Stress is not about an overload of impressions and things to do but the lack of control… We have an innate desire to be in control, we learn backwards and live forwards*, and we try to be a step ahead…
For example in a movie we wish to guess/predict/know what is coming next, and we feel rewarded when we’re proven to be right were (all clues were provided with suspense) when we appear to be ‘wrong’, we are often either frustrated or even more challenged and feel rewarded with new knowledge and insights… We continue learning by recognising patterns and adding more patterns to our ‘library’… in playing games we train our skills to learn more patterns and learn to coop with (real) life.
* “The tragedy of life is that you understand it backword but you have to live it forwards” – Kierkegaard –
…seen at TedxAmsterdam 2013 From hero to zero – when leaders turn bad: Manfred Kets de Vries
[ the reason for stress was mentioned by Manfred Spitzer – “Digital Dementia” on crossingborder festival nov 2013 ]