Oh, the mess that stress creates!
Posted 29th June 2008 at 10:19 PM by Chitvish
Stress has become a part of our daily life.
Over the years, one has to learn to take it as a driving force in building one’s personality. We cannot call stressful, day today problems or unexpected incidents.
The main factors which stress out a person are brooding over an incident, feeling helpless, and above all, lack of trust in others.
Stress is also caused sometimes by illness, bereavement, change in responsibilities, expectations from us in work, to name just a few.
Finally stress takes a toll on our health, manifesting as hypertension, diabetes, headache etc.
Stress is very often an internal response to external stimuli. We can even say, it is a habitual response.
Our emotional imbalance is caused by feeling (emotion), thinking (decision) and action (motivation).
Stress in feeling is manifested as hypertension, migraine, insomnia etc.
Thinking can give rise to psychological disorders like phobias and neurosis.
Stress in action reflects as failures, strained relationships etc.
So, to beat stress, we must learn to respond to external stimuli with approaches which are most suitable to the present situation. We must keep ourselves more open to options.
For women, managing a career and home, this is an ongoing process.
Though we see that stress is a fact of life, we should not allow it to become a way of life.
We must follow three things to minimize stress;
Time management
Aim for perfection, to the extent possible, without overstretching oneself
Prioritisation and making choices.
We must learn to manage stress in such a way that, it will give us energy, ambition and enthusiasm.
Positive mindset, perseverance, self-belief, exercise, good diet, sleep, humour and music can help reduce stress.
Adopt a positive attitude.
If you mess with stress, your life is in mess.
Love,
Chithra.
Over the years, one has to learn to take it as a driving force in building one’s personality. We cannot call stressful, day today problems or unexpected incidents.
The main factors which stress out a person are brooding over an incident, feeling helpless, and above all, lack of trust in others.
Stress is also caused sometimes by illness, bereavement, change in responsibilities, expectations from us in work, to name just a few.
Finally stress takes a toll on our health, manifesting as hypertension, diabetes, headache etc.
Stress is very often an internal response to external stimuli. We can even say, it is a habitual response.
Our emotional imbalance is caused by feeling (emotion), thinking (decision) and action (motivation).
Stress in feeling is manifested as hypertension, migraine, insomnia etc.
Thinking can give rise to psychological disorders like phobias and neurosis.
Stress in action reflects as failures, strained relationships etc.
So, to beat stress, we must learn to respond to external stimuli with approaches which are most suitable to the present situation. We must keep ourselves more open to options.
For women, managing a career and home, this is an ongoing process.
Though we see that stress is a fact of life, we should not allow it to become a way of life.
We must follow three things to minimize stress;
Time management
Aim for perfection, to the extent possible, without overstretching oneself
Prioritisation and making choices.
We must learn to manage stress in such a way that, it will give us energy, ambition and enthusiasm.
Positive mindset, perseverance, self-belief, exercise, good diet, sleep, humour and music can help reduce stress.
Adopt a positive attitude.
If you mess with stress, your life is in mess.
Love,
Chithra.
Total Comments 21
Comments
 |  Dear Mrs C a very apt issue in today's lifestyle. It is impossible to avoid some level of stress unless we escape to the countryside or the mountains. On a daily basis, I like to put on some relaxing music especially like the sound of rain or ocean and just close my eyes and imagine that I am in a beach even though I am way far from any beaches! When I visit India, we always include Anandashram in Kerala in our trip where it is utmost bliss. No stress of the outside world and nothing else but Ram Nam . It is a very rejuvenating experience. Love usha |
  Updated 29th June 2008 at 10:56 PM by sundarusha |
| |  Dear Chithra Ma'am, A lovely topic indeed. Stress is basically of 2 types Eustress and Distress. While the stress that is positive is considered good for the body that is Eustress , which we experience when exercisisng etc. which ultimately yields positive results, the stress that hampers the life and times is distress that is negative and needs to be combatted. Stress mnagement has become imperative now with more and more victims succcumbing to it and becoming a victim . There are children also who are getting very stressed out thus marring the beautiful phenomenon of growth to its fullest capacity. I guess a little knowledge about the way to be in sync with your inner and outer self will help up combat stress and enjoy the laurels of living!! Lovely topic Ma'am .I thoroughly enjoyed it! Love, Your mol |
 Updated 30th June 2008 at 02:19 AM by Devika Menon |
| |  Chithu,hot topic! Beating stress becomes a herculean task in itself for anyone.But if one understands that if worrying can solve all the issues then, there will be no need for work, thinking, god etc.I used to be a person, who would think and worry for everythings that surronds me, but have gradually understood that i need to act instead of worrying and stressing myself.Now, i manage time and allocate for every task. One more important thing is that we need to set realistic goals for any task and stay focussed on achieving it rather than cribbing about a failure. Great blog, asusual  |
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| |  Thanks for the first FB, Usha! Even if we escape to the mountains, I wonder if we will worry about what is happening back home!!  Yes, music is a great pacifier particularly santoor, in my personal opinion. Your mention about Anandashram is very interesting! I think we must "detoxicate" our minds, by regularly visiting such places of quietitude! Love, Chithra. |
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| | Ende Mole, the word eustress is new to me... I think it is voluntary stress, perhaps? When I think of my school days, I cannot help comparing how carefree we were, when compared to my grandchildren! Somewhere I feel, metro cities contribute their share in stress as well. I find life in Maduari is at a slower pace than in Chennai. Needless to talk about Bombay & New York! Or is it all in one's mind?? Love, Chithra. |
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| | You are right, Aishu. To a certain extent (only) organising and planning our routine does help in not getting too stressed up. But still, if the maid does not show her face promptly or Aavin milk does not come one day, don't we feel stressed?? Our survival instincts must be made to surface at such times to beat stress! Love, Chithra. |
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| | Dear Chithra.. Monday morning-kku etha post :) Interestingly STRESS sounds deceptively similar to REST ??  but they dont go well together !We should all slow down at some point in life and not take in too much tension. Its not good for our health, happiness and family welfare. I recently got to know of a colleague of my husband's who died in his early 30s due to heart attack :( He was on a stressful IT job. It was such a shock and for a moment, I evaluated how stressful I become at work - sometimes even forgetting to have lunch etc. I am now consciouly trying to reduce stress, especially at work. Although, I am not a mom, I can imagine the stress levels experienced by full-time housewives and for working moms. Ladies...please take it easy. Nothing is worth one's health.No amount of promotions / bonus can bring back one's health and time well spent with family. Thanks Chithra for a stress-buster. With love Pavithra |
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| |  Dear Chithra ma'am..I have become a regular victim of sress these days....I am trying all sorts of methods to de-sress..alas..it pops up again..How do you de-sress? |
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| | Pavi, you are on dot here ,as usual, to my great pleasure!! Stress will not leave you if you take rest!! May be rest & "kuruttu yojanai" may aggravate tension. If you enjoy your work & forget time, it is not stress. But irregular food habits over a period of time can cause you stress.If one can get used to the habit of meditation, nothing like that! But let me be frank - I am not regular with that. I love my evening walk, which very often melts my stress! Love, Chithra. |
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| | It is sad, Supriya, knowing you are young! If you love music, listen to it, very regularly. I personally find chanting prayers like sahasranamam etc help me a lot in destressing. Plan things ahead & follow a routine. Do not worry at all, if something goes against your expectations or if somebody finds fault with you. Though far from easy, it saves us from being stressed.Believe me, I close my eyes & imagine, I am doing pradakshinam in Madurai Meenakshi kovil any no: of times. That makes me feel light, somewhere.It is as though I have done penance or prayaschitham for any wrong I committed knowingly or unknowingly. Don't be too perfection oriented; it is sometimes not worth it at all. Take care, S - I feel concerned about you, my young friend! Love, Chithra. |
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| | I am moved by your reply chithra ma'am..Thank you for being a moral support.. |
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| |  Dear Mami, An apt post for the week begining........ Yes mami, stress has come to stay here but we can make peace with stress too. My stress buster is IL ofcourse. Though I am not the type to get stressed but sometimes anger takes over but trying to control the same. I do plan before hand maybe it needs me to get up early and lose a few minutes of my sleep but I do not mind that so that I can finish my work on time. But my main cause of stress in the morning would be my dd Akshaya........ha ha |
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| |  dear chithu a very nice topic which is the need of the hour......i feel stress is basically due to the competition and the world which is so mehcanical and fast.......for example i see small children who are not even 1.5 years being pushed to get up very early in the morning and dumped with their breakfast and just pushed to the daycare so that the parents can report to their offices on time...its so much of the stress for the little ones !!! we atleast knwo what is stress and as you had mentioned with effective planning and time management we can overcome it to an extent..but for these little ones i really feel sad and they are pushed into all this at such an early age and this is very much stressful for them.....so for children of this generation they are under STRESS right from the start so it actually is not a part of life but become WAY OF LIFE !!!! lov sowmi |
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| |  true, stress is a mess!Dear Chithra, I did read the blog yesterday....but Rosh is back home and she was working on it......did not have the heart to take the laptop, though she has a laptop. But it needed to be connected etc etc and so gave her mine. But the stress taht i felt...bah.....i could just get in between to read the posts etc but so much in my mind to reply , but could not.....there i really experienced the stress. Of course, i tried to go outside myself and realise why and what was happening. It felt better, but still i can see STRESS a evil, negative Personality growing inside if i had LET IT ...... Of course lovely post as usual....very apt topic. In a way good i did not get the chance to reply yesterday.....i really experienced this and can share with u what i went thru.....ha ha...i am becoming a LIVING example now na?!  But otherwise i am happy to have Rosh back at home, more shared laughter , or tears....but at least someone to SHARE !  |
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| | Dear Lali, stress leads to anger ultimately but progressively. I agree with you on one point. Getting up just 30 mts earlier can do wonders to our routine and it is as though there is a lot of time. But we love to sleep an extra half an hour and land up with the stress of not beating the time!! So, very often stress is our own making, for sure! Love, Chithra. |
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| | Yes, Sowmi, in present day life, inspite of so many ways to relax, children undergo a lot of stress from a very tender age. The burden of homework, the inevitable marks comparison, the over anxious parents, more ambitious than the previous generations - all these make stress an inevitable part of childhood.It is sad to observe this trend! Love, Chithra. |
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| | You are just incomparable with your writing style, Sudha! Yes the first deed of stress is sown when we are not able to do something which we want to! Though we say stress is our own making, we still argue that if things do not happen as per our wishes, we cannot help feeling tensed. This is asking for the cake to be kept but also to be eaten! Love, Chithra. |
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| | Dear Chitra, I liked when u said Stress manifests into Diabeties. I was walking with a doctor friend in the garden a few days abck, and I told him I have cut down on sugar,he said why, I said to avoid sugar for diabeties. He told me , kamal who told u sugar causes diabieties.Stress is one and herditory is another, so continue with yr sugar intake, just stay away from stress. That pepped me up, and I restarted sugar in tea.I have seen stress making so many diseases, and I believe everything shall pass, so why spoil yr health with stress. I have received a Income tax scrutiny notice and am preparing the papers for the same, and I though what has to happen will happen, why worry now and spoil my days, I will cross the bridge when I reach it. This is my attitude in life.I give stress to others, but don’t take it on.HAHA. Good one.Regards.kamal |
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| | Kamalji, I am sure, stress will run a mile away from you, knowing you are a "jolly good fellow" ! I feel, it is more one's temperament that causes stress.Some are eternally worried about things which are not likely to happen at all; some about things which cannot be avoided from happening. The attitude Que sera sera is best to be followed - but easier said than done!! Now, Kamalji, how much sugar does champagne have???????????? I hope in my excitement of sipping it & seeing you & Sri, overflowing with jokes & humour, when we "party", I will not go in for diabetics - the stress of laughing too much!! Regards, Chithra. |
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| | dear chithra mam, lovely topic..but it depends entirely on the person...one can easily not take stress if he or she decides not to..more than half the time we become stressed for very silly reasons like u said the milkman or the maid doesnt turn up...here as we do not have maids daily there is actually no stress at all...dh laughs at me the day maid is suppossed to come i am more stressed...i have to finish my work and be with her for the next 2- 3 hrs to get the work done by her...and also one should not expect perfection like u said...good lessons on life from u... mindi |
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