Got Unacknowledged Stress? By Mark W. Neville, MDiv
The United States, including Western North Carolina, is internationally known for fast-paced, high stress lifestyles. We work more hours per week, live busier personal lives, and take fewer days off than most other humans on planet Earth. Stress is the air we breathe.
What is Stress?
Simply put, stress is what we feel when we adapt to a change. Some changes we choose, and some we don’t. For example, we didn’t choose the road construction and traffic on I-26. That was a change we had to adapt to. However, we can choose to take a different route and avoid the traffic. Even so, that’s also a change we must adapt to.
Adapting to change takes energy. Adapting to many changes at a rapid pace is exhausting. It leads to burnout and increased risks to our health and wellbeing.
There are two types of stress we’ve been recently experiencing that often go unacknowledged. Becoming aware of them helps us cope and reduce their negative effects on our lives. They are circumstantial and transitional stress.
Circumstantial Stress
Circumstantial stress refers to changes occurring in multiple spheres of our lives. These spheres expand outward from us in concentric circles. They include our local community, city, county, WNC regional, state, Southeastern regional, national, northern hemisphere, and global spheres. Changes happening in all these spheres directly affect every one of us.
Two features of circumstantial stress set it apart from other types. First, there’s often no end in sight to stressful circumstances. Second, there’s little if anything we can do about them. They highlight our powerlessness.
Most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic, political strife, the economy, supply line challenges, racial issues, and the environment are excellent examples of circumstantial stress. Regardless of our different points of view on these issues, we share this in common: the stress we feel in these circumstances.
Thankfully, the worst of the pandemic is in our rear-view mirror now. Hopefully, the strife of the other issues will soon calm down as well. However, adapting to the changes related to opening up in the wake of the pandemic have us dealing with another type of unacknowledged stress: transitional stress.
Transitional Stress
Transitional stress is the stress we feel when we leave familiar circumstances, go through unfamiliar circumstances, and arrive in new circumstances. As we settle in our new circumstances become familiar and we complete the transition. Right now, we’re transitioning from—
Many wearing masks to fewer
Fewer family and social gatherings to more
Tight to relaxed restrictions on businesses and schools
Being vaccinated or not to getting a booster or not
Working at home to returning to the office
From businesses reducing hours or closing to businesses opening back up and hiring
Do you feel stressed just reading that list? I’m sure you could add several transitions of your own to the list.
What to Do
So, what can we do to minimize the negative effects of circumstantial and transitional stress? Here are seven simple practices that help:
Write a list of the circumstantial and transitional stresses you’re experiencing in your daily life.
Choose to be kind. We’re all stressed.
Invest time with those you love and who love you.
Protect time for recovering the energy you burn dealing with these and other types of stress. Especially protect recreational activities and sleep.
Find healthy ways for managing stress and building resilience that work for you.
Pause frequently to take in the natural beauty where we live.
Be proactive. Chronic stress leads to breaks in our health, including anxiety and depression. Get help sooner rather than later.
Mark W. Neville, MDiv is the originator of Life Therapy, a holistic alternative to traditional psychotherapy, and specializes in couple’s therapy as well as individual therapy for those dealing with stress, anxiety, depression, and trauma. Learn more at www.MarkWNeville.com