Do you have it in your life?

What happens when you are not satisfied with your results or your job or maybe your relations? You tend to be engulfed by the ‘S’ word and the ill effects of it toil your world upside down. No prizes for guessing! The feeling I am talking about has been experienced by all of us at some point or the other. It is STRESS! The physical, behavioral or often psychological feeling of discontent and unhappiness that is experienced by a person is stress. Our modern lifestyle apart from bringing in vast opportunities of expansion and growth has brought with it this evil too.

The oxford dictionary defines stress as “a state of affairs involving demand on physical or mental energy”. Stress in an individual may be attributed to the adverse conditions or mishaps that may have occurred in one’s life. But this may not be the case always. The medical world describes stress as perturbation of the body’s homeostasis. It disturbs the psychological and even physiological functioning of the brain in a person. Stress eventually gives birth to problems like anxiety, anger, frustration, tension, egoism, apathy, schizophrenia and in some cases memory loss too. Long infected with stress it can also lead a person to suicidal tendencies. The recent news that shook the country about the great singer Asha Bhonsle’s daughter’s suicide evidently shows the ill fate stress may lead a person to. Her daughter had long been suffering from depression that in due course took her towards fatality.

sad A person who is stressed is not able to use his mind appropriately, he is not able to judge the right or the wrong and commits mistakes repeatedly. The failures at every step lead to more stress and thus deteriorating the condition of his mind making it weaker and weaker. The person may lose the grip on his brain and may become unable in taking responsibilities or perform his tasks well or in a normal manner. Our modern lifestyle has given way to this disease to enter our lives at every stage right from the schooling days when we were small kids to professionals in different corporate to housewives or even aged people. The degree of stress one has may vary but there is none who is spared by it.

The Causes of Stress

The causes of stress may differ from person to person; you may feel stressed for a moment or some hours or maybe days, months or years. You may feel stressed about the exam you failed in or maybe the unsatisfactory business of yours or not up to the mark job performance of yours or maybe due to your breakup with your girlfriend or boyfriend and so on. There are innumerable factors that may cause stress, some of the common ones are-

Financial Problems

This is the most common problem that causes stress these days. Imagine a household where the parents are not able to provide their children proper growth in term of education or nutrition. The family where every member has to suppress their desires of a new dress, a new mobile or an education course because they have to keep their expenses minimum to survive a month in a meager income. If you are not able to do what you want to due to lack of money or weak financial problems you are bound to be stressed. With the sky touching high prices today it is very difficult for one to be financially safe and secure.

Personal Relationships

The modern lifestyle has made us broad mined and open to changes in every term. Personal relationships are often the worst sufferers in the competitive world. Spouses do not get time for each other due to work or other engagements, some are not able to take enough care of their children, attitude of relatives, ill health of a family member or the attitude of your spouse, failed marriages are some of the causes of stress. Here I would like to mention about the youngsters who take adolescence relationships too seriously and start dreaming about life long courtships with their boyfriends or girlfriends. They often end up with failed relations with severe heartbreaks on the part of one of them or in some cases even both. The underlying concern is that at the time when they should be shaping up their careers they often end up being stressed to extremes.

Office Stress

Stress at the workplace too is common today. Politics at the workplace or the worries about your performance or promotions or unsatisfactory job may all lead to stress. Your boss may not be good to you or you may be wanting to swap but not finding a suitable opportunity to do so. Your career graph may not be growing up the way you had always wanted it to. You might be stressed about the recession period that is expected to come.

Health Problems

The polluted cities and unhealthy lifestyles have lead to a lot of health problems in humans. Heart diseases, lung diseases, diabetes, problems due to excess alcohol or tobacco consumption may all cause stress in the diseased individuals and as well as their family members. The fashion conscious young generation’s desire to be a particular size or size zero, to lose weight and fit in those appealing body hugging cute dresses or to develop fabulous six pack abs have all given way to stress.

Other Problems

There may be other problems too like problems of adjusting to a new environment or a new workplace. Your struggle to find a job after your completion of your education, your efforts to keep some relations intact or a person that may be irritating or causing you harm, deprivation of sleep, unfulfilled desires, unsuccessful ventures or fake friends can all cause stress in your life.

The all mentioned causes of stress are the most common ones that are being faced by almost every other individual on earth. When the mind is not at piece the body won’t function to the best of its ability. A stressed person may become an insomniac or may have problems of blood pressure. If you lack the control on your mind and the ability to come out of stress you may be in danger of hypertension or even further higher effects of stress. I have often encountered people who have taken to alcohol to beat stress in their lives. Adopting habits like drinking alcohol or smoking will do no good but only damage your health. Often you can classify stress as positive or negative. The negative type being dangerous but the positive stress can be a boost up to your abilities. There are very less people who enjoy stressful conditions and know how to turn them into opportunities for their benefits.

Some of the major health effects due to stress are headaches, migraines, upset stomach, thyroid insomnia, high blood pressure, ulcers, and heart diseases or in extreme cases heart attacks too. Besides the health affects it also affects adversely the working of our mind and body. It can lower the efficiency of an individual and hamper his growth in professional as well as personal life. Ways to combat stress-

Plan and organize- You must organize your work and money properly. Plan well ahead how you have to spend your monthly income or the investments you have in mind. Practice time and money management to work efficiently and live happily. You may find a well organized room to be more relaxing to the eyes just as the clean and well set room organize and plan your activities in life.
Be healthy-A healthy body has a healthy mind. Take good care of your physical fitness by taking up exercises or your favorite game as part of your routine. Go for a morning walk, have enough sleep and good food. Adopt healthy practices at home or even when you are outside.
Relax and freshen up!- This is one of the most effective steps to combat stress. Indulge yourself in your hobbies or whatever you love to do. Take time out of your busy schedule for yourself. If you love to dance do it, engage yourself in some feel good activities like listening to music or reading or spending time with friends or family.
Be positive-Do not be disheartened easily. Try and be strong to face any situation and use it to analyze yourself so that you don’t commit the same mistake again. Learn from your failures. Disappointment is natural but lamenting is needless. Try to be optimistic. If your boyfriend left you it was because he didn’t deserve you or because someone somewhere many folds better than him is still to come in your life. Do not underestimate yourself just because of a failed exam or a failed relationship.
Try meditation-Apart from taking up exercises or your favorite sport you may even take up meditation. It relaxes the mind like no other practice. Sit at a silent place and for some moments let your body be free of all your tensions in life.
Make friends- Talk to your friends about your worries and problems that are disturbing you. You may feel lighter and that can make you strong enough to fight stress. Make friends with whom you connect well because unfaithful friends may themselves be a cause of stress.
Keep a watch- To ensure your friends or family members do not face depression keep a watch on them. A few changes in behavior like staying alone most of the time, not talking much, not indulging in celebrations or keeping awake at night are some of the symptoms that you must keep note of. Talk to them and try to know the reason for their worries and tensions.

I hope with the tips provided above I may have helped some of you to combat the modern day lifestyle evil that has left none of us. Let us fight it with full force to keep it out of our lives. With the festive season approaching I wish you all a happy and prosperous life now and always.