Stress

According to Mind 2011, stress, is the ‘elephant in the room!’  The problem exists but too often ignored.

‘I’m stressed’, is a familiar phrase to all of us. It’s a phrase that is probably misused or used synonymously with various emotional states ranging from a little anxiety to immense pressure and mental strain. I personally have used it many times in my work as a nurse when under pressure of time with too much to do, also as a student doing my master’s dissertation and as a single mother juggling work and childcare while trying to make life happen.

Stress does not just wreck workers’ or the life of Christians – it breaks families, strains relationships and can lead to divorce and even suicide. In fact, the modern world is struggling with the impact of work-related stress and the staggering costs. The cost of work-related stress is estimated to be around £4 billion per year in the UK alone (HSE 2010), 9.2 billion in the European Union, $6.6 billion in USA (Mino et al 2006) and $14.81 billion in Australia (Econtech 2007). The Health and Safety Executive [HSE] records stress to be the second highest cause of sickness absence after musculoskeletal injuries (HSE 2010).

But there is a way out of dealing effectively with stress as I cover in my book.  To help with this I have divided the book into 5 parts:

Part 1 is where I introduce the topic of stress and briefly share my stress experience that left me bewildered and struggling to shake it off.

Part 2 discusses the worldly view of stress.  Here, I have laid out my research project and findings.

Part 3 is where I explore stress from a biblical point of view and discuss the results found in the research.  I also delve into stress experiences of some bible personalities and how they lived through their stressful experiences.

Part 4 is where I look at the peaceful dwelling place in God. I analyse David’s life of stress and his consistency in and love for the peaceful dwelling place. I then make a conclusion with references to my research at the end.

Part 5 is where I give some practical Stress Busters that can used to deal with stress.