Overstretching the elastic band

摘要

The car in front suddenly swerved into my lane and there was a heart-stopping crunch as it collided with my front wing. No-ooo! Why now of all times? Just six weeks ago I had the whole car repainted and was about to sell it. I'd already drafted the advert which read, "Immaculate paintwork!" The voice in my head complained: "I haven't got time to deal with this now! That's really going to affect the price I can get! Oh, I'm going to be so late! If only, if only, if only...!" There are many definitions of stress, but at the heart of all of them is the sense that stress is a conflict between two polar opposites. Stress is like an elastic band stretched between 'How It Is' (reality) and 'How You Wish it Was' (if only). As long as you try to hold onto 'If Only' in the face of the quite different Reality, you will experience the stretching of the elastic band.