Stretch Marks

"A problem not worth praying about is not worth worrying about.

-AZIE TAYLOR MORTON, FIRST AFRICAN-AMERICAN TREASURER OF THE UNITED STATES

According to most medical experts, the things that creates stress are called stressors. There are two types of stressors: internal and external. An external stressor can be a phone call at 10:00 P.M. from a collection agency demanding a payment.

Internal stressors arise from circumstances that you create. Picture a situation where someone calls you and says he needs to meet you to discuss something quite urgent. By the time you meet with him, you imagine every conceivable thing that could be wrong. At the conclusion of your meeting, you find that all of those terrible possibilities were much worse than the actual problem. Your imagination became your enemy because you fed it negative thoughts, and it responded in a like manner. You can be your own worst enemy when it comes to stress. You can create internal stressors in your life.

Stress can also work the other way- especially when you underestimate the severity of a problem. For example, suppose you're transferred into a new department on your job. For some reason you're expecting things to be easy. But your new assignment takes more work than you anticipated, and along with it comes more pressure and aggravation.

This is also true of the way you talk about your circumstances. Sometimes your talk can be so negative that you create additional stress. In other words, you "stretch your stress." If you were just to deal with your problem openly and positively, you'd solve it. But if you continually talk about it in a negative manner, you'll stretch your stress and make your situation worse. Wake up! Don't stress yourself out.