There certainly are many causes of stress. These include economic uncertainty, money worries, relationship issues, career concerns, or health problems. There really is only one cause of stress. Once you identify this cause, you are on your way to mastering the challenges of your life. Without doing so, stress can take a large toll on your physical health and psychological quality of life.
What is this cause? The true cause of stress Is within your brain. It's what you think about, and how you interpret and react to the life challenges to which we all are subjected. The stress comes from your emotional reactions to your thoughts. It comes with our frequent but useless companion named worry. I have heard worry described as useless for two reasons. If the thing you worry about does not happen, you wasted your energy worrying. And if the event you worry about happens, your worrying did not stop it. Thus, worry is pointless.
Now let me be clear. There are stressful events which happen in life. However, "to be stressed" is in most respects a choice we make. It is how you respond to life stressors which determines your emotional reaction, not the stressor itself. You can make the decision now to approach all life challenges with more reasoned thoughts and not allow thinking overreactions to produce emotional responses which leave you stressed and overwhelmned. For example, to tell yourself that you are "overwhelmned" and "can't handle this" creates the cognitive climate in which emotional overreactions to life challenges occur. Learning to identify these catastrophizations quickly, challenge them, and substitute more reasonable thoughts will help you avoid excessive stress reactions.
Emotions and deep feelings are the brain's reaction to thought. Our brains don't know whether something you think is true or illusory. Our brains can't distinguish truth from falsehood. Thoughts create endorphins that are the chemicals of emotions. For every thought, there is an emotional response. Feelings like love and happiness have a positive and uplifting effect. Negative feelings like fear, panic and helplessness limit your ability to think and act. So if you tell yourself that you can't handle a situation, you are right but not for the reason you think. As is often attributed to Henry Ford, if you tell yourself you can or can't do something, you are right in either case. That is because our thoughts will produce the emotions which will lead to behaviors which either will or won't help us manage any given situation.
Most things you worry about never occur or aren't as bad as you anticipate. Remember that stress comes from feelings manufactured by your thoughts and you can control your thoughts with practice.
Knowing how your brain is organized and how your thoughts influence your emotions can help you understand and manage stress. Use your brain to gather and analyze reliable information to avoid emotionally catastrophic reactions to life's challenges. Your physical and psychological selves will thank you for it by giving you better health and well being.