Stress is a word that comes up regularly in our daily conversations. But, what exactly is stress? In simple words, stress is anything that places strong demands on us. These demanding or threatening situations are known as stressors.
Stressors differ in severity. It can be anything ranging from daily hassles to major life events like death, academic or career failure, serious illness, facing a natural calamity etc are events in life which require major coping strategies.
Psychologists believe that “A little amount of stress is required in everyone’s life. This is known as Eustress, it does not hamper us in any way and is good for us. Only when it becomes prolonged does it harm us.”
Stress affects us physically, psychologically and behaviourally. It also has adverse effects on our well being. Effects of stress psychologically are the most dramatic for people who have witnessed catastrophic life events. These people mostly develop a disorder after the occurrence of the event, known as PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder). In this people have vivid flashbacks, dreams, hyper arousal and they usually tend to draw away from people. Stress may also lead to depression and crying spells. It also affects our Immune system and may sometimes manifest in forms of physical illness.
It is important to deal with stress before it hampers our daily functioning and takes a toll on our lives. Simple coping strategies can be use for the same. Some easy strategies are-
- Being prepared. We should be mentally prepared for whatever work we have to do and not take pressure we can’t handle.
- Being organized. It is important that we organize the work we have and prepare a time table, so that we know what to do when.
- Taking a break. Work might become monotonous and it is important to take a break from it and go out for a walk, party or a holiday.
- Doing Yoga. This century year old technique is one the most effective ways of dealing with stress.
- Meeting deadlines- When we are not able to complete our work on time, we get tensed at the end moment and get stressed.
Stress is a phenomenon which is very common and all of us face it in our lives. It is important that we know how to deal with it and live a healthy life.
