The Essence of Stress

I've come to realize that stress is only what you allow it to be. I think it comes from a need to be in constant control, and when that control begins to slip out of our fingers we freak out and scramble to keep it in place. In the end, we are left with no control and a huge mess. I don't see myself as a very stressful person, and so from this definition, I can't tell if that means that I just have such a solid grip on my control that its rare for that control to slip away, or if I'm just a very malleable person in that I can "go with the flow" so to speak. I tend to think I am more of the latter, because a lot of times my lack of stress comes from a lack of general care about what would typically stress people out.

I had a paper due in the morning, 6 pages, based off of a comparison of two theologians. All the people around me are stressing out and frantically trying to finish it before class in the morning. I've had at least a good week to prepare and get it done. But no, I didn't really give it much thought because I figured "hey, its nothing, you can get it done in one night." And you know what? I did. No stress, no real hassle, just did it.

It's kind of been the story of my life. Very rarely will I get stressed out about stuff. It's definitely not always a good thing, because there have been times when I didn't get my work done, and paid the penalty for it. But I look around sometimes and I see people freaking out and I wonder why. If we go through life worrying about everything, how are we supposed to enjoy the life we have been blessed with? If we surround ourselves with drama all the time, when will we be able to break ot of it enough to take in the world around us? To enjoy the beauty of God's creation, and the company of others. I'm not trying to advocate a life dedicated to pleasure or anything like that, but I just don't see why we should have to stress out over matters that are trivial in the grand scheme of things.

As Christians we are called to give our lives over to God. This includes our grip on control. I think the reason why I have been so stress-free these past couple of years is because I have trusted that God has a plan for me and will help me in my endeavors to fulfill that plan. Well, that and a general lack of concern for HW, never did like doing it. =D

But I don't know, I think stress is just a result of our holding onto control which we just don't have. It's an illusion of control, in reality I don't think we have as much control as we think we do, or think we should.