You may have experienced this in dreams. Somebody is doing something that bothers/impedes you but you have no power to do anything about it.
Eckhart Tolle defines stress as the feeling of being mentally divided between the present moment and a desired future state.
Yesterday, I was performing at Bronxville Library, and a two-year-old constantly circled behind me stepping on the wires that extended from my amplifier. Her mother made some efforts to intervene but she was occupied with her new baby. So it continued.
Stress: I wanted it to stop. It wasn’t going to.
I could have paused the show but that would have been overkill. I did ask for help. The mother tried but she had her hands full. The actual danger minimal. Not so my annoyance.
There’s nothing to do in these moments but to accept an invitation to observe the stress. Be present and mindful of it. Did I do that? Not really. But next time.