What is Stress?
In a medical or biological context stress is a physical, mental, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension. Stresses can be external from the environment, psychological, or social situations or internal which may be illness, or from a medical procedure.
In such a hectic and competitive life stress has become an inevitable part of life. It has nothing to do with caste, religion, profession, nationality, gender etc. Stress can be experienced from your environment, surrounding, thoughts and body as well.
Even positive happenings such as promotion, richness, birth of a child and many more could lead to stress.
Causes of Stress:
Stress has causes which vary from individual to individual, but there are common causes or factors which are seen extremely similar amongst the people of different nationality, gender, profession etc. Chronic illness or injury, emotional problems such as depression, anxiety, grief, guilt, and low self esteem are the common elements leading to stress.
The death of a loved one, loss of a job, increase in financial obligations, getting married, shifting to a new home etc. These are the examples of life stresses.
Stress Management Techniques:
You might have heard or gone through the various methods of stress management. Did you try them ever after feeling stressed? Did you suggest anyone whom you saw stressed? A person’s reaction to stress is what matters the most and it makes all the difference. Strong stress management skills lead to higher levels of happiness and satisfaction. All you need is a plan and a bit of mindfulness.
There are both physical and psychological steps one can adopt to kill the stress. Physical includes exercising, meditation, yoga while psychological includes positive attitude, acceptance of the happened things etc. Leaning on loved ones can also alleviate stress, but in more severe cases, seeing a mental health professional may be best.
Modern researchers believe the most effective way to blunt stress is to change the perception of certain situations so as they are not seen stressful at the first impression. Getting help of the loved ones helps abundantly in reducing the stress. Changing the stress mindset not only minimizes the effects of stress, studies show, but it also enhances performance and productivity.
Always keeping a positive approach, acceptance that the things are not always under our control, being assertive instead of aggressive, adopting relaxation techniques, doing yoga, meditation, exercising regularly, eating healthy foods are the best and extremely effective modes of reducing the stress.
