When I was a young man, my ninety-three year old grandmother said, "Don't worry and don't hurry, grandson. Worry and hurry send people into the horse-piddle." (How she pronounced "hospital")
Her statement carries with it the assumption that worry and hurry (the word "stress" was not in the general vocabulary then) are, at least to some extent, in the healthy individual, choices. Indeed, I observe that we are all subtly encouraged these days to embrace the insidious notion that anxiety, fear and rush are normal mental states. Once this happens, we have more or less shot ourselves in the foot. Many of my acquaintances seem to preoccupy themselves with constantly worrying about worry. At the slightest sign that life is rather enjoyable, they will commence thinking about a variety of terrible things which might occur to spoil it.
I have observed this strange, increasingly common, phenomenon in the workplace for many years now. Many people seem incapable of understanding the difference between healthy concern and neurotic anxiety. Medical emergencies, accidents and so on should rightly cause immediate concern and precipitate appropriate action. But even in these cases, mindless anxiety and fear do little to help anybody. What I have noticed recently is that people activate a degree of concern about a printer breakdown or the weather which is more appropriate to somebody collapsing on the floor. Thirty or forty years ago this just didn't happen.
Aside from observing that what we fashionably term "stress", in an otherwise mentally healthy individual, often has its roots in simple anxiety and fear, I do not have the knowledge or experience to offer any general solutions. I know my own techniques but trying to impart these to family and friends has amounted to a complete waste of time, however well intentioned I have been. Rather, my predominate state of placidity and reason serves only to irritate the people I desire to help and even exacerbates their neuroses.
So I have to admit partial defeat on this one.
Topic: Stress