Stress And The City

By: Nathaniel Gibbs

The city environment seems to compel its inhabitants to compete for everything. Cars rush through the streets, people hastily walk to their destinations, and even the birds seem in a hurry to get from one park to the next in search of food. Indeed the city environment is built around competing for resources. The results is a natural environment for the development of stress.

Stress is a condition that results when there is a real or imagined discrepancy between the demands of a situation and the resources available to address the situation. Competition becomes the catalyst and stress is the result because we fear someone else may get that promotion, that parking space or that coveted office with a window. So every day we compete for the prize.

Not all stress is detrimental to your health. There is good stress and bad stress, the trick is managing stress so that it is not hazard to your health. Stress causes the release of hormones that enhance the body's ability to react to a harsh or dangerous situation. The result of these hormones being released into the blood stream is:

 

	Rapid heart rate, breathing rate
	Elevated blood pressure, and metabolism
	Blood vessels open wider to let more blood flow to large muscle groups
	Pupils dilate to improve vision
	Stored glucose released to increase the body's energy
	And sweat is produced to cool the body.

 

Since most of these situations are short term in nature the body quickly returns to normal once the situation returns to normal. This is good stress.

Bad stress results from harsh or dangerous situations that are too intense or exist for long periods of time. Triggers for bad stress are things like extended illness or death in the family, financial problems, job related problems. Any situation requiring the body to work at abnormally high levels for an extended period is potentially bad for the body.

Having these stress hormones in your blood for extended periods can tire your body and make you feel overwhelmed, weaken your immune system and slow your body's return to normal once the event is over. Intense environments, like you find in the city, can put excessive demands on your body's resources.

How do you manage stress? Try some of the recommendations below:

 

1. Set realistic goals for yourself
2. Reduce the number of events going on in your life.
3. Implement stress reduction through project management/prioritizing.
4. Remove yourself from the stressful situation (Give yourself a break for a few moments).
5. Establish method for handle each task as it comes.
6. Try Meditation.
7. Avoid extreme reactions.
8. Do something for others (get your mind off it).
9. Get enough sleep.
10. Use physical activity to work off stress(Avoid self-medication).

 

Finally, determine what's important to you, don't sweat the small stuff, and most importantly, talk with some your trust about your situation.