What is the Difference Between a ‘Stress Reaction’ and a ‘Stress Response’?
In our every day life, we find ourselves in a variety of different situations. Sometimes these situations can be quite stressful and we develop a range coping techniques to deal with situations.
Without realising, some coping mechanisms we use occur automatically (unconsciously) and are termed a stress reaction. These reactions are often learned from past experiences and cover up our vulnerability. Generally when we react, the situation that happened is not acknowledged (i.e. we habitually react).
A stress response on the other hand, acknowledges what is happening in the present moment, allows the feelings/emotions to be there as well as develop tools to work with them. When we work with stress mindfully, we gradually start to see the habitual patterns of unawareness that are associated with stress reactions and begin to find new ways of dealing with it and transforming it. It is like bringing light in to the darkness of mindless reactions, which can lead you to choosing your responses to situations instead or reacting.
“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” – Viktor Frankl
If you would like to read more about this, please have a look at the book – Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn.
If you are ready to reclaim your courage and take the next step towards your freedom and opening your heart, why not join our Toolkit?
9 Comments
[…] Mindfulnesstraining kan helpen om stress, op het moment zelf, evenwichtig te beantwoorden; ook wel stressrespons genoemd. Dus als mijn vriendin voor de zoveelste keer vraagt om het papier te scheiden van het […]
[…] comments and feedback are coming from their perceptions and not reality per se (and I don’t react like I used too – which maybe has been part of the gift of these people in my […]
[…] even though I know the comments and feedback says more about them than you (also I don’t react like I used […]
[…] is your reaction towards […]
[…] what life would be like if we were more aware of the inner critic and could choose to respond to it instead of react? Well we […]
[…] is that we really don’t know how some things are going to unfold in our life (although we can choose our responses instead of react) and more than ever it is about making the most of the time we have been […]
[…] thinking patterns. One strategy I continue to use to interrupt these thoughts so I can choose to respond rather than react, is the STOP technique. This technique is also one of the tools we teach in the 8-week […]
[…] stress seems a normal part of their lives whilst others are not sure when they are stressed or not. Reactions and responses to stressors in everyday life can vary from person to person. For example, one person may consider […]
[…] If you would like to read about the difference between responding to a situation and reacting to a situation – click here. […]
Leave A Response