Whatever you do for a living, you are likely to face stressful situations. Once I had a neighbour who was a postmaster. He used to leave home early in the morning and return home late at night. Although he was expected to work eight hours, he put in more hours to earn overtime. By working long hours he neglected the home front and his own health. After a few years he was diagnosed with a serious heart ailment.
In order to lead a stress-free life you have to set limits to what you do. You should never let work encroach upon your domestic life. Some people bring home office work and spend long hours reading files and writing reports. There are times you have to draw the line. Some people tend to think that they can go on working without a break. You will be able to turn out good work and enjoy what you do for a short time.
All of us have high and low energy levels throughout the day. They are called Ultradian Rhythms lasting for about two hours. When we have low energy levels, we yawn or feel sleepy. As a result we lose our concentration. When you lose your concentration you tend to make mistakes. Therefore never try to go on working for long hours. Whenever possible take a 20-minute break every couple of hours to rejuvenate your body. During such breaks you can go for a walk or take a short nap or daydream. Today it is possible to listen to soothing music without disturbing others. If you do so, you can increase your productivity.
Leisure
Some people feel guilty when they indulge in leisure which does not mean rest or relaxation. Technically leisure means anything you do out of freedom. There are people who are in a hurry to finish the day’s work without taking a break, but our body is not a machine. It needs regular breaks. I have seen executives leaving their cubicles and walking round leisurely for a few minutes. If you sit down and work for long hours, your productivity will suffer.
Most monthly paid workers are in debt. They raise loans from banks and money lenders. In fact they need money to put up houses and buy vehicles, but they forget the fact that they have to pay a big monthly interest. After paying the interest they will be left with a small sum of money which is inadequate to meet mounting domestic expenses. Then they are compelled to raise more loans and they eventually get into a vicious cycle. William Shakespeare wrote “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.” In their 1992 book ‘Your Money or Your Life’ Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin say that after we meet our survival needs and require some comforts, the satisfaction we get from purchases actually decreases. In short, more spending brings less fulfilment.
Shouting
You may have seen bosses shouting at their subordinates. Researchers have new evidence that losing your cool may be deadly. When we grow old most of us take treatment to control our blood pressure, sugar levels, weight and cholesterol. According to research, their combined effects do the most harm. The result is life threatening stress dubbed the ‘Deadly quartet’ or metabolic syndrome. A team at Yale University has found a link between chronic stress and abdominal fat in women. If unchecked, stress can lead to heart attacks, strokes and diabetes. Smoking, overeating, drinking and lack of exercise can worsen the situation.
Temper
If you wish to live long, you have to watch your temper. There is nothing wrong in having an ambition and working towards it. However, those who get angry over the slightest provocation are likely to suffer from stress. In most people stress mounts so high that they begin to snap at people. If you begin to lose your temper, take a short walk to bring down the stress levels. According to the US National Institute of Health, there is trouble brewing when a woman’s waist measures 90 centimetres or a man’s waist measures 100 centimetres. That is regardless of their height. Therefore, always watch your waistline.
Life is full of circumstances and events known as stressors that produce threats to your well-being. Even pleasant events such as planning a wedding or beginning a much sought after job can produce stress. Although negative events result in greater detrimental consequences than positive ones, it is a well-known fact that all of us face stress in our lives. For people to consider an event stressful, they must perceive it as life-threatening and must lack the resources to deal with it.
What you have to remember is that stress is a normal part of life. Without stress you might not be sufficiently motivated to complete the activities needed to reap the desired results. However, too much stress can take a toll. As stress cannot be completely avoided, you have to learn how to cope with it. There are many positive ways of coping with stress. One way is to adopt emotion-focused coping by accepting sympathy from others and looking at the bright side of life. In a stressful situation you can also take a time-out from stress by creating positive events.
Time-tested strategies
Although there is no universal way of dealing with stress in our lives, it can be controlled to a certain extent by adopting time-tested strategies. The best way to deal with a stressful situation is to treat it as a challenge. If you have failed in an examination several times, you need expert advice. Secondly, you can make a threatening situation less threatening by viewing it in a different light and modifying your attitude. Thirdly, you can adopt new goals when your attempt to solve a stressful situation fails. Fourthly, you can change your physiological reaction to stress before it happens. For instance, if you are living in an area subject to landslides, you can move into a different location.
Coping strategies can be summarised into one statement: Learn how to live. Do what you enjoy. If your parents want you to be lawyer when your ambition is to be a musician, follow your passion and lead a stress-free life. Much stressful situations can be avoided if we try to find our port of destination early in life.
