Rummuser’s latest post, A Reason for Being, reminds me of this quote:
They say stress is a killer. But I think no stress is equally deadly, especially as you get old. If your days just seem to slip by without any highs and lows, without some anxieties and pulse-quickening occurrences, you may not be really living.
—Helen Hayes
That certainly goes along with the idea of optimizing stress reproduced here:
Graph showing how health, happiness and productivity depend on your level of stress:
We all know that too much stress is bad for us, that it wrecks our health and our relationships and makes us miserable. But too little stress is just as harmful. Life becomes dull and meaningless, and that causes its own health and performance problems.
Just the right amount of stress, the optimal amount for you, and you feel challenged, fully alive and at your personal best.
So instead of trying to eliminate stress, make it work for you. Think in terms of optimizing it instead.
Obviously the optimal amount of stress varies for each individual, and some people reject the idea completely, as Rummuser apparently does for himself. As usual, one size doesn’t fit all, just another example of the great variety of human personalities, interests, and experiences. There are all sorts of ways to float our boats!
I just realised as I read your post, that a pal of mine is giving me a huge amount of stress. He thinks that I’m not eating properly and nearly every message states “are you eating enough, keep your strength up” and so on and last night he added “what is your weight?” …
I think I need to message him to “stop stressing on my account…” that I’m absolutely fine, just fine-tuning the new eating because certain foods now upset my digestive system.
Well meaning people can be a pain at times if they think they know more about your life, what you should be doing, than you do. It’s nice that they care, but ….
a great point monk. and it also seems terribly hard to get people in this country to admit to personal choices being healthy for them.
I finally got a heart doctor to admit that ‘one size does not fit all!’ in terms of blood pressure. if mine were ever what they tell everyone it HAS TO BE ~
I would not be able to walk across the room! it all just seems relative to me.
and the lack of stress your graph shows makes me think of the ‘elders’ of the last century who were just put into a chair and spent their days staring at a tv or looking out a window. stress so low that it was dangerous indeed. talk about being put out to pasture! now we surely know the importance of balance in our lives. 🙂
They did a study of people in nursing homes. The ones who were given a plant to take care of lived longer than the ones who had everything done for them. I’m glad they did the study, but it’s sad it needed to be done. 🙁
“There are all sorts of ways to float our boats!” I love your last line.
have I learned nothing? !!! that says it all. 😀
Yes, we each have to figure out what works for us. Unfortunately, not everyone will necessarily approve of our choices!
I couldn’t tolerate the stress of having nothing to look forward to, no meaningful project to get me out of bed in the morning. Fortunately (?) my life has been full of activity, things to do, people to be concerned about, so if that sort of stress is good, I have it in spades! But blood pressure is a concern, and for me, there seems to be a direct relationship between stress and my blood pressure!
It sounds as if you are too far on the right of the optimal zone. I used to sometimes slip too far to the left so would find new challenges for myself. Now life provides them for me without my having to look!
Good luck with the blood pressure. It’s serious stuff.
I agree, a certain amount of manageable stress is good for us and keeps our brain and body ticking over. But too many people are facing crippling levels of stress because of poverty, high housing costs, low wages, overstretched public services etc. Shrinking welfare benefits for the poor and disabled in the UK have caused a big increase in premature deaths.
Yes, I am aware of how lucky we are. And I’m afraid conditions are going to get a lot worse as time goes on. They’re predicting a $1 trillion deficit here for fiscal 2019 — that can’t go on forever. And that’s just one problem. No sense going into all the others.
Hans Selye’s view of stress was it was only a problem when it became distress.
Yes, he talked about eustress (healthy) and distress (unhealthy if there is too much). The trick is to focus on what works as eustress for the individual.
The UK national deficit is worse. It’s at least £2 trillion and by some estimates is more like £4.8 trillion. And that’s after eight years of “austerity”, which virtually all the experts said from the start was a big mistake.
Wow! I didn’t know that. It doesn’t bode well for the future. I imagine Brexit won’t help.