The ability to identify and protect your body from persistent stress is crucial.
Perceptual Stress
Perceptual stress manifests itself by our own perception of life. It’s caused when negative and pessimistic thoughts are allowed to control. Often, it can be when we allow negative perceptions of life to overwhelm our brains, representing the world as worse than it is.
One simplified example is flying in an airplane. Most people know this is the safest form of travel and are able to relax throughout the entirety of the flight. Others deal with anxiety before, during, and after the flight. The risk factor for both types of flyers is identical; it’s the perception of the risk that varies.
Your thoughts about circumstances can actually be more powerful than the reality of the circumstance itself. Interestingly enough, the organic human brain does not know the difference between a non-factual, vividly imagined reality and an actual or fact-based reality. Our brain reacts as if both are legitimately real. The crippling effects of comparison can also be at play when experiencing perceptual stress.
Overall, you could relate perceptual stress to someone’s worldview and outlook on life.
Pervasive Stress
Pervasive stress is a combination of two or even all three stress types working together in your life at the same time. In a perfect storm scenario like this, you will feel so overwhelmed that you’ll need to engage others to help you take defensive or protective action to navigate through the tornado, rising floodwaters, and hailstorm all pounding away at you in the same season.
This article originally appeared here.
