The Psychology of Stress

I have been suffering a bit of mental, work related, stress lately.  My family, friends and work mates have noticed the difference in my temporament and so have I! At a kids birthday party today, a dear friend of mine told me that he undertook a heart stress test. While being hooked up to the heart monitor and waiting for the Doc to appear, his mobile phone rings.  It is a problem client and he notes his heart rate increase by 8 beats per minute.  This made me think about the psychology of stress.

I know that I handle stress badly.  It effects me physically and mentally.  I can feel my heart rate being up a lot of the time, I don't sleep well so drink more coffee and subsequentely my heart rate goes up even more! I am grumpy, self centred and have a siege mentality when it comes to any perceived threats. I am difficult to live with, and can snap over the smallest issue. A month or so ago I broke my big toe because my home printer would not work.  For all the negatives, I still think stress is a necessary part of adult life.

Without the hard times, how do you appreciate the good? Is being under pressure and getting through it just a part of your own personal definition of success? How do you measure your own personal development and progress without overcoming challenges in work or life issues? I figure that perspective is really important in times of stress and that consequences of failure need to be tempered.

So objectively I accept stress as a normal part of life knowing that it needs to be managed with an equal amount of stress free time.