Secondly, the number and level of severity of demands in a given period of time that each of face, is important for our well-being. If there are too many demands to deal with or if the situation is emotionally intense (good or bad) then we tax our body resources to the point of exhaustion. In this situation we can succumb to ill health if we do not take adequate rest and recuperation.
There are always those individuals, however, who always seem to be able to take on many demands and who do not appear to be affected by stress. What is happening here? To answer this we need to go back to see what happens when we appraise the demands facing us and our stress response is activated.
If we are faced with a demand and we believe that we can deal with it, then we can cope, we experience eustress, regardless of whether we can or cannot deal with it in reality.
Conversely, if we are faced with a demand, which we believe we cannot deal with, we will experience distress, regardless of whether we can or cannot actually deal with it. It is the belief that we hold about the demand or situation that determines our ability to cope.

So managing our stress means RECOGNISING the right balance between the number and level of demands, the amount of recuperation we need and belief in our coping ability.