Senwes Scenario June / July 2016 | Page 46

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WHERE THERE ' S A WILL THERE ' S A WAY
REV . CAREL BOTMA

PART 2 : THE IMPACT OF STRESS

READ : Genesis 3:1 ; 14-19
TODAY I WANT TO TELL YOU ABOUT THE IMPACT OF STRESS ON THE LIFE OF AN INDIVIDUAL , IN OTHER WORDS , THE EF- FECT THEREOF ON YOUR LIFE . WHAT HAPPENS TO YOU PHYSICALLY WHEN YOU EXPERIENCE STRESS ?

When our emotional resources are faced with a potential threat , it firstly triggers an alarm phase . This is characterised by shock . Think of an angry bull or dog charging unexpectedly . Or of your car being hijacked . The human body mobilises itself to execute a counter shock reaction . During the counter shock reaction the body ' s ability to perform is far beyond normal . It is at such times when you scale a gate at full speed without any effort in order to get away from the charging bull . You therefore reach a performance peak .

The following phase is the resistance phase . During this phase the reaction during the counter shock phase is continued , but the runner becomes short of breath and he gets tired . A perfomance plateau is reached and the bull is catching up on you . During this phase your emotional resources have their hands full with all the attempts referred to and the management of other resources in order to be able to cope .
Although I used an extreme example of a stressor which you do not experience very often , every day stressors have exactly the same impact on us . Some of these stressors are so insignificant that we regard it as part of our daily routine . Think of the mornings when you oversleep , when you battle the traffic , when one of your children remembers just before bedtime that he has to hand in a project at school the next morning , or even when the electricity is interrupted unexpectedly . Whatever the case may be , we deal with hundreds of stressors every day . It is therefore important to understand that , no
matter how insignificant , stressors can eventually have a huge impact on our lives .
The last phase is that of exhaustion , burn-out or collapse . The ability of the body and emotional resources to resist the threat , collapses and it goes into crisis mode . You feel exhausted , you struggle to concentrate , you are irritated and can become extremely pessimistic . Life and the people around you seem to lose some of their shine and you have nothing good to say about them . You are suffering from burn-out ... you possibly even experience sympathetic exhaustion . But more about that in a later edition .
44 JUN / JUL 2016 • SENWES Scenario