Understanding Stress: Internal Conflict

Regardless of the season, regardless of the person, everyone will, at some point in time, simply feel stressed. This stress can come at any time and it can be either powerful or more moderate. When we encounter stress, we all have our own ways of dealing with it an attempting to get over it.

However, very rarely do we ever take the time to stop and think about why our bodies are feeling stress, and what this actually means. Believe it or not, there is a real reason and cause that we experience stress, and there are even different types of stress. However, one of the most powerful and most common sources of stress is known as "Internal Conflict", and by understanding it, perhaps we can even remove a great deal of stress from our own lives.

Although we often think of internal conflict as being a very complicated matter, the truth is that the actual idea behind it and why we experience it the way we do is really fairly simple. Basically, internal conflict is the emotional dilemma that we feel when have to make difficult choices. These choices can be of any kind or deal with any issue. However, generally speaking, there are roughly three types of internal stress that come about, and the effects that they have, as well as the ways in which we deal with each of them are definitely unique.

The first type of internal conflict is known as approach-approach conflict. Essentially, we can think of approach-approach conflict as a choice between two things which are both positive. While these choices can sometimes be difficult, they do not often cause a lot of negative stress to the person who is experiencing the conflict. For example, if were going to the mall to look for a shirt, and found too that we like for the same price, the resulting conflict would be approach-approach, because both choices are positive and neither choice is likely to cause a lot of stress.

The second type of internal conflict is commonly called "avoidance-avoidance" conflict. Contrary to approach-approach, when we talk about this type conflict, we are really talking about a choice that must be made between two situations or elements which are both negative. For example, many people have to make the stressful choice of taking a job they do not want or not having the money to pay their bills. We stated before that approach-approach conflicts tend to present the smallest levels of stress. If that is true, then we can also say that avoidance-avoidance conflicts are the sources of the most stress. These types of conflicts can be very stressful to a person, and they can often be some of the most damaging in terms of how they affect the body and mind.

The third, and last type of internal conflict is known as approach-avoidance. This type of conflict can also be very stressful. In this type of conflict, we are forced to make a choice which has both positive and negative aspects. For example, if we found a job that we wanted to do, but the hours were not what we wanted. The decision to take the job would include both positive and negative aspects, and would thus be an approach-avoidance conflict.

While the general level of stress is thought to be higher when talking about avoidance-avoidance conflict, the third type, talked about here, can also be very stressful, and can similarly have negative affects on the body and on the mind.

As the holiday season approaches (a time of stress for most people) it is important that we take our stress into perspective. If we simply calm down, and remind ourselves that everything is ok and that we have the capability to deal with the things which are not, the stress that we experience will be far less and so will the potential effects of those stressors on our bodies and on our minds.

Stress can be a powerful force, but if we simply take the time to deal with it properly, and understand how and why we are experiencing the stress, everything will be much easier to manage and we will be happier people as a whole.