Okay I hear people talk about the "stress" in their lives and I want to know what exactly are they talking about?

What is "stress" where it concerns your daily life?

Is it worry? Is it fear? Is it just people placing demands on you? Or are you placing demands on yourself?

What if you just reacted differently to potential stressful situations?

Can you eliminate stress by changing your attitude? How about by just saying "To hell with everything, I don't care."

Anyone?

(My chiropractor once told me that my migrains were caused by stress and told me to eliminate what ever was causing my stress.

I left, moved out, from living with my boyfriend and it solved that problem. No more migraines. )

Hey I just got this in my email: Good advice.

Handle every stressful situation like a dog.
If you can't eat it or play with it,
Just pee on it and walk away.

Well, it would only add to my stress to identify my problems in this thread and then have a bunch of strangers tell me how stupid my concerns are or what I am doing wrong in my life.

So, I will just say that the two kinds of stress I have been dealing with are these:

Factors beyond my control. These are easiest for me to handle. Not that they don't cause me stress, but I am able to see that there's nothing I can do about it and therefore I accept what is.

My own personal fears. Situations arise in which we must step outside of our comfort zone. This is very stressful, at least for me. But, I continually remind myself that it is necessary for personal growth and to move on to the life I want to make for myself. I have not been dealing with this one as well as I should. I think exercise is the key to this kind of stress. So, I'm going for a walk.

as I understand it

stress is the result and affect of adrenaline on the body. Adrenaline is necessary to push us through danger and crisis and in short controlled doses is okay.

but over an extended period of time a contant level of adrenaline in the system is destructive and causes the body to break down

the fight or flight thing. if you can do neither then the adrenaline continues to build up in the system

I guess that's why exercise helps?

as a fatter of mact yes

exercise burns off the adrenaline

and as an added bonus exercise produces endorphins (the happy hormone)

Got my walkin' shoes on!

I'd say you've pretty much nailed the least common denominator.

Danger.

Or more accurately, "the perception of real or imagined threat".

And it doesn't even have to be a direct personal threat.

For example, I just happened to glance at the headline of the local paper. It referred to some pet business that was shut down because of "atrocious conditions". Is that stressful? Well it's a threat to something that I hold dear (pets). So yes, it is at least a little bit stressful to me. (Incidentally, this is why I never read newspapers. Causing stress seems to be their main purpose. Or at least a universal result.)

I think this why I don't miss having TV. I have a TV and I use it to watch videos. But, I do not get any stations and I do not subscribe to cable. Yeah, it keeps me out of the loop, but sometimes I think that's a good thing. I do get some news on the radio, but not much.

Same here. I never watch the news but do subscribe to premium channels so I can watch movies.