There are many sources of stress and they differ in every person, as each individual has a separate level of tolerance and a different trigger for the fight or flight response. The ability to deal with stress may be difficult for all of us, but can be reduced by using practices that enhance our mindfulness. These practices allow us to take a moment to think through our situation, the triggers, the possible solutions, and respond with a calmer outlook rather than to react to the stimuli.
There are many different possible sources of stress, mainly:
- Lack of supervision or poor leadership
- Bad environment
- Poor interpersonal relationships
- Lack of positive reward
- Role conflicts
- Job insecurity
- Irregular work or sleep schedules
- Excessive work, policies, continuances, deadlines, etc.
This leads to a deteriorating effect on our mental, physical, physiological, emotional, psychological, and cognitive state, in the long term. It causes us to become:
- Tired and low attention span
- Restless
- Lose sleep
- Stop eating or begin to overeat
- Difficult at communicating, recalling, and carrying out tasks
- Uninvited angry and argumentative
- Poor decision-making ability
- Headaches
- Frustration and depression
In the following video, Ms. Jyoti Gupta explores the sources of stress and how a person reacts to it. She also explains that we may lose a hold of ourselves when put under immense stress for a long period of time without an outlet. She gives us daily examples that we may be able to relate to in order to show the extent of stress on our mental and physical states.
