Stress, as grief, is very subjective. There are many universal elements to the science of stress but subjective personality traits react differently to stressors. While certain things may be stressful in nature, they can affect the person differently with greater or lesser stress based on the person.
One of the biggest contributing factors to grief is one’s personality traits in how they react to stress and life itself. Some individuals by their very nature are more compulsive or anxious or even quick to anger. Some may be more controlling and combative. Others may be low energy and very passive and meek. They may even possess a level of apathy to situations. They may not care what occurs.
These attributes and qualities of individual personalities are a very important ingredient in understanding stress and one’s ability to cope with stress but also one’s overall health and life span. Personality A is the more active personality towards stress. It responds to stress but it can be so in an excessive or moderate ways. Studies show moderate but active responses to stress are good for health and life. Individuals who react to stress but in a moderate fashion, respond to stress in an appropriate way. Stress and issues arise and one needs to react but if one reacts in a measured but productive way, one can handle situations, resolve conflicts and minimize stress damage via controlled emotional response. The same is true of any moderate responses. Personality B is a more passive response to stress but again, if moderate it can be a beneficial response system. It passively resolves the stressful situation again with the appropriate energy and understanding of the situation.
It when personality A or B enters extremes that one sees negative health and higher mortality rates in people. Individuals who do not respond to stress at all and exist in apathy have poorer health and shorter lives, while individuals who over react to stress also face negative health risks. Like everything in life, moderation is key to any response. Balance in life is critical. Stress and its many stressors are not necessarily negative things in the temporal world. Things happen that require change but when one fails to respond to stressors or over react to stressors, then acute and long term chronic poor health can result.
If we are more aggressive or more passive, we need to develop moderation in our personalities to face and deal with stress. Moderate reactions acknowledge stress and form solutions prevent immediate negative health symptoms to our heart or blood pressure or cardio vascular and digestive systems as well as long term and chronic damage.
Obviously, our personality and how we react is only one of the many elements in stress management. Exercise, diet, relaxation and interpersonal relations at home and work all play key subjective roles in how one responds to stress, but our personality and how we choose to deal with stress is definitely one of the front line determining factors in how one will live his or her life.
If you would like to learn more about Stress Management or would like to become a certified Stress Management Consultant, then please review AIHCP’s Stress Management Consultant Certification and see if it meets your academic and professional goals.