Though Small in Size, they are Large in Number
What is a Micro-stressor?
What if you break a leg? That is a major stressor. After the bone has been set and a cast put on, you realize that you can't drive for a few weeks. What a hassle! How will you get to work? How will you do your errands? You can't run. You can't play soccer with your children. Those problems are minor stressors. But every time you take a step, you have to do it differently than you usually do. That is a micro-stressor. Not a big deal...but it happens hundreds of times every day.
Categories of Micro-Stressors
- Follow-ups to major stressors. The micro-stressors associated with breaking your leg are one example. Another is the adaptations you need to make after you break up with someone, such as having to do certain chores that were previously done by your former partner.
- Micro-aggressions. These are stressors that occur whenever someone says or does something that hurts you, or when you encounter a policy that offends you. These micro-aggressions are experienced in greater numbers by minorities and women.
- Incidental micro-stressors. These occur every day, as whenever you forget something, misplace something, drop something, encounter a traffic jam, or discover that a store is all out of an item that you wanted.
Their Impact
A significant problem at work, with a relationship, or with your health constitutes a major stressor, and it is obvious; you know that it is stressing you. Yet micro-stressors, because of their number and ubiquity, add up to a substantial stress burden: perhaps even greater than the periodic major stressors.
What are Your Micro-stressors?
Think about your work. How would you categorize the stressors there? Are there any people there with whom you have an ongoing problem? Anyone who is overtly competitive, passive-aggressive, hypercritical or bossy? What about your workload? Are you expected to do more than you can, or deliver more quickly than you can? Is administration unresponsive to your needs? These are all either major or minor stressors.
But what about the temperature of your workplace? In many offices, thermostats are set to a temperature that is comfortable for men, but too chilly for women. What about the ergonomics of your work arrangement? (I read that one school district decided that teachers shouldn't even have desks and chairs because that would facilitate their "inherent laziness." YIKES! I believe that this order was quickly rescinded.) What about unpleasant odors? Is a floor slippery when wet? Do you hear noise in the hallways, beepers going off, jackhammers or leaf blowers in the distance?
All of these things are micro-stressors. When you think about it, there are a lot of them, and each moment that you experience them is another micro-stressor.
What Can We Do About All This?
On the last page of The Emotional Comfort® Tool you can learn how to create a new mental pathway in your mind that will be dedicated to solving one problem or another. But how do you ask it to solve the problem of micro-stressors? And there are so many of them. Because you have read about them here, this knowledge is now in your memory bank; and a new mental pathway can access that information. So, you can wish for a new mental pathway that will be dedicated to helping you minimize the stress that you feel when you are exposed to micro-stressors.
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