Stress gets a bad deal. 

When we blame stress for all of the things going wrong in our lives, what we should be blaming is burnout. 

Stress is something we all feel at times, and there are all kinds of stressful situations that can be a part of daily life. Stress can even be helpful or motivational. Without stress, we do not grow, adapt and build up resilience.

Stress is simply our body's normal, everyday reaction to feeling threatened or under pressure. It's very common, and can be motivating to help us achieve things in our daily life, improving performance as long as it is not excessive.

We all have different abilities and tolerances when it comes to managing and balancing out our stress levels. Stress consumes our body’s energy reserves and unless our reserves are replenished, they will be depleted and we will end up exhausted or burned out which can lead to illness and other long term health problems. Too much stress can also affect our mood and our relationships – especially when we feel out of control. 

Excessive stress, built up over time without recovery can lead to mental and physical exhaustion - burnout. 

So what can we do about this? 

Well the first thing is to be aware of what stress is and the potential causes of it in your own life. The next step is to understand specifically how you as an individual cope with stress and also how you recover and replenish your energy in order to not lead yourself into burnout.

In the next article, I will be discussing what recovery is and how important it is to a healthy balanced life.

Stress + Recovery = Sustainable growth.

Sources: NHS & Firstbeat Technologies