How to React to Stress Article by: Earl Nightingale
Two young boys were raised by an alcoholic father. As they grew older, they moved away from that broken home, each going his own way in the world. Several years later, they happened to be interviewed separately by a psychologist who was analyzing the effects of drunkenness on children in broken homes. His research revealed that the two men were strikingly different from each other. One was a clean-living teetotaler; the other, a hopeless drunk like his father. The psychologist asked each of them why he developed the way he did, and each gave an identical answer, “What else would you expect when you have a father like mine?”
That story was revealed by Dr. Hans Selye, internationally renowned Canadian physician and scientist known as the father of stress. A medical pioneer, he devoted the majority of his years to the exploration of biological stress. And he related the story of the two sons of the drunken father in an article for New Realities.
And the story demonstrates a cardinal rule implicit in stress, health, and human behavior. According to R. H. Schuller, “It is not what happens to you in life that makes the difference. It is how you react to each circumstance you encounter that determines the result. Every human being in the same situation has the possibilities of choosing how he will react — either positively or negatively.”
Thus, stress is not necessarily caused by stressor agents; rather, it is caused by the way stressor agents are perceived, interpreted, or appraised in each individual case. Outside events and people upset some more than others, because they are looked upon and dealt with in entirely different ways. The stressors may even be the same in each case, yet the reaction will almost always be different in different people.
Armed with that kind of information, it would seem that we can greatly improve our reactions to stressful situations. What seems to be a cruel world to one person might be filled with challenge and opportunity to another. It is our reaction that makes the difference.
Learn more about Earl Nightingale and his all-time bestselling programs The Strangest Secret and Lead the Field.
6 Techniques for Creative Revolutions
To spur your mind to new action, think combination, adaptation,substitution, magnification, minification, and rearrangement.
Read MoreA Commitment to Laughter
THE ONE SERIOUS CONVICTION THAT A MAN SHOULDHAVE IS THAT NOTHING IS TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY.
Read MoreA Time to Risk or Sit
THERE IS A TIME WHEN WE MUST DECIDE EITHER TO RISK EVERYTHING TO FULFILL OUR DREAMS OR SIT FOR THEREST OF OUR LIVES IN THE BACKYARD.
Read MoreAcres of Diamonds
Every kind of work has enormous opportunity lurking within it. The opportunities are there now, clamoring to be noticed. But they cannot speak or print signs for us to read. Our part of the bargain is to look at our work with "intelligent objectivity". If we have the wisdom and patience to intelligently, effectively explore the work in which we're now engaged, to explore ourselves, we wouldmost likely find the riches we seek.
Read MoreDon’t Follow the Follower
95 percent of people never succeed because they're following the wrong group
Read MoreFake It Till You Make It
THE MUNDANE LITTLE THINGS YOU DO TODAY WHILE PREPARING FOR TOMORROW'S SUCCESS MAY WELL BE THE THINGS THAT GUARANTEE THAT SUCCESS. GIVE IT YOUR BEST — ALWAYS.
Read MoreFalling Isn’t Failing
MANY PEOPLE NEVER ACHIEVE SUCCESS BECAUSE THEY EQUATE FALLING TO FAILING. HOWEVER, FALLINGISN'T FAILING UNLESS YOU DON'T GET BACK UP.
Read MoreFollow Your River
Are you immersed in your "river of interest" or simply watching your lifefrom the shore ... afraid to get your feet wet?
Read MoreHow to give a great speech
Congratulations if you are already an accomplished presenter; you are in an elite minority. For the rest of us, the prospect of having to give a speech can feel like the terminal stages of some kind of tropical fever. Fortunately, there are secrets thatanyone can leverage to make a great speech. You may even learn to enjoy it!
Read MoreHow to React to Stress
It is not what happens to you in life that makes the difference. It is how you react to each circumstance you encounter that determines the result.
Read MoreIs Your Destination Clear?
People can have anything they want. The trouble isthat they don't know what they want. The person who knows what they want knows what they must become, and they then fix their attentionon the preparation of themself toward that end.
Read MoreIs Your Personal Corporation Growing?
ALL RESPONSIBLE COMPANY OFFICERS KNOW THAT UNLESS THE COMPANY IS GROWING, IT'S DEVELOPING THE FIRST SIGNS OF DEATH. THE SAME LAWAPPLIES TO YOU.
Read MoreIt’s Not the Destination
"Though we travel the world over to find thebeautiful, we must carry it with us, or we findit not."
Read MoreLloyd Conant: This I Believe
The story of Lloyd Victor Conant, a brilliant entrepreneur who started a company founded with the dream to empower the world to succeed.
Read MoreNapoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich
Napoleon Hill has arguably influenced the success of more men and women than any other person in history when he researched and organized the world's first philosophy of individual achievement, Think and Grow Rich.
Read MoreNine Steps for Solving Any Problem
For any problem, no matter how big or complex it may be, there is a solution. Use these nine steps to find it!
Read MoreSuccess: a worthy destination
It's been said that Americans can have anything they want. The trouble is, most don't know what they want, and so they drift through life taking circumstances as they come and settle for "good enough." Yet, 5 percent of the population does achieve an unusual level ofsuccess. And here is their secret.
Read MoreThe $25,000 Idea
A successful life is built on the foundation of successful tasks —each completed in the pursuit of perfection — one day at a time.
Read MoreThe Boss
You have only one boss and every person from the president of the largest corporation to the shoeshine boy has the same — he is simply the customer.
Read MoreThe Boss
You have only one boss and every person from the president of the largest corporation to the shoeshine boy has the same — he is simply the customer.
Read MoreThe Cure for Procrastination
WHAT OVERWHELMS US IS NOT THE WORK ITSELF. IT'S THINKING HOW HARD IT'S GOING TO BE. IT'S SEEING IT GET LARGER EVERY DAY. IT'S PUTTING IT OFF AND HOPING THAT SOMEHOW, THROUGH SOME MIRACLE, IT WILL DISAPPEAR.
Read MoreThe Devil’s Wedge
HATRED, FEAR, OR JEALOUSY MAY LEAD A PERSON TO ACT UNWISELY, TO FIGHT OR RUN, BUT AT LEAST HE ACTS. THE WEDGE OF DISCOURAGEMENT DOES FAR MORE HARM — IT CAUSES YOU TO SIT DOWN, PITYYOURSELF, AND DO NOTHING.
Read MoreThe Difference Between the ‘Haves’ & the ‘Have Nots’
Meet two kinds of people — the "Haves" and "Have Nots" — and the one decision that separates them.
Read MoreThe Entrepreneurial Adventure
It takes longer than we realize, and the journey is an arduous one. But, one day we wake up, and we've achieved a kind of independence never known or perhaps understood by the employee, no matter howhigh he or she may travel in the hushed corridors of executive country.
Read MoreThe Flame of Hope
Discouragement seems to be part of life, but the reason people prevail is because of this built-in drive to keep going.
Read MoreThe Fog of Worry (Only 8% of Worries are Worth It)
And if all the things most people worry about were reduced to their true size, you could probably put them all into a drinking glass, too.
Read MoreThe Great Problem-Solving Tool
Successful people are not without problems. They're simply people who've learned to solve their problems.
Read MoreThe Profile of a Creative Person
CREATIVE PEOPLE, THOUGH THEY MAY BE DISSIMILAR IN MANY RESPECTS, SHARE AT THEIR CORE THREE FOUNDING CHARACTERISTICS NOT PRESENT IN PEOPLEOF AVERAGE ACHIEVEMENT.
Read MoreThe River or the Goal
Goal-oriented people do make up their minds about what they want, and they keep their eyes and their enthusiasm on the goal they've established until it becomes a reality in their lives. Then they set a new goal, if they're wise.
Read MoreThe Strangest Secret
The Strangest Secret - transcribed from the original Earl Nightingale gold record. Do you want to go places in your company or your community? Plant that seed in your mind, care for it, work steadily toward your goal, and it can become a reality.
Read MoreWhat Happens When You Run Out of Goals?
A person often feels when he's accomplished everything he's worked and struggled for so long to achieve, he finds himself depressed more and more of the time.
Read MoreWhat Is Your Intermediate Goal?
If you watch carefully Jack Nicklaus play golf, you can learn more than how to lower your handicap. You can learn a key strategy for success.
Read More
