Now and again we see advertisements or read articles about how to cope with stress. If you do “such and such” you’ll manage stress more effectively or if you do “this and that” you’ll cope better.

What is stress anyways? Where does it come from? And why is it that a situation can be stressful for one person, and not another?

Let’s consider the following for a minute. For instance, if my girlfriend were to be on the way to an important meeting she needed to be on time for and happened to get a flat tire she would experience a large amount of stress.

She would perceive the situation to be very demanding; on a scale of 1-10 (1 being low stress and 10 as very high) she’d likely be a 7 or 8. Furthermore, her perception of her own ability to cope with the flat tire would also be stressful as she doesn’t have the knowledge or skills of how to quickly change the tire herself and still be on time for her meeting.

Although she is an excellent problem solver and would be able to call for help or utilize AAA, these options would likely take more time than she has to make it to her meeting on time, thus stressing her out about her perception of how to cope with a flat tire at a level of 7 or 8 again. Click here to read more.. »