The definition of stress is your body’s response to change.

The world around you is in a constant state of change. This ever-changing world is perceived by your five physical senses:

• Sight
• Hearing
• Touch
• Taste
• Smell

The information received from your 5 senses is then processed by your nervous system.

In other words, your nervous system exists to process the constant stream of information from your senses regarding the changes in the world around you.

Since that your environment is constantly changing, you are constantly under some level of stress. This is a key point in our definition of stress: the fact that your system is equipped to handle a certain “normal” level of stress.

In other words, under the terms of our definition of stress, not all stress is harmful. Indeed, the only time you can ever experience no stress at all, is when you're dead!

This “normal” level is a little bit different for everyone, but as long as you stay within your range, you will perceive yourself to be comfortable and relaxed – perhaps invigorated, but not stressed out.

This definition of stress allows us to recognize a couple of key points regarding the nature of stress, from the perspective of stress management.

First of all, the degree to which you become stressed out by a change in your environment is determined by the degree of the change itself.

This is a pretty simple idea, but think about it ...

Imagine that you’re going to take a test in school. You believe that it is an “open-book” test, meaning you can bring your textbooks and any of your notes into the room with you to take the test. I used to love those, didn’t you?

However, imagine that when you arrive in class that day to take the test, the teacher tells you that you can only use your textbook, but not your notes. That might stress you out a bit, wouldn’t it?

Your environment has changed in an unexpected way, and your body might respond to the sudden change with some mild symptoms of stress. Perhaps your heart rate rises a bit in nervous anticipation of taking the exam, or maybe you begin to perspire slightly.

Now imagine a different situation. Imagine that you have arrived to take your test, and the teacher informs you in the classroom that this is now a completely “closed-book” test.

You cannot bring any materials into the classroom with you at all. And on top of that, the test will now account for half of your overall grade in the class at the end of the term! This could really stress you out, couldn’t it?

Dealing with a stressful situation of this magnitude will effect different people in different ways. Along with the physical symptoms we’ve already mentioned, some people might get sick to their stomach, become overcome with anxiety, fly into a full-blown panic attack, or sink into a fit of depression.

Do you see now how the degree of the change in one’s environment effects the degree of the stress experienced by a person?

Another important thing to remember regarding this definition of stress is that the “normal” level of stress, the amount of stress that a given person can experience without experiencing the physical symptoms of stress, varies from person to person.

Even more importantly from a stress management perspective, this level of normal stress can be trained. With correct practice of the right techniques, a person can set the bar for what is genuinely stressful higher and higher.

That is why we call conditions like anxiety, depression, and panic attacks stress-related injuries, not "illnesses". With proper training they can be prevented.

This is also what I mean when I say that stress management is a skill.

Go back to the example in the classroom we just talked about. All other things being equal, some people will be better equipped to handle the stress caused by the realization that they are about to take a very important test under different rules than they had prepared for.

Those people who understand the definition of stress and have devoted themselves regularly to the practice of certain principles of stress management will handle the stress more effectively - it's that simple.

Instead of struggling to “get themselves together”, they will be able to devote more focus to the task at hand.

And because of their skill in stress management, all else being equal, they will perform better on the test than their peers.

The ability to deal with the situation, a situation which is entirely out of their control, on its own terms – THAT is the definition of genuine stress management.

Want to learn how to put the HARDCORE STRESS MANAGEMENT™ definition of stress into practice?