Understanding Stress and Strain
Stress and strain are the two words which are used very often these days. Recently I read in the news paper that all modern diseases are related to stress and strain in one or the other way. After all, the root of our health is in the chemistry of the brain.
I wondered that we in India, never heard such words just a decade or two back. We used to laugh at the people when they said either they were 'busy' or they were 'tensed'. We thought these things mattered only in the West. But things have changed now. The globalisation process has changed our lives and life style too. We are also a part of that rat race which has lodged us into that so far unseen, unheard, unimaginable 'world of stress and strain'. But luckily, majority of the rural folk in Inidia are yet to get into the grip of this modern malady, though they are catching it up slowly.
Many a times my students asked me if these two words 'stress' and 'strain' meant the same thing. Are they analogous? This question prompted me to think about it seriously. After a great deal of mental excercise, I have come to conclusion that the word 'stress' can be related to a mental attribute while, 'strain' can be related to a physical attribute. Though we generally assume them to be similar, there seems to be a difference between them. Let me elaborate it further with an example of a balloon. You take a inflated balloon and start pressing it slowly. Its shape changes gradually and ultimately at a point it may burst. Next, take a balloon that is not inflated. Stretch it slowly with your two hands. It stretches to a particular level and then it gets torn apart.
Now try to relate these examples with your mind and then to your body respectively. The analogy will be clearer. When you are bogged down or obsessed with your busy schedule and if you are trying to balance them with the limited time that is available to you, and if you think that it is difficult to manage, then you develop 'stress'. The mere thought of this helplessness and desperateness develops the feeling of stress in us. You can bear that to a certain extent and beyond that you 'burst'. And when you are in the process of 'bursting', your blood pressure goes up, your adrenalin secretion is over activated and probably your whole metabolism changes.
On the other hand, take your physical schedule. You have to get up very early in the morning though you feel like sleeping for some more time, do your routince in a hurry, run and get into congested bus to your office, do a lot of physical work related job and stretch beyond the limit your body can sustain- then you are strained. You have over exhausted yourself. You have not bothered about what you ate, how much you ate or drank. The body knows only that it has to rest and relax but you do not allow it to do that.
So, if you see this whole phenomenon, you will find that stress and strain are the resultant crisis that develop between our mental and physical abilities to cope with the situation on the one hand and the limited availability of time and resources on the other hand.
I urge the readers to correct me if I am not clear in my understanding.
I wondered that we in India, never heard such words just a decade or two back. We used to laugh at the people when they said either they were 'busy' or they were 'tensed'. We thought these things mattered only in the West. But things have changed now. The globalisation process has changed our lives and life style too. We are also a part of that rat race which has lodged us into that so far unseen, unheard, unimaginable 'world of stress and strain'. But luckily, majority of the rural folk in Inidia are yet to get into the grip of this modern malady, though they are catching it up slowly.
Many a times my students asked me if these two words 'stress' and 'strain' meant the same thing. Are they analogous? This question prompted me to think about it seriously. After a great deal of mental excercise, I have come to conclusion that the word 'stress' can be related to a mental attribute while, 'strain' can be related to a physical attribute. Though we generally assume them to be similar, there seems to be a difference between them. Let me elaborate it further with an example of a balloon. You take a inflated balloon and start pressing it slowly. Its shape changes gradually and ultimately at a point it may burst. Next, take a balloon that is not inflated. Stretch it slowly with your two hands. It stretches to a particular level and then it gets torn apart.
Now try to relate these examples with your mind and then to your body respectively. The analogy will be clearer. When you are bogged down or obsessed with your busy schedule and if you are trying to balance them with the limited time that is available to you, and if you think that it is difficult to manage, then you develop 'stress'. The mere thought of this helplessness and desperateness develops the feeling of stress in us. You can bear that to a certain extent and beyond that you 'burst'. And when you are in the process of 'bursting', your blood pressure goes up, your adrenalin secretion is over activated and probably your whole metabolism changes.
On the other hand, take your physical schedule. You have to get up very early in the morning though you feel like sleeping for some more time, do your routince in a hurry, run and get into congested bus to your office, do a lot of physical work related job and stretch beyond the limit your body can sustain- then you are strained. You have over exhausted yourself. You have not bothered about what you ate, how much you ate or drank. The body knows only that it has to rest and relax but you do not allow it to do that.
So, if you see this whole phenomenon, you will find that stress and strain are the resultant crisis that develop between our mental and physical abilities to cope with the situation on the one hand and the limited availability of time and resources on the other hand.
I urge the readers to correct me if I am not clear in my understanding.
posted by Dr. B.C.Patil at 8:15 PM
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