Article from Barbara Kasey Smith’s Corner of the World:
There are many people in today’s society who are living under constant stress and pressure in their daily lives. They’re rushing to get children off to school, hung in a traffic jam while they should be attending a meeting at work, facing a series of tests on the job, got a dentist appointment at 2:00 p.m., worrying about getting laid off, a child has soccer practice today, and there’s early pick-up of the children from the sitter. These are just a few stresses people face during the course of any given day.
People’s daily lives are one big race course waiting for a violent wreck to happen. They often wonder why they’re suffering from pains in their chest, muscle aches, headaches, and other ailments; ending up in a doctor’s office. In our society people are under constant pressure and stress, amazing amazes me why more of us don’t end up in a hospital. People need to be made aware that stress and pressure equals anxiety and fear and that it “begins” when we’re children.
A body is like a pressure cooker waiting to blow up. There’s stress on the mind, heart, tense muscles, and on other parts of the body. The body can only take so much stress until it becomes totally burned out and it will start to shut down and go into a limbo status. Do you want to know how I know about this; I went through this for many years and one day I woke to find I was totally burnt out, and it’s not a good feeling? It took me a while to re-group and get my body back to normal again.
Stress and pressure factors start early in childhood as children begin to face pressure from trying to learn and to achieve and it continues into adulthood. Many school children and adults fear failure and this will cause them to lose self-esteem and self-confidence; therefore, generating fears that are magnified until they begin to break and to shutdown.
Stress in young children and in people can affect their daily habits, because of distractions; lack of concentration and comprehension, etc., causing them to act out in various different ways. Stress causes the mind to race until concentration and comprehension will affect jobs, studies, and interpersonal relations with other people/children. It’s my belief, many children/people suffer from fears of failing and it can cause them to have difficulties in life. I know this was the case for me when I was a young child because the word “failure” literally scared me stiff and I could actually feel myself freezing up.
Parents need to be on the lookout for this type stress and pressure in their children as well as in their own lives, and they need to question themselves regularly about their stress levels and what is the root of it. If a problem is caught with children and people too, they may be able to correct the situation and learn to relax and avoid stress.
Communication with a child is the most important factor in their young lives. If a parent can get their children to open-up and communicate with them about their anxieties and fears, it’ll improve their self-confidence and help them to talk freely about them. Communication releases the stress and pressure they’re feeling and will offer them a chance to settle down to feel more comfortable to relax and to begin learning to face fear.
A lot of people/children who have problems with stress and pressure find it is brought on by the fear of failure and not being able to meet important deadlines and priorities for a specific time-frame it is required. I knew at an early age there was a lot of homework assignments I was unsure about and it made me dread morning because I was afraid I’d get a failing grade in school. People who have a fear of failing have a serious problem and the best way to face fear is to stare it right in the face.
Let’s face it, not all people grasp problems in the same manner, for some it’s easy and for others it’s hard. I’ve often asked myself, “Why am I in the hard to understand category.” Some people are blessed with solving complicated problems while others are not and we should not fear it when we do not understand a problem or assignment as well as others do. We need to be taught that it’s okay to ask questions because “no” two people think alike.
We need to make-up our minds on a daily basis that we’re going to take a day at a time and “not” allow stress and pressure to steal our happiness. It’s hard to do but if we begin to practice, we’ll find we can reduce these factors immensely by first having confidence in what we’re currently working on, asking questions, and keeping a positive attitude. Commence to take one assignment at a time and don’t worry about the next one until the first one is finished.
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Barbara Kasey Smith is the sole writer of this article and it is based on her past experiences and learning abilities.