Stress Management

Every 3 Out Of 4 Visits To The Doctor Are For Stress-Related Ailments, according to The American Institute of Stress. Needless to say how devastating this stealthy and seemingly innocent dis-ease could be, both personally and professionally.    

No one in the world today can claim to be ‘completely free from stress’ and rightly so. We all experience stress from time to time and in different situations. The idea is to understand stress so that it does not ‘persist’ interminably, resulting in mental or physical damage over time.

There is a beauty of balance that exists within each and every one of us. The stress that we experience is in fact the struggle to remove anything that is causing an imbalance to us. Therefore, stress is important…only to the extent of understanding what is causing the imbalance and then ‘doing’ something to return back to our normal balanced state. An irate customer, for example, calls me, a gush of stress pushes me to take corrective measures and I then regain my internal balance. Simple so far. The price of oil falls, a gush of stress pushes me to take corrective measures, but I don’t have any say in this situation, my stress therefore persists - a poor move. I forget to realize that in this case, the only way I can regain my equilibrium is by accepting the situation unconditionally. Once I do so, I experience the beauty of balance. So, who is really responsible for the stress that persists in someone?

Out stress thus has much to do with the thoughts we carry about things that we ‘cannot’ control. Here are a few tips that would help us to stay balanced and full of beans all through the day, despite various stress triggers:

1.        Be an avid student of life – look at every person and uncontrollable situation around you as your teachers. I try to influence them, but realize that I cannot control them. So as my teachers they have taught me life’s greatest lessons and I am grateful to such teachers. I respect them. Stress changes into gratitude.   

2.       Look into the mirror – It is always easy to blame others when things go wrong. Check yourself first and 9 out of 10 times you will realize you need to change, improve and amend the way you communicate with or lead others! Stress changes into self-development.  

3.       Build resilience – There are two ways one can reduce stress. Either reduce external pressure or increase internal resilience. External pressure will only mount with time, so focus on building resilience. Meditate, practice mindfulness and Auto-suggestions. Stress changes into enrichment.     

‘Stresponsibility’ gives me the bad news that I am responsible for my stress, and the good news that I have the ability to overcome it. It simply asks me to take ownership of my emotion of stress, only then can I do something about it. Else I only am pointing fingers at others, pointlessly!