So,
lets see what’s on the agenda for today: seven hour school day, three hour
practice, college applications, mandatory two hour presidential debate, and
homework in every class. Well, that
seems like a horrible, exhausting typical day with its typical level of
stress. People talk about their
stressful day, everyday, like it’s a normal day, but it really isn’t normal to endure
Atlas’s burden of stress day in and day out.
Stress
is a universal feeling. It can encompass the world and span the ages. A baby is stressed because it defecated in
its diaper, a teenager is stressed because of school and what surrounds it,
adults are stressed because of money and work, and the elderly are stressed
because of sickness. It’s inevitable,
everyone will feel stressed. There is
always some aspect of life about which to be stressed. Now stress is not necessarily a bad
thing. People need stress in their life
to motivate, organize themselves, and challenge themselves so they can achieve
their goals. However, there is a line
that frequently gets crossed where stress envelopes someone’s life and negative
consequences occur. This is unhealthy
stress. Fortunately, you don’t have to
let stress suck the life out of you, like a leech, you can manage it and
control it. Every stressful situation
and time is different though, and I am excited to explore these realms of
stress.
I
will start by looking at stress on a large scale, meaning stress that affects a
population, for example, a country and the economy. If a population is stressed, it is bound to
transfer to a national level, and from there, to an international sphere. The Arab Spring is a quintessential example
of stressed nations and it continues today in countries such as Syria. America went through a time period deemed
“The Great Recession”, where it is safe to say that our economy was very
stressed. Hurricane Katrina stressed the
city of New Orleans, something it still hasn’t fully recovered from though it
has been many years. There is a feeling of anxiety that comes with stress that affects
everyone, and it isn’t until we can take a deep breath and slow down to answer
the question, “why are we stressed?”, that we can truly lift this encumbrance
and return to a peaceful life.
"There
is more to life than increasing its speed."~Mohandas Gandhi
I agree, stress is something not a lot of people take into account. When talking on a macro scale, I'd use the word tension. There's a lot of tension in the Middle East right now, and also there's a lot of tension in politics. When stress is resolved in a logical and thoughtful manner, it usually results in success or advancement. But as you said, too much stress can be unhealthy, and so achieving a good balance of stress is important in living a good lifestyle.
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