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Defining Stress:
 Dr. Hans Selye borrowed the word “stress” from the discipline of physics. It means to place force or pressure on something until it bends or breaks. We have come to adopt this word into our everyday lives to mean the feeling we have when we are pressured…when we feel like we are about to snap. We often think of stress as forces against us that we cannot do anything about. But stress causes specific biological changes in our bodies that, if left unchecked can be the root cause of just about every known ailment.
Once a threat is perceived, a chain reaction of physiological events begins that prepares us to fight the threat or flee from it in order to protect ourselves. Our reactions become quick, our muscles strong. This can help in our performance and help us to realize what we are capable of. It can also save our life! This good stress is called “eustress”. However, when we perceive to be continually threatened, that stress becomes bad stress, or “distress”. Distress is the stress that we can do something about, learning to walk through life with peace in our hearts and a clear and calm mind. |
Defining Peace:
Peace can be defined nicely by this anonymous fable. A king once asked his subjects to draw a picture of peace. The king narrowed down the pictures to two finalists. One painting was of a calm lake, with a clear sky and majestic mountains. The other was of the same setting, but the sky was black and stormy, and the lake rough and choppy. In a small tree sat a bird in its nest.
The king decided that the stormy picture best represented peace in his kingdom. The subjects were shocked. They wondered how he could choose such a frightening picture to represent peace. But the king pointed out the bird sitting quietly in its nest in the midst of the storm in the winning painting and announced, "Peace is not the absence of noise, trouble or hard work. It is to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart."
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