Stresstab1: Our Stress Tolerance Level

Recognizing and accepting our most comfortable life-style, which includes the dimension of knowing how much pressure we can tolerate, is an effective way to avoid becoming overwhelmed by stress. Dr. Selye suggests that some people have a "race horse" life-style and seem to thrive on intense activity, while at the other extreme; some people prefer a "turtle" life-style and function best when their activity level is reduced. Trying to adopt a "race horse" life-style when we really prefer a "turtle" pace of life, or vice-a-versa, can be stressful. For example, a medical doctor told a "race horse" lady, who had just been diagnosed as having high blood pressure, to go home and take it easy. He told her to do more things while sitting down such as reading and resting. She tried this program for a week or two before going back to the doctor and telling him that she was going crazy. The change from the "race horse" to the "turtle" life-style was extremely stressful for her and actually increased her blood pressure. After talking with the doctor, she adopted a moderate "race horse" level and consequently reduced her blood pressure as well as her stressful feelings.

It is often difficult to discover our stress-tolerance level since it tends to fluctuate with time. It sometimes seems to be higher than usual, while at other times; we have difficulty handling just a small amount of pressure. Everyone has a different stress-tolerance level, and we should not feel guilty if we cannot keep up with someone else. Always trying to compete with people who have higher levels than our own brings about prolonged stress. One example of operating at our own level is registering for the number of hours in office, which we think we can effectively handle even though our friends may register for more hours. Another example is getting the number of hours of sleep we think we need even though our colleagues can function on fewer hours. We need to trust ourselves as the authority on how much stress our body and emotions can handle.

A good way to discover our stress-tolerance level in a given situation is to be sensitive to the different cues our body gives us. Such cues as a headache, an upset stomach, a painful joint or an aching muscle indicate we have probably surpassed our tolerance level and need to reduce the stress we are experiencing. It is wise to take corrective action as soon as these signals appear.

Sometimes we unconsciously lower our tolerance level because we waste emotional energy over insignificant incidents. This drains away our capacity to deal with situations we can usually handle. Getting upset over a glass of spilled milk is a waste of good emotional energy. We should choose not to become irritated about such an accident, but instead, clean it up and forget it. We are all fallible human beings and make mistakes. We ought to save our energy for the more significant items of the day.