Have you seen the cartoon that says, “There are only two times I feel the stress — Day and Night”. Learn how to cope with it
Truly, the world today is full of tension. Wherever I go, I find people are tense and nervous. Stress and tension are more common in their incidence than the common cold.
Today hospitals are full of patients who suffer from diseases due to stress. Stress is the cause of a number of physical ailments. Stress keeps on accumulating in the minds of the people until, one day, it manifests itself in the form of one ailment or the other.
What is this “stress” that we are talking about? It is a much-used, much misused term.
Stress originates from a French word which means constriction or delimitation. It is true that stressful situations seem to squeeze us, limit our emotions and reactions. Stress therefore, is regarded as a potential killer. It saps one’s energy and undermines one’s well-being.
Dr Hars Seyle, expert on stress management, tells us, “Stress is the wear and tear on your body caused by life’s events.” It is the sum total of the body’s physical, mental and chemical reactions to circumstances which cause fear, irritation, worry, anxiety and excitement.
There are hundreds of experiences in our everyday life which cause stress. These stress-causing events are called stressors. These stressors can create good stress (positive stress) or distress (negative stress). Normally, our body and its systems are conditioned to cope with stressors. But there is an optimum level at which each one of us can cope with stress and still function well. When the limit is exceeded, we become victims of stress.
Stress is purely subjective. What is a stressful situation for one person, may be child’s play for another. For instance, if a person is asked to say a few words to a large gathering, he may panic and lose his nerve completely. A fluent public speaker, on the other hand, would regard it as an opportunity, and end up speaking for a long time.
Stress has been known to have a snowballing effect. It keeps accumulating unless tackled or treated effectively.
Stress busters to eradicate stress from the human psyche:
Revamp your attitude to a positive one. The workplace becomes akin to a jungle when situations and people get out of hand but our attitude can always be within our control and it can be a positive one. Following are the steps to cultivate a positive attitude:
Work in the consciousness of the present moment. When a challenge stares at us, we are so overwhelmed by its sheer impact that we analyses its past and predict its effects on the future. It is important that we deal with the problem in the present-moment consciousness. This helps to tackle the problem in a practical way.
Most of our lives are wasted either feeling guilty about the past or worrying about the future. Trying to be in another time zone whilst physically being present in the now is a big stressor
Schedule your activities in ‘day-tight compartments’, which means to plan reasonably achievable goals within the framework of the day. Then completely focus only on those targets without thinking about jobs that are not planned for that day.
Try praise and appreciation, for a change.
Streamline your life. Simplify and streamline everything from the workplace to the home front. At the workplace, delegate well, communicate efficiently and use time management! Unclutter your mind as well as the space around you. Organize your workload to make it simple. Organize chores and errands at home on a priority basis.
All this, once done in a systematic way, will reduce stress.
Dada J. P. Vaswani, an internationally acclaimed spiritual leader passed away on 12th July, 2018. The Sadhu Vaswani Mission stated in its press note, “our Beloved Revered Dada JP Vaswani passes on, from the seen to the unseen. Ever-loving, ever-giving, may he continue to bless us from the beyond.’’
By Dada JP Vaswani
