I know… the last thing you need at the end of a stressful week is another email. According to extensive scientific research, we’re suffering more stress today than at any other time in history. Quite how they know is unclear, but according to the Daily Mail… ok, sorry, forget that.
There is proper research, though, that says stress levels are at an all time high. Things like email, social media, money, work, politics, public transport and the continuing existence of Piers Morgan are driving our stress hormone levels through the roof, but is this really worse than in the days when ‘workplace angst’ meant being skewered on the tusk of a woolly mammoth?
Which would you rather be pestered by: spam emails or a sabre-toothed tiger? Given the choice between waiting for a wild boar to wander within range of your spear and waiting for the 7.07 at East Croydon Station, which do you think would be more likely to keep you awake at night?
Nevertheless, the experts claim that, while our ancestors may have been more physically stressed, they were much less mentally stressed than we are. Sadly, we have no historical evidence against which to test this, unless you count Channel 5’s 10,000 BC. And that in itself could be proof that the scientists are right. The fact that the ancients left us profound philosophical arguments and complex calculations involving the internal angles of a heptagon, but no recorded research into general stress levels, suggests that it wasn’t really an issue in those days.
But when you look at the main causes of stress today, you can’t say the Romans, for example, weren’t exposed to the same pressures: money, work, status, politics, gossip, war, sandals… OK, so they didn’t have email hackers but they did have the Visigoths.
They had a word for stress too – strictus – from which we get all sorts of stressful words: strain, strict, distress, stringent, strung…
And here’s another argument: the modern day antidote to stress – mindfulness meditation – is 3,500 years old. So it’s fair to assume there must have been a stress problem going on in India in 1,500BC. Otherwise, why invent yoga?
So I’ve been studying mindfulness in order to overcome my own modern day stresses, like getting Word of the Week emails out on time every Friday, and I have to say it’s fascinating stuff. Now that we don’t go to church as part of our regular routine, we’ve forgotten how to be still and unoccupied for any length of time, or to pay attention to the present without being distracted by thoughts of anxiety (future) or regret (past). By retraining your brain to be mindful, you learn that most of your stress is caused by thoughts rather than facts and, therefore, the threats that cause you stress are, in fact, non-existent.
It takes a bit of working out and, to be honest, I don’t think I’m quite there with it yet. For example, this morning I learnt that I don’t actually exist, which rather took the wind out of my sails.
Still, back next week, hopefully – all being well.
