Heartsavers - Stress
Some personality types are more prone to stress than others, often they
are high achievers who strive obsessively towards their goals.
Prevention of coronary heart disease.
Stress and personality
Some things will cause you stress that you can't do anything about, you can't change the world, and you can't always change your environment, your job or your home life. But this is only part of the story, how you react to these situations is equally important.
What we see of the outside world comes to us through our five senses, electrical impulses are sent from our eyes, ears and so on, via our nervous system to our brain which then builds up a picture, or map of the world. It is this perception of the world that will determine how we react to a situation and whether or not it will be stressful.
There are certain personality traits that predispose towards stress and therefore heart disease. Typically such people will display a high degree of self involvement and hostility.
If a person is inward looking they will find it difficult to become involved with others, they will become more and more isolated as time goes by and will look to gain happiness through material possessions. If only they had that new house or that new car they think they will be happy. All too often the happiness soon wears off and they need to set their sights ever higher only to find frustration and disappointment. Hostility and cynicism will be the result.
It's rather like climbing a mountain where you think you can see the summit but when you get there it turns out to be a ridge, the summit is still miles away.
Many such stress-prone personality types see life as though there is a fixed amount of happiness in the world, as if someone else is happy they must have more than their fair share. This in turn breeds the jealousy, mistrust, hostility and cynicism that will predispose one to heart disease inducing stress.
If one learns to be generous in spirit, compassionate and forgiving towards others, listens to others, show empathy with others, and acknowledge the points of view of others; this is a major stress reliever both for yourself and the rest of the human race and will not cost you anything.