Ways to Prevent Stress

By Nikita Sanjay Ganorkar

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With the beginning of vaccination programs and the hopes of getting back to normal life, many people feel glad and excited about it, not all seem to feel the same elation about it. The post COVID scenario seems to be different for different people. With the setting of new norms, life has changed drastically and consequently, it became the “new normal” now. During the lockdown, while some were able to take out time for their hobbies, able to spend time with their family, others were grasped in clouds of uncertainty about their job, relationship, financial situation, and everyday needs. Life has been revolving around uncertainty for a lot of time now. Not all know how to deal with such an unpredictable and unprepared situation. Well, it is okay to not always know everything. That in fact adds flavor to life. Life is full of learning lessons and each moment that comes into our life be it good or bad teaches us something.

     Stress is a part of life that can teach us a lot. However, stress can be the protagonist or the antagonist of our life depending on the way we deal with it. After all, it depends on our perspective. Stress, a short six letter word has the potential to change our life in the way that lies beyond the

imagination. Stress is often thought of as a negative emotion or physical tension. Partly, it is true as well if we talk about the way it impacts health be it in social, emotional, physical, or behavioral aspects. Stress is often associated as a symptom for various high-risk diseases like cardiac diseases, asthma, anxiety, depression, Alzheimer’s disease or even premature death. That makes it even more important for us to find ways to deal with it and not just simply ignore it. While stress management can seem difficult in the beginning, don’t forget the results will be glorious and worth it in the end. All we need to do is believe in the beauty of change.

        The first step in stress management is identification. We need to  identify the source of our stress. Stress can be due to work, relationship issues, financial problems, poor management, psychological disorders, chronic illness and list would just go on. We need to pick out the cause that gives us stress. 

        Next step in stress management is the application of ‘The   four A’s-Avoid, Alter, Adapt and Accept’.Sometimes knowingly or unknowingly we make a mountain of a molehill and that leads to stress. These unnecessary minor issues can be avoided. If your tempered boss had uttered a loud cry for some silly reason, that could add up to your stress levels. Fortunately, this unnecessary stress can be avoided. Taking A different approach might help. We meet a lot of people in our life and not everybody likes us and that is okay, right? Most of the times, it has got nothing to do with us, it just comes out as a reflex action of tired people struggling hard to win their unique private battle. Responding to rudeness with kindness whenever we can, might help calm the person in front of us and keep us away from unnecessary stress.

     Our life is a result of choices we make, changes we undergo and chances we take. Nothing in this world is permanent, we ourselves are a  product of evolution. Thus, it implies that sometimes we need to mend ways too. If we are continuously working hard to crack an exam and yet the result does not show up, we are probably focusing on something that is not important rather than focusing on something that is important. However, there are some things that we cannot change ourselves, these things are not in our hands. For example, not everybody will be pleased by us. Trying to make everybody happy at times can be exhausting. Afterall, no one is in charge of someone else’s behavior. Stressing over something like this can be avoided, right? We just need to adapt ourselves to a situation that is not in our control. There are times when it is hard to believe reality. One requires courage to accept the truth. Yet, truth remains truth which cannot be hidden behind anything else. Sometimes we do not understand we are in stress or probably we are not in a situation that we accept being stressed out. Acceptance in such cases is important because without accepting the problem, we won’t be able to search for solutions to solve it in time.

     The third step in stress management is learning the techniques that could keep us away from stress. These could range from time management, emotion management, proper planning techniques, finance management, household management among the list of many. According to a recent study conducted by the group of psychological experts, ‘A student who learned time management technique helped him balance the academic and non-academic life and subsequently, avoid the last-minute stress at the exam time’.

     The last step in stress management involves a change in lifestyle. All of us live in a world of hustle and bustle involved in some or the other task during the day thriving to achieve success. But scientifically and medically our brain has not been evolved to succeed but rather just for survival and that means that having a few sparks of stress in our life is quite normal. While having mild stress is quite normal, having prolonged or chronic stress after a standard medical period could be a symptom of stress related disorders. Luckily, nothing in this world is impossible, the word itself expresses I’m possible. We need to take the first step. While the first step of various processes are quite difficult, surprisingly when we talk about stress management it is quite easy. All we need to do is just give ourselves a break so that we can Recharge our cells and work more efficiently. If we are music enthusiasts we would love listening to music, if we love cooking, we can surprise someone with our delicious food, not just that if we are book lovers we can get lost in a new world, after digging up the libraries of course. Moreover, sitting closer to nature and painting something beautiful is not a bad idea as well. Furthermore, sitting peacefully and meditating can help us detox stress from our life. Conclusively, there is not one thing that fits all formulas. We need to identify the unique thing that calms us down.

     While too much stress is distressing for our health, minute quantities of the same helps in the development of the brain. When we are put into a mild stressful situation, we can think randomly, quickly, find out possible solutions and figure out our potential, which in normal situations we would probably not do. Well, thanks to the natural neuro-chemical reactions occurring inside our body. Keeping up our mental health is in our hands. In the end, we need to keep a track of our stress levels. If the stress levels remain inappropriate with respect to the medical standards, we should immediately seek medical help. Ultimately, with each rising day comes a choice either to practice stress or to practice peace.

By Nikita Sanjay Ganorkar

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