Titus 2 Men And Women

“But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.”  I Peter 3:4

God made us all unique creatures with different personalities, gifts and talents…and a desire to succeed at what we do. However, I believe one of the greatest stressors, especially among people in ministry/church work, is the desire for perfection. 

Fact: if we strive for perfection we will always fail because we are not perfect creatures. However, if we strive for excellence we will always do our best and be content with the outcome.

“While many burnout risk factors have to do with job structure and lifestyle factors, certain personality characteristics can exacerbate your experience of stress, making you more susceptible to burnout and health problems. While much of personality is inborn, it’s important to be aware of how your personal makeup and tendencies can contribute to your stress response, so you can adjust what you can. The following personal characteristics can affect your stress level and put you at an increased risk for stress. 

Perfectionist Tendencies: Striving to do your best is a sign of a hard worker and can be a positive trait that leads to excellence. However, perfectionism can cause excessive stress and sometimes be crippling. 

What’s the difference between striving for excellence and being a perfectionist? Perfectionists beat themselves up if everything isn’t perfect, whereas mere hard workers are happy with a near-perfect job well done. Perfectionists sometimes won’t even try to accomplish a task because they’re too terrified of ‘failure’—which can be defined as anything less than perfect!....” Can Your Mind Be Putting You At Risk? –by Elizabeth Scott

Pessimism is also a stressor: Pessimists tend to see the world as more threatening than optimists. They worry more about things going wrong, expect more bad things than good. Pessimists cause themselves unnecessary stress in many everyday situations, putting themselves at an increased risk for burnout. Fortunately, optimism can be learned by resting/trusting in God’s sovereignty and promises…and praising God. You cannot praise God and be negative at the same time. 

Easily excitable people are more susceptible to adverse physical problems. Some people are just naturally more excitable than others. They can have a stronger response to stress and it’s triggered more easily. Practice meekness and strive for it.

The best definition of meekness I have ever heard is “Meekness is evenness…not many way ups or way downs.” Our emotional life should not run like a roller coaster. And God promises in Isaiah 29:19 “The meek also shall increase their joy in the LORD,….” 1Peter 3:4 “But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.”

People with type A personality are at a great risk of problems. It is well documented this personality type puts people at an increased risk for health and lifestyle difficulties. The type A personality has two dominant characteristics which are 1) time impatience and 2) easily triggered hostility. Being ‘Type A’ (or working closely with someone who is) can cause additional and chronic stress, increasing burnout and health risks. If you find yourself being impatient with people and life’s minor hassles, and have trouble keeping yourself from lashing out at people—for your health’s sake—you need to ask God’s help to change and you may need to get an accountability partner or counselor. 

Striving for perfection, being a pessimist and lacking patience all cause a person to get anxious and frustrated which causes a lot of harmful chemicals to be released into our body systems. These chemicals are toxic to good health and cause an acidic condition that can lead to acidosis. Acidosis leads to all kinds of health problems as the Mayo Clinic affirms below.

What causes the health problems from stress? Adrenaline and Cortisol.

Affects of Stress--From the Mayo Clinic:

“What is the stress response?

Often referred to as the "fight-or-flight" reaction, the stress response occurs automatically when you feel threatened. Your pituitary gland, located at the base of your brain, responds to a perceived threat by stepping up its release of adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), which signals other glands to produce additional hormones. When the pituitary sends out a burst of ACTH, it's like an alarm system going off deep in your brain. This alarm tells your adrenal glands, situated atop your kidneys, to release a flood of stress hormones into your bloodstream. These hormones — including cortisol and adrenaline — focus your concentration, speed your reaction time, and increase your strength and agility.

How stress affects your body:
After you've fought, fled or otherwise escaped your stressful situation, the levels of cortisol and adrenaline in your bloodstream decline. As a result, your heart rate and blood pressure return to normal and your digestion and metabolism resume a regular pace. But if stressful situations pile up one after another, your body has no chance to recover. Running on adrenaline is not attractive. People dominated by adrenaline are operating in crisis mode—fretting, stewing, and intolerant. This becomes a vicious circle with each crisis feeding more adrenaline into their systems, until ultimately, there is a break down. The break down may come in terms of burnout, accidents, relationship breakdown, actual physical disease, or emotional breakdown. 

(Many studies have documented that emotional and verbal abuse is running rampant in Christian homes. We must realize that we are making ourselves and other actually sick with this behavior. People living with the adrenaline dominated person who frets, stews and is intolerant suffers from a surge of adrenaline produced from their stress in trying to deal with and cope with that individual. Their health suffers in the same way as the fretting, stewing and intolerant person’s health does.)

This long-term activation of the stress-response system can disrupt almost all your body's processes, increasing your risk of obesity, insomnia, digestive complaints, heart disease and depression.

• Digestive system. It's common to have a stomachache or diarrhea when you're stressed. This happens because stress hormones slow the release of stomach acid and the emptying of the stomach. The same hormones also stimulate the colon, which speeds the passage of its contents. Chronic stress can also lead to continuously high levels of cortisol. This hormone can increase appetite and cause weight gain.

• Immune system. Chronic stress tends to dampen your immune system, making you more susceptible to colds and other infections. Typically, your immune system responds to infection by releasing several substances that cause inflammation. In response, the adrenal glands produce cortisol, which switches off the immune and inflammatory responses once the infection is cleared. However, prolonged stress keeps your cortisol levels continuously elevated, so your immune system remains suppressed. 
In some cases, stress can have the opposite effect, making your immune system overactive. The result is an increased risk of autoimmune diseases, in which your immune system attacks your body's own cells. Stress can also worsen the symptoms of autoimmune diseases. For example, stress is one of the triggers for the sporadic flare-ups of symptoms in lupus.

• Nervous system. If your fight-or-flight response never shuts off, stress hormones produce persistent feelings of anxiety, helplessness and impending doom. Over sensitivity to stress has been linked with severe depression, possibly because depressed people have a harder time adapting to the negative effects of cortisol. The byproducts of cortisol act as sedatives, which contribute to the overall feeling of depression. Excessive amounts of cortisol can cause sleep disturbances, loss of sex drive and loss of appetite. 

• Cardiovascular system. High levels of cortisol can also raise your heart rate and increase your blood pressure and blood lipid (cholesterol and triglyceride) levels. These are risk factors for both heart attacks and strokes. Cortisol levels also appear to play a role in the accumulation of abdominal fat, which gives some people an "apple" shape. People with apple body shapes have a higher risk of heart disease and diabetes than do people with "pear" body shapes, where weight is more concentrated in the hips. 

• Other systems. Stress worsens many skin conditions — such as psoriasis, eczema, hives and acne — and can be a trigger for asthma attacks.” 
Thirty years ago I had to change my ways. Becoming more breathing-compromised and developing diabetes because of the steroid I had to take, caused me to pause and take a look at what I could do to develop an evenness…meekness. The roller coaster emotions and responses I displayed—learned in the dysfunctional/abusive home of my childhood-- were causing me physical harm. Only with God’s help was I able to develop His character and years later grow to hear many other people tell me that meekness is my greatest asset.
Stress management does require continuous practice…both physically and spiritually. Spiritually, the key is allowing our stressful situations to push us TO God not FROM God? I have had both responses and I know the answer to my stressful situations lies in how quickly I run TO God broken to His Sovereignty and trusting totally in His care and provision. 
Psalm 37:1-5 “Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.” 

And God promises actual health for our keeping His ways and trusting Him in brokenness. (Enclosed are definitions from the Strong’s Concordance.) Proverbs 3:5-8, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health (cure, health) to thy navel, and marrow (a refreshing drink, marrow) to thy bones.” I asked a physician to describe what healthy bone marrow means to our bodies? His response was, “health.”

In my study on stress effects on the body I grew to understand my abuser--my mother--in many ways and grew to better understand the physical affects on me and many of the survivors I work with. It answered the question for me about why so many people run in an anger cycle…or cycle of abuse: They can only go so long before needing a pain killer for their internal pain…and adrenaline is so often the self-manufactured drug of choice. This is a link to our blog for abuse survivors concerning ill-health: Choosing To Be Well

Cortisol and Weight

Signs of Stress

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