distress Type #2: Chronic Stress
The second type of distress is chronic stress. Chronic stress will occur if there is a constant change of routine for week after week. Chronic stress affects the body for a long period of time. This is the type of stress experienced by someone who constantly faces moves or job changes.

Type of Stress #3: Hyperstress
Hyperstress is another negative type of stress which comes when a person is forced to undertake or undergo more than he or she can take. When you’re faced with a stressful job that overworks you, this causes hyperstress. A person who is experiencing hyperstress will often respond to even little stressors with huge emotional outbreaks. It is important for a person who thinks they might be experiencing hyperstress to take measures to reduce stress in their lives, because hyperstress can lead to serious emotional and physical repercussions.

Type of Stress #4: Hypostress
The final of the four types of stress is hypostress. Hypostress stands in direct opposite to the third type of stress: hyperstress. Hypostress is basically insufficient amount of stress. That is because hypostress is the type of stress experienced by a person who is constantly bored. Someone in an unchallenged job, such as a factory worker performing the same task over and over, will often experience hypostress. Hypostress effects are feelings of restlessness and a lack of inspiration.

In today’s world, it is most unlikely that you have escaped all exposure to this most celebrated vehicle for quieting your mind. You may, however, have encountered some misleading information about it and formed opinions based on inaccurate data. Meditation is not the province of some oddly garbed sect where devotees shave their heads and chant themselves into a trance. Nor is it part of any particular religious organization. Buddhists may meditate, but so might Protestants, Catholics, and Jews. It is not affiliated with leftist politics, vegetarianism, animal rights, or ecology movements.

Meditation is practiced all over the world by people very different from you and very like you. In the 1970s, a meditation room was established in the Pentagon so that America’s top military officials could find some tranquility and rejuvenation amid their high-stress lives. Practiced meditators find that the sense of inner peace they can reach is critical to their ability to cope when external problems threaten to overwhelm.

Research into the physical changes that occur during meditation has been going on for decades. These studies have shown that significant, observable benefits occur.

For example:
•Lowered blood pressure
•Improved circulation
•Slowed respiration
•Reduction of harmful lactic acid in the body
•Slowed pulse rate

In addition, meditation produces a change in the electrical activity of the brain, as measured by an EEG. Scientists attribute this regulating effect to the feelings of inner peace that meditators describe.

Meditation can sound a lot like one more relaxation technique, but it’s not. In relaxation exercises, your focus is an internal one. You observe the changes in your tension level, your breathing, and your body in general. In meditation, the focus is actually external. This may sound like a major contradiction if we are looking for inner peace, but by focusing on an external object, idea, or sound, without judgment or opinion, we can free our minds. That is what meditation is.

When you begin, it may be helpful to establish a regular time and place for meditating. This will help you form the habit. People find that meditating on an empty stomach is also helpful. Avoid alcohol and any kind of medication prior to meditating. You may find that five to ten minutes of breathing or relaxation exercises will help prepare your body for the experience.

Sleep is necessary for life. It is a naturally occurring phenomenon that serves to heal the mind and body and rejuvenate the resources needed for normal daily functioning. For most of us, sleep is the easiest and most natural form of relaxation around. To an insomniac, however, sleep can seem like the holy grail. The National Sleep Institute found that over 35 percent of workers and 55 percent of managers report problems falling or staying asleep. Unfortunately, stress and insomnia seem to be bosom buddies.

No single theory on the amount of sleep our bodies actually need has ever gained complete acceptance among the experts. Most agree, however, that sleep deprivation is epidemic in Western society, especially since high-quality sleep (deep, uninterrupted, and untroubled) is elusive for many. Some sleep researchers go so far as to say that if you have to set an alarm to wake up, you are suffering some degree of sleep deprivation. If this is in fact the case, we are starting every day with depleted resources for coping. No wonder we experience so many minor everyday hassles as stressors!
So how can we take better advantage of sleep, our potential ally? First, we must determine how much sleep our bodies need. This differs substantially from one individual to another. We’d all be thrilled to say we could function perfectly on five hours per night, but in reality, only a tiny percentage of the population is truly able to do that. You must be totally honest in your assessment of your sleep needs.

If you are unsure just what your actual needs are, go to sleep at a ”reasonable hour” (9 P.M.–11 P.M.), do not set an alarm, and see how long you sleep. The tricky part of this is that in order to get a true reading, you will need to do it continuously for at least two weeks. The problem with gauging it by how long you sleep on weekends is that most of us are sleeping longer than normal in an attempt to make up for a week-long deficit.

Once you know how much sleep you need, make a conscious effort to get that much whenever you can. A good goal is four to five times per week. This may mean that you will have to start going to bed earlier. Another possible option is to adjust your work hours so you can sleep a little longer. A thirty-something colleague of mine took a four-month sabbatical a couple of years ago and was so struck by how much better she felt and functioned when she was able to get her required 8.5 hours of sleep per night that when she returned to work, she put herself and her entire staff on a flexible schedule where each one of them could choose their own arrival time and flex the rest of their hours to meet at least an eight-hour day. She tells me it’s been very successful and other managers in her firm are now trying it.

Insomnia (inability to fall asleep or stay asleep), although not truly life-threatening, is not a trivial matter to the millions who suffer from it. However, a great deal of the problem is one of mental compounding, much like sexual impotence. Let’s look at an example. Elaine goes to bed late one night after staying up until 2 A.M. preparing for an important customer meeting the next day. Although she’s tired and needs all the sleep she can still get, she lies there the rest of the night, tossing fretfully, unable to clear her mind of all the preparatory chatter. The next night she is exhausted and goes to bed early, but when she is not immediately able to fall asleep, she begins to worry: “I’ve just got to get some sleep tonight; I barely made it through today.” But another night goes by with little to no sleep. The third night the same thing occurs. Now Elaine is really getting worried and begins to think she has a serious problem, labels it insomnia, and on it goes.

Our bodies respond to stressful situations in a variety of ways, as noted in the few previous articles. Many of the physiological changes that occur within us are undesirable, unhealthy, and even dangerous if prolonged. Insomnia, fatigue, back pain, muscle stiffness, headaches, ulcers, colitis, gastritis, heart disease, cancer, and strokes have all been associated with stress and can all have debilitating effects on our bodies. In order to counteract this negative physiological impact, we must learn to reverse it. Learning to relax provides life-long control over our most vital functions.

Relaxation techniques were designed for just this purpose and have been around as long as humankind has had a written record. In addition, most of us are unable to take the time off necessary to truly unwind, so we must learn to calm our bodies more often and in quicker ways.

When you relax, your heart beat slows, your blood pressure is immediately lowered, muscle tension decreases, your body demands less oxygen, the flow of blood to your muscles and organs decreases, and your natural output of cortisone is reduced. This produces an immediate difference in the way you feel; a dramatic increase in your sense of well-being. Relaxation can be learned and doesn’t require any special equipment. In fact, it doesn’t even require a special location. Many people have reported significant positive changes as a result of practicing as little as two 15-minute relaxation exercises per day, each and every day.

Methods for releasing tension from our bodies are many and varied, with new ones being developed every year. Probably the most commonly known is massage, in all of its many forms. Because it involves two people, we explore massage a little later in this chapter, under the heading of “getting help.” In this section we focus strictly on ways of relaxing the body that don’t involve anyone but you.

This little book helps you to develop a lifestyle that better fits what you would describe as your ‘perfect life’ With many goal setting ideas and life organization strategies, there’s something for everyone. At the very least, it offers a useful and entertaining read; used to the fullest, its many practical ideas can help you develop a happier and less stress-free lifestyle.

What’s more, if you’re busy, stressed and feel that it’s almost impossible to find quiet time to meditate every day, you’re in luck: you can learn to meditate anywhere you are, and get things done while you do it!

Grab a copy now at an introductory price of just $25USD! I can’t promise how long the price will stay there!

Reducing stress overload at work is similar to the approach we used with our personal life. It mainly involves analysis through prioritization. However, whether or not you are a manager (or supervisor) of others will be pivotal in your overload reduction strategy at work.

In today’s work world, thousands of people, some of them only a few years out of school, are promoted and asked to manage the work of others without any prior or subsequent training. Often the promotion is awarded on the basis of the fine work the individual did as a solo contributor. Management brings with it dozens of challenges, and unfortunately, few people are innately equipped to perform those functions adequately without good modeling and instruction.

The art and science of delegating is one of the most important ingredients in managing effectively.

The art and science of delegating is one of the most important ingredients in managing effectively. By far, the single greatest factor in reducing overload for managers is their willingness and ability to delegate. Many excellent workers drown in management because they hang on to such beliefs as ”I can do the job faster/better than anyone else” or “I just can’t trust anyone else to do it correctly” or “by the time I show her how to do it, I might as well have done it myself anyway.” These sentiments are poison to management success.

If you are in management and feeling overloaded, chances are very good that you are not delegating effectively. If you don’t believe that, at least go to several people you trust with whom you work closely (your subordinates are candidates for this, as well as management colleagues) and ask them to tell you honestly how they rate your ability and willingness to delegate.

Delegating is also your greatest tool in relieving your work overload. So even if you are already delegating, you may want to pump it up even more. It is a skill that can be learned like any other. Many good training programs exist for building your delegating skill. If you do not have access to these programs at your worksite, check with the human resources or training department at your company about public programs you might attend. If no training is available to you, there are also many good management primers that have whole chapters devoted to delegation. There are even a few books that address delegating exclusively. This presupposes, of course, that you are willing to put these new ideas into practice and let go of the old beliefs about how you are the only person in the universe who could possibly do the job right!

Many of us compound our personal lives with more activities than we can realistically juggle and continue to perform well. One strategy for limiting our commitments is to prioritize all our activities and eliminate or limit those at the bottom of the list. It is especially important at the personal level to share these strategies with friends and colleagues so that we don’t cause misunderstandings or bad feelings when we become less available or less visible. Let the important people in your life know what you’re doing and why. They will understand. And they will respect your ability and willingness to take charge of your life and make these changes.

If you are involved in professional societies, benevolent organizations, charity fund-raising groups, or clubs of the sort
that require attendance at meetings or performance of other duties, ask yourself how you are really benefiting from these memberships and what price you are paying to continue them. Yes, charitable organizations are honorable endeavors and society needs people to devote time and effort to them, but what is this commitment doing to your relationship with your children? Your spouse? Your ability to do your job? Maybe this isn’t the best time in your life to pursue altruistic ventures. A plan to devote time during your retirement years or after your kids are grown might be more realistic and sensitive to everyone involved.
One way of limiting your involvement with organizations is to step down from the time-consuming leadership positions. You can still make valuable contributions even if you’re not holding office. You’ll also give yourself a great deal more flexibility in terms of time and effort.

Limiting and prioritizing also extend to the activities we engage in with children and spouse. If you find yourself getting caught up in the commitments of your loved ones to an uncomfortable extent, you need to cut back. Once again, this first involves communication. You must share your concern and your needs. Remember: It’s about you! Don’t make them wrong for your past inability to say no. Tell them what you can and cannot do. Prioritize with them. Get them involved in helping you meet your “stress overload challenge.” They really do want to help you stay healthy and happy; it makes their lives better, too.

Eliminating a stressor often involves major life changes such as moving, leaving a relationship, going back to school, changing jobs, or taking a demotion. Many people do decide to take such action, because eliminating the stressor is the most direct way of dealing with the pressure of stress overload. Let’s evaluate whether or not there are stressors in your life that you could actually eliminate. You can try listing your stressors from three areas of your life (personal, environmental, and job/career). Using the data from the exercise and any additional ideas that occur to you, create a list of your top ten sources of negative stress.

If you are not able to fill in all ten lines, it’s not a problem. You probably have either less overall stress or you may have isolated the few critical sources that truly cause unpleasant situations in your life. Whatever number you have, if it feels complete to you, it’s right.
Further analyze your list by asking yourself which of these situations you are able and willing to completely eliminate from your life. Circle those items. You may have several items, you may have one item, you may have zero items that you are willing to eliminate.

As we begin to formulate a plan for making a major change, however, it’s important to step back and once more consider the big picture. Unless you have just recovered from a life-threatening health crisis and your doctor has told you to make drastic changes to your lifestyle immediately, don’t rush into it.
One more consideration of note: We are all different. The number of assignments or tasks or obligations with which you are comfortable may vary considerably from that of your colleagues or your boss or your friends. This isn’t about their comfort level, it’s about yours. Don’t judge yourself by anyone else’s standards or capabilities. It’s also unfair to judge them by yours.

This little book helps you to develop a lifestyle that better fits what you would describe as your ‘perfect life’ With many goal setting ideas and life organization strategies, there’s something for everyone. At the very least, it offers a useful and entertaining read; used to the fullest, its many practical ideas can help you develop a happier and less stress-free lifestyle.

What’s more, if you’re busy, stressed and feel that it’s almost impossible to find quiet time to meditate every day, you’re in luck: you can learn to meditate anywhere you are, and get things done while you do it!

Grab a copy now at an introductory price of just $25USD! I can’t promise how long the price will stay there!

Everyone experiences stress to some degree in their everyday lives. Stress cannot be totally eliminated from your life. You probably wouldn’t want to avoid all stress, anyway. That would mean that your life was pretty dull. Remember, some stress comes from happy events, such as graduation or going on vacation. A moderate amount of stress can give us more energy and motivation to succeed.

Beyond keeping life interesting and exciting, stress has several other benefits.

When you rehearse or prepare for a potential situation that may be stressful, such as a natural disaster, you are also educating yourself. Learning about disaster preparedness may not only reduce the stress you feel before and after the disaster occurs, but may also provide knowledge that will help you cope with day-to-day problems. The fight-or-flight reaction that takes over after a disaster can help you to help yourself and others.
Preparing for a disaster or doing something to reduce the risk of disaster gives you some control over the situation and can help reduce stress. When you survive disasters, you gain new feelings of confidence and of self-esteem; you have mastered a tremendous challenge.

A moderate amount of stress can help improve athletic performance. You need some stress or stimulation to do your best. A little stress can be useful, increasing your performance and efficiency. However, a lot of stress or continuous stress can lead to a bad performance.

Change can be stressful, but it can also be viewed as an opportunity. Change may help you improve the quality of your life by giving you new choices. When you deal with stress, you have an opportunity to re-evaluate your life, to set new goals and priorities, and to improve relationships. Stress can be beneficial, but only in a moderate amount, and only when you try to cope with it. You cannot eliminate all stress, but you can deal with it in many ways, and that is how you can improve your life.

You can look at stress and your efforts to cope with stress as a challenge and an opportunity. Successfully coping with stress can improve your self-esteem and competence. When you deal with your stress, you grow as a person. By using problem-solving skills and finding alternatives to stressful situations, you may find your life going in a new direction.