Stress is a part of our everyday lives and cannot be avoided. It is recognized as one of the major factors affecting health in our modern society, and is known to be a contributor in 90% of disease and illness.

Stress can be positive in being stimulating and creative, as well as life threatening in its effect on the body. Some people seem to thrive on it, while for others the pressure can be too much.

The HSE defined stress as ‘the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure or other demands put upon them’.

What may be stressful to one person may not be to another; therefore stress is our inner reaction to an external event, not the event itself and thus it is how we react to situations that cause the stressful effect on the body.

In the workplace, one may already be under stress from family or health concerns, the journey to work for many may be stressful, so that any degree of problem once at work can be enough to send stress levels dangerously high.

“There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so”