Most people think that pressure is a destructive force
and that we must do our utmost to avoid it. James Lauer, an
experienced psychologist who deals with pressures both at
home and at work, tries to dispel this widespread belief.
According to him, be they physical, mental or emotional,
pressures can be used as a lever to success. The only harmful
thing about pressure, Lauer maintains, is the way we perceive
it. Someone who safeguards himself against pressure is
weakening his potential. We must use pressure as a stimulus
and not as an obstacle in life.
Nobody invites stress, and when we manage to see it
looming, we try to extricate ourselves from the situation
with all due speed. People who suffer habitual tension daily,
either in their private lives or at work, describe themselves
as being under constant constraint, which is more or less the
dictionary definition for the word `pressure'.
Now and then one hears of the rare creature who actually
thrives on pressure, who produces double the amount of work
under stress. But on the whole, most of the population view
pressure as a threat to their very existence and do their
utmost to avoid anything which they feel will disturb the
even tenor of their lives.
During the past twenty-two years, Lauer has been working
on an entirely different theory, relative to typical stresses
which occur during various periods in our lives. He explains
how we can learn to embrace pressures and use them to achieve
stability in our lives by means of exposure to controlled
pressures.
In his "list of existing myths about pressure", Lauer
claims that people think that pressure affects their health,
constant stress on the mind and body lead to attrition and
that relief from pressure makes them happy. He likens someone
who tries to shield himself from pressure to those who have a
leg in a cast. The muscles naturally become weakened by lack
of use. In his opinion, a person's spiritual muscles become
atrophied if there is a lack of pressure, and people will be
unable to cope with normal stresses of life if they wrap
themselves in spiritual cotton wool.
Lauer does not advocate selectivity. He says that every
kind of pressure, whether physical or mental, is useful and
that it furthers mature growth. It also braces a person to
improved performance.
Coping with existing stress successfully is one thing.
But it sounds almost masochistic to invite stress. Lauer
tries to prove that we would be in a sorry state if the world
were devoid of pressures. We would be deficient in self-
confidence and lose all fighting spirit if we had nothing to
contend with. Personal strengths are built during times of
stress and not when things run smoothly.
In fact, every new challenge presents pressure before it
is tackled. Spacemen know that one of the yardsticks used to
appoint them is their ability to cope with stress.
Lauer tells how the crew at mission control in the flight of
Apollo 13 helped NASA in one of the most important events in
the history of aviation because of their ability to remain
calm during the worst crises. During training, these
astronauts were given tasks under the most impossible
conditions, and often they thought how pointless these trials
were, as they were never likely to happen. But when they
finally came to the actual test in real life, they admits
that the things which were hardest and caused the most stress
during training were the most useful.
In the world of business, it seems, managers and
directors are under constant stress. They will be the first
to admit that they have far too little sleep and that they
cannot see a future without the same or an increasing amount
of stress. Lauer claims that the only way to succeed in life
is not to try and banish the stress, but to acquire a new
approach towards it.
An endless traffic jam, loss of a job, a difficult boss
or superior - all things which can drive a person insane,
happen to all of us. It is how we cope with the situation, or
any similar cause of stress, which separates the sheep from
the goats. If we learn to control our minds and bodies in
these and similar situations, we will find that our whole
attitude changes and we will have far less stress and strain
in our lives.
Some years ago, a sophisticated experiment was set up in
Yale University. Two rats, identical with regards to
environment and heredity, were put into cages and subjected
to controlled electrical shocks. One of the cages had a knob
to control the current. The rats received identical shocks,
but one was badly hurt while the other recovered immediately
after the experiment. The one who sprang back to himself had
found the knob and learned how to switch off the current;
i.e. he was in control. The other rat who had received the
exact same amount of voltage did not recover completely from
the experiment and became very nervous, sensitive and prone
to all kinds of diseases.
It seems that it is not the actual trauma of the
exposure to certain pressures or strain which does the
damage. It is the feeling of not being in control, the
thought of "I can't manage this" or "I will never be able to
manage this," and even more, "Why do things like this always
happen to me?" which weaken a person and can even lead to
physical illness.
Tests carried out on victims of the Vietnam war and
survivors of the concentration camps revealed that those who
managed to focus on something positive during the horrors
they endured were healthier and more stable than their fellow
sufferers. For instance, "Nobody beat me today" or "They gave
us food today." There are well known stories of Holocasust
survivors who kept mitzvos and had faith right through
their gruesome experiences and emerged strong in mind and
eventually in body.
Authorities in the field of stress recommend a few
remedies for this feeling of pressure. Do not put the blame
on circumstances or on other people. But not on yourself,
either. These are dead-end streets. Minimize the lack of
confidence that you feel and don't let yourself get bogged
down by the situation. Do something, anything. Action is
always an excellent antidote. The action actually helps a
person refocus and gives them a feeling of strength as
opposed to helplessness. If you know you are going to be
caught in a traffic jam, use the time for some quiet thinking
or planning. The time will not have been wasted and you will
feel something positive has come from the stress.
In short, positive, optimistic, oriented thinking,
action and feeling in control, are good guidelines for
removing negative pressures from our lives, and these even
help pressure in providing us with better health, both mental
and physical.
