Stress and Emotional Outbursts

Author Joyce Meyer From Living Beyond Your Feelings 6 years ago 15154

We cannot avoid all stress, and in fact some stress is good and necessary. But too much stress affects us very negatively. It contributes immensely to emotional outbursts that are not good for us or the people around us.


The word stress was originally an engineering term. It referred to how much pressure a building could take before it collapsed. These days a lot more people are collapsing from stress than buildings. We reinforce our buildings so they can withstand storms, hurricanes, earthquakes and other such things, but what are we doing to make sure we don’t collapse in our own emotional outbursts?


Do you feel and think, I am stressed to the point of breaking, and yet you do nothing about it? I pray that after reading this passage, you will make some decisions that will receive a lot of the pressure you are under. Very often our stress and pressure are due to the fact that we have committed to too many things. If you have said, “I don’t know why I feel so frustrated all the time,” it would be a good idea to have one of those meetings with yourself that I have talked about and take a serious look at what you are doing, and most importantly, why you are doing what you do.


Here is the the short version of what happens in your body when you experience stress.


The state of upset or arousal sets off a natural alarm in our bodies, called the “fight-to-fight” response, designed to help us defend ourselves against threatening hostile events. Even thinking of an upsetting event or imagining danger can also set off the alarm. So that means thinking about things that give us sress can cause the same reaction as if we were actually experiencing the stressful event.


The brain, pituitary gland, adrenal gland, and adrenal cortex tell the body to make cortisol. Cortisol fights inflammation, and it increases blood sugar and muscle tension. Adrenaline is also produced, which increases the heart rate, raises blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and sends glucose to muscles. All these responses are helping us deal with the stressful event or emergency we are facing. It is marvelous that God has created our bodies in such a way that they do these things for us. Actually, our bodies want to help us!


But the same reactions to stress that are built into our bodies to help us will actually harm us if we allow stress to cause this fight-or-fight response to be repeated excessively. Just think of a rubber band. It stretches, but if it is stretched too far or too often, it can break. I’ve tied knots in them and kept using them until I had a rubber band with four knots but eventually it wore out; it had just been stretched too far too often, it can break. I’ve tied knots in them and kept using them until I had a rubber band with four knots, but eventually it wore out; it had just been stretched too far too many times. God brought this to mind as an example of how we treat our bodies when it comes to stress. We stretch ourselves until something breaks, then we put a bandage on it by medicating the sympotom. We just keep doing to the same thing until something else breaks, then we put a bandage on it by medicating the symptom. We just keep doing the same thing until something else breaks and we repeat the process. We eventually feel like that rubber band with the four knots tied in it to hold it together. I have said, “I have had so much stress lately that I feel like I am all tied up in knots.” What I meant was that I had run in high gear for so long that I felt like I couldn’t relax. I was aching, tense, tired, and had indigestion and hearburn, just to name a few knots.


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