The Problem of Stress: The Car Metaphor

​Imagine your body is like a car. Cars have stress. Every time you drive your car, you are putting stress on the vehicle. This stress results in wear and tear. Wear on the engine; wear on the tires, the seats, and the body of the vehicle....

​Imagine two cars, the same make and model, bought brand new the same year. Imagine both cars 5 years later. The first car, car A, has been driven only during the summer, on dry, smooth, paved roads. This car received oil changes every 3,000 miles, tires rotated according to factory specifications, and complete detailing (wash, wax, vacuuming) once a month. The second car, car B, has been driven only during the winter, on rough, pot-hole-filled, heavily salted, sand covered roads. This car received oil changes every 10,000 miles, no tire rotations, and thorough cleaning only once a year. Imagine that these cars miraculously drove the same exact number of miles. At the end of 5 years they are they same exact age, and have the same number of miles. However, are they in the same shape? Are they in the same condition? Do the look the same age? The answer is quite obvious. Which car looks younger? That answer is also quite obvious. Car A is certainly going to be in better shape.

Stress causes wear and tear.

There are two issues here: amount of stress, and the frequency and quality of maintenance. Car A had much less stress over those 5 years, and therefore much less wear and tear. Car B had much greater stress, and therefore much greater wear and tear. Car B also was not maintained nearly as well as car A, and so wear and tear occurred faster than it might have otherwise.
 
Do cars have “mental” or “emotional” sides to them? No. The stress and its effects are all physical.
 
Our bodies are in a similar situation. Many issues in life are sources of stress and pressure. Some degree of stress/pressure is good for us, healthy and necessary for growth, strengthening, and increasing our knowledge and wisdom. However, when the stress of life gets too high it results in wear and tear. Sometimes life is more like the driving of car A, and other times it is more like car B. Regardless, when life is stressful, it affects us physically. This is important to acknowledge. 

Stress affects us physically.

Now, we as human beings are of course quite a bit more complex than cars. We have mental and emotional sides of our being. Stress also affects us mentally and emotionally. Physical health affects mental and emotional health, and mental/emotional health affects our physical health. Unfortunately, it is easy to minimize stress and dismiss it. However, ignoring the physical effects of stress can be disastrous, leading to faster physical wear and tear on our bodies; faster aging of our bodies.
 
When the stresses in life are really intense and numerous or persistent, we must not brush them off, responding with “I am fine” or “I am dealing with it.” Just like car B, when life is more stressful, if we want the car (our bodies) to last longer and hold up under all of the stress, we need to spend more time and energy maintaining our vehicle.
 
Which car are you lately? Car A with mild and healthy levels of stress? Or car B, with stresses that are wearing you out?
 
What does your maintenance plan look like? Car A, with several strategies for maintaining your body’s health, and frequent use of those strategies? Or car B, with very few strategies, or strategies that are not used very often at all?
 
We don’t always have that much control over the sources of stress around us (sometimes we have about as much control over our stress level as we do over the seasons and the weather). However, we have much more control over how we maintain our cars (and bodies).

How are you maintaining your vehicle?

If you find you relate more to the maintenance plan of car B, what is one new maintenance strategy you could try today or tomorrow? What is one maintenance strategy that you have found helpful in the past that you have not used in a while? Could you use that today or tomorrow?