STRESS MANAGEMENT

• Consequently, one may feel that he/she is being left behind in the run of time and end up frustrated. This could be the first step of getting into a negative mode.

• The confidence level of the person starts a downward trend leading to a state of hopelessness.

• In acute cases, where stress gets stretched for long, and frustration runs heavy in the mind, the thought process may get stifled and thereby become directionless. And then, the danger is, that the hormonal balance of the body could get disturbed, which in turn, may further vitiate the thought process. The person thus gets trapped in a spiral, which if left unattended, could lead to incoherence, clearly pointing to ‘Depression’, calling for medical intervention.

What are the causes of stress?
The underlying causes of Stress, are twofold:  Apparent and Resident.

Apparent Causes – what seemingly triggers stress:

• When a person is not able to come to terms with the usual trials and tribulations of life.

• One fails to adapt to the expectations of the varying dynamics of time.

• When one’s hopes and aspirations are unfulfilled.

• When a person fails to look at current issues in the right perspective and works on wrong leads to invite self-created problems.

• When a person does not apply proper forethought, and by one’s misled instincts, impulsively jumps to action, thus becoming one’s own undoing.

• One gets baffled when confronted with unexpected problems.

 

However, there are some who can maintain their composure and remain focused to their tasks despite all odds. The weaklings wilt under pressure.

Why this difference in behavioural-trend from person-to-person?

 

Every individual is born unique according to one’s exclusive conditioning of the mind. This accounts for varying mental strength, vision and intellect leading to differing perceptive and comprehensive abilities.

Resident Causes of Stress:

• One fails to identify, acknowledge, and optimize one’s immense inherent potential.

• Imperfections seeded at the base level.

• Mentally weak, because of a sense of fear/negativity (dwelling as a seed). This could be as a sequel to impressions of unresolved unpleasant experiences in the past.

• A person habitually is an escapist, and often fails to acknowledge the truth at first appearance.

• A person is stuck to the past and does not prepare for change thereby remaining under prepared for new challenges.

• Inherently being restless, thus lacking in focus.

• A person is stuck to self-delusions, thrives in his / her own fantasy world, distanced from ground realities.

• Inflated Ego whereby one gets fixated to self-defined parameters of life, and not open to look beyond for a better option if any available. They are unable to accept anything beyond what they wish to see.

Mechanics of Mind:

Before discussing how to address Stress, it would be desirable to give a look at the flow diagram of mind, which primarily holds the key to a person’s behavioural trends.

The mind is driven by well laid out past impressions. The footprints of these impressions, account for inherent strengths and weaknesses - one’s virtues & attributes, habits & attitudes, and desires. Accordingly, the corrections need to be made at the roots – the impressions in the mind – as a therapy for stress.

The remedies:

• Early Morning Walk/ Physical exercise to keep the physical body in shape. With the vitamin ‘D’ available in the early morning Sun, the confidence level does also improve.

• Pranayama (breathing technique as prescribed by Yoga) to establish Mind-Body coordination.

• Detoxification of the Mind through self-reflection.

• Pursuing Dhyāna under the guidance of a Guru. This process drives away all negative impressions in the mind, which creates the mind space necessary to process one’s thoughts objectively.

• Purification of the mind by inducing positive thoughts through self-learning and counselling by a Guru well conversant with the dynamics of life in holistic terms.

Reorient the thought process afresh through autosuggestion on a regular basis, applying Dhyāna.