CSUEB prof explains danger of self-identifying as 'stressed'

• December 20, 2011 5:00am

Professor Emerita of International Management Loretta Graziano Breuning wrote an article, "The Danger of Self-identifying as ‘Stressed’," for Psychology Today in which she encourages readers to break the habit of stressing themselves by managing expectations. Read article.

“Everyone has stress,” Breuning writes in her article. “It's foolish to speak of some people as "stressed" as if others go through life effortlessly. Being alive is stressful.”

She writes that it’s not realistic to expect to live in a world where your survival needs can be met without struggle, everyone gets along without conflict, and it’s fun all the time. “But blaming the world puts you in a powerless, hopeless position, and your heart contracts. You are literally hurting yourself when you "lose heart." Your muscles tighten which stresses your whole body as if you had experienced an actual injury.”

Breuning has worked in Africa as a United Nations Volunteer and began studying the mammalian social brain after lecturing worldwide on bribery prevention. She has written previous books, including Greaseless: How to Thrive without Bribes in Developing Countries and I, Mammal: Why Your Brain Links Status and Happiness.

Read an earlier blog post on Bruening's new book, "Mammal brain wired to seek status and happiness."

KL