STRESS MANAGEMENT

You can MANAGE STRESS very well !


Life is neither a bed of roses nor a bed of thorns. We face challenges every day. We try to meet all the challenges. When challenges become threat, we doubt our ability to do even simple things and problems appear insoluble. Our body system manages to meet all the challenges. In the process, we also build up and accumulate pressures. When we feel the external pressures are exceeding the internal resources we have, we feel unhappy. Mentally, we feel dejected. One day we feel all these pressures overpower us, our working, our thinking capacity, etc. Stressful conditions may be different from person to person. What one person experiences as stress may be a stimulating factor for another. Every human being experiences stress at one point of time or other. We feel the burn-out and depression. Stress is something beyond tension and anxiety.

What is Stress ?

It is the physical and mental response of the body to demands made upon it. It is the direct result of our reaction to outside events. It is the situation where the body response system loses the power to ‘fight’ the problems. Now, it is the ‘flight’ situation. (fight or flight type). It all depends how we perceive things happening in the outer world. In a layman’s language, we can call the ‘stress’, as wear and tear of our body system.

Symptoms of Stress:

Feelings of alarm, depression, frustration or apathy. It may include mental, social, and physical manifestations.
Faster heart beat
Tensed muscles
Head aches
Increased sweating
Sudden lack of joy, spontaneity, happiness, or enthusiasm
Outbursts of anger or crying
Intolerance to people
Increase in irritability towards people
Over reacting to minor problems
Difficulty in concentrating
Dry mouth
Sleeplessness or over sleeping
Loss of appetite/increased appetite
Difficulty in taking even minor decisions
Beginning or increased use of alcohol or drugs (prescription or other)
Hypersensitivity to noise
Restlessness and/or difficulty being alone
Reduction in efficiency at work
Feeling of nausea
Butterflies in the stomach
Having negative thoughts continuously
Frequent physical illnesses and/or delayed recovery
Persistent nightmares and the recurrence of disturbing dreams
Unexplainable rash
Withdrawal from friends and social situations
If some of these symptoms appear, then we have to handle the situation carefully. When we are in stressful mood, our behaviour may be abnormal, spoiling our relationship with others, etc.

Why Stress ?

Let us analyze the reasons for the stress. In the modern fast world, we have changed our lifestyle very much from our ancestors. Every thing is fast. Some of the reasons, why stress appear are:

Poor planning or Planning is abandoned
Working for longer hours
Wanting to do too much in too little time
Poor time management
Poor tolerance level
Taking hasty decisions without applying mind
Working under pressure
Working against our will
When effectiveness is diminishing
When deadlines are missed
When other persons refuses to understand our position but compelling to do something
When emotions are allowed to be transferred to us


When stress is left unchecked, it will lead you to depression. If depression is left uncared, it will lead you to fatigue. Under fatigue conditions, people generally tend to lose the path to recover. Suicide may be only way available to end all the problems, for those who are under fatigue conditions. Hence, stress has to handled effectively.

To reduce stress:

First, you have to recognize that you are facing stressful conditions.

Good Time Management
Good Planning
Adequate sleep (atleast 6 hours)
Balanced diet (include nutritious ones)
Exercise (Atleast fast walking for about 40 minutes daily)
Meditation or Yoga will help a lot
Develop friendship to share all your feelings
Learn to say NO for unwanted things
Learn to control anger
Learn to avoid arguments. (You can never win over an argument.)
Avoid self medication.
Go for picnic/ vacation to relax from regular busy schedules
Be optimistic always
Set realistic goals
Change the way you look the world

Sometimes, we need stress also to induce us to work better. Unless some deadlines are given, we don’t do the things at full speed. At such conditions, it induces to work effectively. We use the full potentials to finish a particular job or achieve something.

There are many techniques used to reduce stress. Positive Mental Attitude will help you a lot. Try to attend some stress management programmes, wherein some exercises will be used to reduce stress. Some trainers do group therapy, so that all the participants will release their stress.

The type of importance we generally give for a particular event may be reduced to avoid stress. You can learn to anticipate some things to happen. If we prepare ourselves to meet any eventualities, at any point of time, stress will not affect us much. Let us avoid self generated pressures. Imagery of unwanted things may lead to stress. We cannot change the whole world, but we can change our attitude towards the things happening. Learn to know, what you can change, what you cannot change. Go for some physical activities, like gardening or jogging.

One thing be sure, our life is a gift. We can live a life what we want. Believe it we have the power to do so. What we want to achieve, we can achieve. We can care for our body and take adequate rest whenever needed, so that we can reduce stress to a larger extent.