Living life can be hard, confusing, weird and well, stressful. Stress is basically our body’s response to certain situations . Hans Selye, the father of modern stress research, defined stress as “the non specific response of the body to any demand.” A situation that is stressful for you, may not be stressful for me. Stress is totally subjective. Everyone’s response to a stressful situation depends on his/her experiences and how he perceived the event (positively or negatively). If one has a positive attitude and social support to deal with the crisis he or she will feel less stressed. Let me give you an instance from my life, a situation which is very common to us all. I had an exam the next day and I did not study really well for it. I studied till 2 a.m. in the night but was unable to concentrate anymore because my brain was literally exhausted, I decided to sleep. I set an alarm of 6:00 a.m. in the morning thinking that I will wake up and start studying so that I would at least pass my exam. But stress of the exam didn’t let me sleep. I started to think about situations that if I will fail or not get the required marks, what will I do then. I started blaming myself for fooling around the whole day and for not studying anything before. My alarm rang at 6:00 a.m. I woke up stressed, I didn’t feel like eating, my stomach got upset which made me more tense. I barely made it in time to my college and It turned out that I have forgotten my admit card. I started crying not knowing what to do. Basically when you are stressed your thinking gets cloudy and that is what happened with me. So I just sat there for a minute, took some deep breaths and called my mum and asked her to send the photos of my admit card. I went to give my exam 15 minutes late and when I opened my question paper my heart pounded, my hands started sweating and my mind went blank. I felt so angry with myself at that moment but I realized that I needed to calm down and think about the answers. It was not like I have not studied at all. I did study a bit. Turns out I knew half of the answers and it made me a feel less stressed. I promised to not do this for the next exam. But these type of promises are meant to be broken, right? By giving this example from my life, I explained how badly stress can affect our mind and body. We all go through such situations in our life. In some cases when we are exposed to a stressful situation for a long time and are not able to cope with it, it becomes a gateway to serious mental health problems like anxiety, depression, etc. I recently read about a study which showed that younger people who routinely face heavy workloads and extreme time pressure on the job are more likely to experience major depressive disorder and generalized anxiety disorder.
Life poses challenges all the time – losing someone close, not having anyone to care for us, being in an abusive relationship, night time jobs, shortage of money, examinations, etc. All of us try to meet these challenges in our own ways. Some of us succeed while others get stuck in such life situations. Much of it depends on how we view and handle these challenges. If handled properly, stress increases the probability of one’s survival. It’s just like electricity. It gives us energy, increases our arousal and affects our performances. And if it’s too high, it may damage appliances (body) and fuse bulbs (exhaust our mind). Let’s see you have a dance performance in an hour. You see the crowd of the audience and experience a certain amount of stress. If you take it positively and it made your performance better, then it’s positive stress, also known as eustress. If it ruined your performance because you got anxious on seeing the crowd, then its negative stress, which we feel most of the time. Some most important sources of psychological stress are frustration, conflicts, internal and social pressures, heartbreak, losing a loved one, moving away from home, daily life hassles, noisy and quarrelsome surroundings, traumatic events etc. Stress can also be caused because of lack of nutritious diet and when we fail to get enough sleep. Stress ruins our sleeping patterns, increases skin problems, heart rate and blood pressure, and messes with our digestion causing heartburn, indigestion, vomiting, nausea and diarrhea. Stress decreases our confidence, increases mood swings, tension and erratic behavior and cause some serious emotional problems.
So now the question arises how can we manage stress?
Stress is a silent killer and there are a few ways to tackle it :
• First of all start eating a healthy diet and performing daily exercise and yoga. A balanced diet can lift one’s mood and give more energy. It strengthens the immune system and make one feel better to cope with stress of life. Exercise can provide release of negative energy is caused by stress.
• Practice meditation and relaxation techniques. It is a skill that reduces symptoms of stress and relaxes the body. Whenever in a stressful situation, try taking deep breaths which is used to calm the mind and relax the body.
• Lastly, being socially connected helps us to deal better with stress. Everyone need some social support without being judged in any situation. No support makes the situation worse and difficult to cope with. I recently read a study which said that people who have supportive relationships have lower levels of stress than people who have cold and unsupportive relationships full of conflicts. It’s also better find someone experienced to talk to you. We can feel light after sharing our stressful situation with someone.
If we feel that people will judge us for the situation that we are in instead of helping us, then there is an app – “WeHeal”.
It is a social app with an intention to help people to heal, just as the name suggests. It is an anonymous chat platform where we can share anything that is making us feel heavy and stressed. This app basically provides help to people who are facing some issues and troubles in their life. The person is free to share whatever problem he or she is facing. Whether they need to confess something or they need some support or someone has gone through a heartbreak or are having issues in studies, are burdened by problems, need someone to listen and care, and make them feel light and happy. He/she can share the story with a community of users of the app who are the healers. The healers provide solutions to their problems and the way to cope with them. The application keeps them anonymous and this makes it easy for them to pour their heart out without being judged. There are also inspirational short stories, quotes and experiences to encourage them. There are also three inbuilt features which provide you with meditation sessions, psychological quiz that will detect your mood, and a mini game to improve your patience level. If one doesn’t have someone to lean on or share anything with someone, but you want to clear your mind and feel less stressed and want some answers to your conflicts, then you can lean on to this app and it’s healers who will help you go through your stressful situations. However, that can be so overbearing that it seems impossible to move on, like, the death of a loved one or overwhelming feelings of anxiety, it’s important you know that help is available to you. For serious problems , it’ll be the right decision to seek a councellor or a therapist.
It is better to share our burdens with someone than carrying those burdens alone. A stress-free mind leads to a happy life.
Follow WeHeal
Instagram – https://instagram.com/heal.weheal?igshid=url56ab0qn3i
Facebook –http://facebook.com/weheal
Download the app –http://tinyurl.com/weheal
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