When we present a stress management course, we often look for the greatest areas of our life that produce stress.
- According to Peter Hanson, MD, a best-selling author of several books about stress, work and the workplace causes most of our stress.
- According to the Holmes-Rahe stress scale, which has been popularly used in stress management workshops since the late 1960’s, the greatest single stressors come from our personal lives.
In reality, it depends on what’s happening in different areas of our life, and how we respond to things that add to our stress levels, no matter where they are coming from.
We know intuitively that the economy, threats of layoff, doing more with fewer resources will add stress to our work. However, even in an ideal workplace there can be people we don’t get along with, orders that do not arrive on time, and phones that don’t get answered. On the home front, finding a new place to live, weddings, family gatherings, finances, and inflation can add stress to our lives.
The word “stressor” is something we hear frequently. A stressor is something that puts real or perceived demands on your physical, emotional, or spiritual self. Stressors can be positive or negative.
