How Identifying Stress from Pressure can Impact your Mental Health
All of us experience moments of stress and moments of pressure. But often, the words stress and pressure are used interchangeably. Which can then convey that these 2 feelings are the same. In reality, stress and pressure have critical differences. By learning the difference between these two emotions, we can positively set ourselves up for success and impact our mental health.
Do you ever have a hard day at work and find yourself using phrases like “I just am under so much stress” or “there is a lot of pressure on me” when decompressing to a loved one? Now are you experiencing stress OR pressure in these situations and how can you tell the difference? Well first, let’s break down both stress and pressure.
STRESS: Stress refers to a situation of too many demands and not enough resources - time, money, energy - to meet them.
PRESSURE: Pressure refers to a situation in which you perceive that something at stake is dependent on the outcome of your performance.
When we feel stressed, there are typically many different things that contribute to our stressed state. Try to think about a day recently when you felt stressed. What were the things that led to that feeling? Kids oversleeping, running late to work, a meeting running over, coming back from vacation to hundreds of unread emails, or having multiple deadlines falling on the same day. Anyone of these circumstances can instantly raise the stress we feel. But this doesn’t always mean we are also under PRESSURE.
The pressure situations give off a more “Sink or Swim” feeling. These are those “Oh boy I have to get this right” kinda things. It causes anxiousness and sometimes fears knowing this is a big critical moment in time. Can you think of a day when you faced pressure? This could be a big job interview, taking the SAT when you were a teenager, or pitching a sales idea to a customer.
When we really begin to segment out the moments of stress vs. pressure, what we can usually find is the moments of pressure are fewer and far between than the moments of stress. This lends itself to going one step further and identifying ways we can relieve or tune into these feelings. Are there certain things or activities that have been proven in the past to lower your stress levels? Maybe it’s starting or ending your day with a walk outside, having ice cream on the patio, or playing a game of soccer with your kids. If there are certain things that lower your stress levels, take note of them and leverage them the next time you are in a stressful situation.
Pressure is a little bit different of a situation though. When you are in pressure situations, the desired outcome is a successful performance. Unlike stress, instead of relieving pressure, individuals need to lead into the pressure and focus their energy on performing their best. A basketball player on the free-throw line with the potential to take his team to the NCAA finals needs to focus on his energy on successfully making the basket at hand. He can’t take a short walk outside before heading to the line.
Understanding the difference between stress and pressure can have big strides for us throughout life. Without knowing the difference, we can inadvertently make small stress-related events feel like high-pressure situations. And if we constantly feel as if we are in high-pressure situations, we may always feel as if we are failing. This takes a toll on our mental and physical health. How? The biggest thing it does is divert our minds and energy to the wrong things in our lives. Everyday activities become sink-or-swim moments which can lead to exhaustion and an inability to perform well when the true pressure situation happens.
But by knowing the difference, we can appropriately assign concern to the situations we face. And you may start to notice that your overall stress levels are decreasing because you: 1. Have the tools to reduce your stress. And 2. You aren’t confusing stress with pressure and making things even more stressful for yourself. This prevents burn-out and keeps you top of your game when it is time to combat pressure situations.
Celebrating your success,
Krista Ryan