by Bonnie Situ, a volunteer with the Edgemont Youth Press
September has arrived! To navigate the opening of the new season, let me share an analogy that may help you reconcile with the stressors we all face in our day-to-day lives. It is important for us all to have the coping mechanisms and resources to take care of ourselves during stressful situations.
First and foremost, let’s clear the air about stress. Stress is a normal reaction to the demands of life. When your brain is in fear or perceives a threat, your body releases a burst of hormones to activate your stress response, often referred to as “fight, flight, or freeze.” Your body returns to normal once the threat has passed.
A common misconception is that all stress is bad and should be avoided, when in fact, there are benefits of moderate levels of short-lived stress, such as improving cognitive performance and memory. Furthermore, on the fundamental level, we require our body’s stress hormone, cortisol, to rise and fall throughout the day to maintain our stress response, among many other functions.
Inversely, we must not neglect the harmful effects of too much or prolonged amounts of stress. This constant activation of the stress response takes a hefty toll on our bodies. The overexposure to cortisol levels can disrupt important bodily functions and lead to health issues. We can tell if we are experiencing too much stress if we feel burnt out, snappy or irritable, anxious, fatigued, low, or tearful.
Now that we have touched on both ends of the spectrum, let’s tackle the stress bucket analogy to settle in the middle:
Imagine we are carrying buckets. The size of these buckets varies based on genetics, mental health issues, personality, and life experiences. Ultimately, these buckets represent our stress tolerance. The water in these buckets represents all the stress in our lives. Ultimately, the bucket is our capacity to handle stressors. Both positive and negative experiences will affect the water level, which slowly fills up when we experience stress.
Occasionally we may feel strong enough to bear the burden and carry a lot of stress, but it is important to use strategies to prevent the bucket from overflowing, as well as lighten the load. What we need to introduce are water drainage holes (healthy coping strategies) because while we cannot change the size of the bucket to relieve our stress, we can adjust our lives to reduce the water coming in, or to allow water to drain out.
When elaborating on these coping and stress management strategies, I also want to touch on how to address the root of the problem – the stress response – in which perception and control play a big role. If we feel resilient and confident going into the response, we are less likely to be overwhelmed by it. Likewise, if we can establish a feeling of control over the problem, it will be easier to manage. This can reduce the amount of water being added to your bucket. Keep in mind: the more you practice your response to stress, the more you can adapt and build the skills of resilience and growth.
Carrying on, healthy ways to manage and reduce stress largely depend on your reflection and experimentation with what strategies work and stick during the times of difficulty. Examples of these strategies may include exercise, sleep, relaxation, confiding in others, taking time for hobbies, or having a sense of humor. Ultimately, it requires taking breaks, and dedicating time to yourself. In the same way, unhealthy, maladaptive strategies exist as well. They may provide temporary relief but actually perpetuate the problems and are false traps that are adding water to your bucket. These include lack of sleep, inactivity, or suppressing or ignoring problems, which do not prioritize your well-being in the long run.
In closing, I hope you gained something out of this bitesize piece about stress, and perhaps apply the stress bucket analogy to your life. Thank you for reading and I wish you all an easygoing, functional, and productive month!
Sources:
- https://youtu.be/1KYC5SsJjx8
- https://mentalhealth-uk.org/blog/the-stress-bucket/
- https://www.summahealth.org/flourish/entries/2021/01/stress-management-how-to-tell-the-difference-between-good-and-bad-stress#:~:text=Stress%20helps%20you%20meet%20your,vital%20for%20a%20healthy%20life.&text=You%20may%20think%20any%20type,that%20isn’t%20the%20case
- https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/stress/art-20046037#:~:text=Your%20body%20is%20hard%2Dwired,life%20is%20free%20of%20stress
