Caring is the state of having a vested interest in the outcome of a given situation.
If you care about something, you have a genuine desire to promote or protect the well-being, vitality, or prosperity of whatever it is you care about.
Stressing, as in “he’s stressing out”, is the process of feeling tension in relation to some desire.
Stress is often, though not necessarily, accompanied by the observable expression of such tension in one’s body, one’s words, or one’s actions.
Stressing is usually a sign that someone cares. After all, if a person’s feelings were neutral, what would there be to stress out about?
Caring, on the other hand, is a broader state and it is not always accompanied by stress.
People who stress almost always care, BUT people who care don’t always stress.
Here’s today’s two cents:
Visible symptoms of stress do not constitute superior evidence of concern.
There are more ways to care about something than through the outward display of emotion.
EXPERIENCING a feeling is different from EMBODYING & EXPRESSING a feeling.
Everyone has feelings, but we all have different ways of sharing them, coping with them, and showcasing them.
One person’s way of being emotional is no better or worse than anyone else’s.
The sooner we can accept that fact, the sooner we can get on with what really matters:
working together to find solutions we all care about without turning the work into a contest over who cares the most or into a debate about who has the superior emotional response.
Cheers,
T.K. Coleman
You my friend sound like the fly on the wall at my childhood family home. Everyone thinking that freaking out emotionally trumps the caring feelings of anyone one else on the planet! It has taken many years for me to begin to unravel this automatic response of stress (and caring in a stressfull way) as you say, and I must admit I still have not perfected the art, but I have seen much improvement through trying and awareness. Great post once again. Blessings to you!