Managing Stress

Every one suffers from stress, so it not manly to go around carrying an “I’m stressed” poster on your forehead. Learning to master your stress-condition is key to keeping a calm collected exterior all the time, even when the world is collapsing around you, and deep inside, you feel like you just need to run away from everything. Then you will be different from that guy who considers suicide just because of stress, which is a normal thing in the lifetime of any human. It is a fact of life that things will not always go the way you want or expect them to. Work will pile up around you, or your private life will experience disturbance which will translate to stress. Statistically speaking, 43 percent of all adults suffer adverse health effects from stress. Furthermore, 75 to 90 percent of visits to a doctor are for stress-related complaints. That explains how much money people spend treating “stress” The fact most people simply don’t realize is that to combat stress, you need to learn to relax. When you are stressed because of too much work, or hectic deadlines, taking a break in the middle of it all, and doing something that you really enjoy makes a whole world of a difference. Most of us bring stress upon ourselves through our lifestyle. You can’t expect to live a stress-free life if you are always late for work and your work schedule is disorganized and erratic. If you never prioritize your work, your work will make a mess of your mental state. Work will always seem to pile up around you, and before you know it, you are stuck because you are operating on a deadline and you don’t even know where you kept the files your boss needs to see immediately! Don’t blame anyone else for that kind of stress. Privately, the things that build up stress are the usual day-to-day things that we take for granted. If you don’t sleep enough, have late nights every day all week long, there is no way you can escape getting stressed. The body needs to rest so that it can regenerate and enable the mind to cope better with demanding situations. Alcohol and nicotine (cigarettes) are not good either. For the short-term, smoking a cigarette might seem stress-relieving, because of the calming effect of the narcotic components in cigarettes that dull your receptiveness to stress. But after the effects of nicotine wear off, you are worse off, and you find you badly need to smoke again. The long term effect is addiction. As a stress reliever, alcohol is even worse than cigarettes. Perhaps the best way of managing stress is to laugh it off. I know it sounds absurd, laughing when your boss is threatening to fire you, or when you are having serious problems with your girlfriend. But you have to admit that laughing actually puts a light touch to whatever situation may be causing you stress. At first, it won’t be easy to laugh in the face of pending doom when you are stressed. But with practice, you will become a master of stress management, and just when you are beginning to feel the stress coming on, you shall take off a few minutes to catch up with your funny side, and have a laugh. shemugisha@gmail.com