Stressors are agents that cause stress. Stressors can be divided into two broad categories:
External
Internal
external stressors
External stressors are the sources of stress that we are aware of around us. These stressors are things that create a perceived threatening situation in our minds and bodies. In recent years, much research has been done on external stressors. These stressors can affect us in various settings: at work, at home, while driving, and in a social setting. We are all free spirits in Nature. Anything that restricts our freedom of expression, thought or action creates a stressful situation that our bodies and minds would like to change. It results in a feeling of unhappiness and discontent. For example, the same house can be a happy place or a stressful place. If things do not go according to our wishes at home, our wishes are not fulfilled and we feel stressed.
In the workplace, our expectations from our job, our employers, our colleagues, and our own commitments, if not met, create a situation that our mind perceives as threatening. We find ourselves helpless and unable to change the situation. Our free spirit is forced. We feel the ‘pressure’. This is stress.
internal stressors
Internal stressors are the stressors within us. These are stressors that have been on our minds and bodies for many years of our lives. These stressors exist in the form of our genetic makeup. They are also restrictions placed on us by our parents, our teachers, and various authority figures who have taught us what to do and, more importantly, what not to do. These internal stressors remain in our bodies, unknown to us, in the form of emotions. According to recent research conducted in the United States, such emotions exist in our bodies in the form of neurochemicals called neuropeptides. Neuropeptides are arranged in our cellular systems in such a way that the patterns are difficult to remove. Such patterns, when presented with our emotional experiences, persist throughout our lives. In this way, stress is stored in our bodies. These stressed or negative emotions or neuropeptides are organized in such a way that they affect our perception, our thinking and our behavior. These tensions become chronic.
The interaction of external and internal stressors and internal tensions creates what we call stress. The internal stressors mentioned above, by interacting with external (environmental) stressors, create arousal in our body systems. Internal stressors then become stress.