Work Makes Me Nervous: Overcome Anxiety and Build the Confidence to Succeed

Chapter 5. The Positive Power of Stress: Make It Work for You

"Stressed out." "Under a lot of stress." "Stress-related illness." "Stress relief." "Stress management." We hear the word stress a lot. But what exactly is stress? Is it something good? Something bad? How do you define it?

How about "physiological adaptation to change"? That is how it was characterized by Hans Selye, the scientist who in 1936 identified and defined "stress" as we know it today. "Adaptation" occurs on emotional, behavioral, and lifestyle levels—switching gears in response to an alteration in circumstance. That's all it is, isn't it? You notice a stimulus and respond to it. For example, if you are crossing the street and a car closely whizzes by you, your pulse will increase, your muscles may tighten, you might perspire. And you would no doubt get angry instantly. I know I would.

Or how about if your boss tells you "something just came up" and you have to address a group of your colleagues in one hour about your latest assignment. Would you have any physiological adaptation? How would your mind react? What would your body feel?

When I was a freshman in college, a psychology professor staged a scenario where someone unexpectedly burst into the classroom, pointed a pistol at him, and fired! The gun was a starter pistol and the bullets were blanks, but of course we had no way of knowing that. Talk about adaptation! All of our bodies instantly went into fight-or-flight mode—and rightly so. Our senses heightened, ...