Stress is one of the biggest viruses that silently exists in today’s hustle and bustle. Positive stress is a booster. Negative stress impacts your body, health and mind. It affects your ability to perform. Drives you to depression and de-motivation. Yet in today’s VUCA world, stress is abounded. Stress is a reality. Do we crumble down and let stress impact us? Or redevelop ourselves to have a stress-buster mindset.
What is stress?
Stress emanates as a natural bodily response to threat, anger, disappointment and challenges. Stress results in anxiety and long term anxiety is damaging for the human system. When the human mind senses stress it sends out a mix of hormones into our body like adrenaline and cortisol to arm us to fight the threat, danger or challenge. While stress creates a mindset of ‘All stations go’ its long term impact damages our immune system. The mind is usually designed to bring our mind and body back to what we were after the stressful event. However in today’s world of constant change and uncertainty that does not happen. And continuous stress leads to health problems. The era of Covid 19 for example has given birth to one of the biggest killer diseases, ever- ‘Mental health degeneration’. Therefore we need to set up our own mechanisms/checks & balances to deal with stress as well as de-stress to optimise our mental happiness and health.
Inability to handle finances and financial insecurity are one of the biggest triggers to negative stress. Job insecurity is another cause. Covid times have given ample such reasons, with job losses, salary cuts salary dues, accumulation of debts etc. Also many have lost their own loved ones to this deadly virus. Home isolation was another cause. All these have driven most people from their comfort zones to danger zones with no light at the end of the tunnel. These reasons that have really created stress burdened mindsets, to add to the usual stress of life and its woes
Body signals of stress
Your body and mind communicates with you to alert you. Your heart beats faster and you breathe heavy and fast when you have stress, pupils dilate, you start to perspire. You are not able to concentrate as usual. More importantly you are unable to sleep well in the night. Loss of good sleep can have disastrous consequences. And there is much more, when stress gets prolonged.
You will experience body tension, aches & pains. Stress triggered migraines are common. When stress becomes a part of your life cardio vascular problems begin, weight gain is common. Stress also suppresses your immune system. If not resolved your acute state of stress can result in heart attacks and digestive problems
Developing a stress buster mindset
The first step is to realise the consequences of stress and get a medical examination to see whether you have any stress related symptoms. Then change your lifestyle to reduce and if possible eliminate stress. Consult a therapist if you feel the need. Minds can be trained, so reboot to have a positive outlook to life. While you can take all the preventive measures to exercise, do meditation and yoga, always remember that stress is always in the mind. It’s always about how you react to stressors. The greatest change you can bring about is creating a sense of sustainable happiness, creating a simple list of dos and don’ts and ensuring that you really work on it. It’s all about you, therefore only you can make that change for the betterment of your life and health. Try detoxifying your mind, being in nature, laugh more, sleep well and spend more time with friends and family.
Actually positive stress is good for you as it gives you the boost to finish your assignments well. However effective time management and therefore a spontaneous work life balance are huge pivots for a ‘stress buster’ mindset.
“It isn’t the mountain ahead that wears you out; it’s the grain of sand in your shoe.”
Robert W. Service
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Well analysed and totally in sync with the present day scenario ! Keep them coming