In a previous blog, I made a distinction between stress and stressors. Stress is not just something that shows up unannounced; it is a response to stressor. You encounter a situation that has some type of challenge or pressure or demand. These happen all the time, and you respond to them. If you able to adapt well to these stressors, you go on with your life. If you do not adapt well to these stressors, you will feel stress. So the concept of stress suggest that you are constantly faced with the need to adapt to all of the various pressures you Cexperience in your life.
Change is the one constant
In other words, you are constantly feeling the need to adapt to change. You’ve probably heard that, ironically, the one constant in life is change. The way to reduce stress is not to do all you can to prevent or avoid change. A significant part of stress reduction is learning to embrace change in a positive way, to see it as a necessary part of life and not a threat.
The truth is nothing around you is really stable and unchanging. Even inanimate objects like rocks and mountains are made up of atoms constantly in motion. You stand on a spot on the earth and say you being still, but the earth on which you stand is rotating about 1000 miles an hour on its axis, and it is moving 66,000 miles and hour as it journeys around the sun. The atmosphere which gives us breath and weather is constantly in flux.
Your very existence is based on change.
A human life comes into being as a single cell, a fertilized egg. This cell begins to divide and continues to differentiate and specialize until you have all the complex systems of the human body. And the change doesn’t stop there. Because your body knows that change is the one constant, it has come up with ways to regulate your internal states so that it can remain stable in the midst of change. These regulatory responses used to be called homeostasis, which literally means “remaining stable by staying the same.” The more recent and more accurate description of these regulatory responses is allostasis, which means “remaining stable by being able to change.” Part of these regulatory responses are called the “fight or flight” response. When a situation presents a challenge or a threat, a whole series of chemical changes happen to prepare us to respond.
Many of these changes in life are not threatening. You want them. You welcome them. You strive to make them happen. You want to be in a close relationship, and you welcome a person into your life. You want to do well at your job, and you strive for a promotion. You look forward to the new phase of life that is called retirement. Yet, even these positive and happy moments, because they involve change, can create some stress. Whether that stress is debilitating depends on how well you do in adapting to these new situations.
But change is not just something that happens in the world around you.
If you have ever practiced any kind of mindfulness meditation, you become aware that continual change is happening in your mind and body. As you sit and simply observe your thoughts in an accepting and non-judgmental way, you will experience constantly changing thoughts, feelings, memories, ideas, perceptions, and impulses. As you sit and simply observe your body in an accepting and non-judgmental way, you will experience a variety of sensations on your skin or deep inside.
The truth is human beings are remarkably resilient. You have the ability to face and engage challenging situations in a way that can be meaningful and enriching. Part of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) is learning how to be present with change. You will learn how to see it, not as a problem, but as something that is part of life, something that is an expression of who you are as an amazing creature of this earth. My stress reduction specialty page can give you more information about MBSR.