New Age Stress

• What is Stress?
• What is old age stress? What is the new age of Stress?
• Causes of Stress
• Suggestions
• Quotations

What is Stress?

Stress is defined as pressure experienced by a person in response to life’s demands. Stress is the wear and tear of the body and the mind when we try to cope with continuously changing environments.
Stress is the tension or the strain that one experience from a situation that requires to develop new coping and managing skills.
Hans Selye in 1949, was the first to coin Stress, he defined it as a non-specific response of the physical body to any kind of demand made on it. After his research, the word stress became known.
“Stress is often termed as 20th-century syndrome born out man’s race towards modern progress and its ensuing complexities “Benjamin Franklin
Vedantic Definition

Stress is the mental agitations produced by your unfulfilled desires.

Old/new age stress
The old-age Stress that our parents experienced is a emotional outburst. They blame and complain about money issues, nagging partner or weather. These are the general old age stress.

New age stress comes in different ways:
1-  Techno-stress: Technology is not responding fast to us either computer is late in starting; download speed slow; downloading series is slow.  9 out of 10 people get scared when there is no network for mobile and signal lost. Hence, Stress is linked to technological advancements. 90% of technological innovations happen in the last 2 decades ; the way we are using technological innovations – loving things and using people – is one of the sources of Stress.
2-  Insta stress:  instantaneous Stress due for  traffic jam, waiting for line for a service, restaurant service too slow, neighbours not responding, sugar and salt too little or too much in food, sitting and travelling for long haul flights
3-  Environmental Stress – bright light/noise from outside /mosquito in the room  / too much heating  /too much cooling  /confined spaces
4-  Social Stress _ punctuality/ difficult conversations /dealing with partner
5-  Life-altering Stress such as the loss of a loved one, a professional set back, a health issue  
 
The Stress at the physical level manifests as :
• Rapid breathing
• Perspiration
• Blood pressure
• Loss of sleep
• Intake of drugs and alcohol
• Nail-biting
• Restlessness at the physical level
• Eating disorder could be anorexia or bulimia

Stress at the emotional level manifests as :
Panic attacks
Anxiety
Losing temper
Lack of concentration
Memory lapses and confusion
Hygiene
Difficulty making decision

On a physical level, Patanjali stated that every disease you go to at the physical level result form a condition you put yourself to at the emotional level. 90% of physical ailments we go through could be attributed to Stress.

On a professional level, the heart attacks risk factors rise on Monday mornings.

Work has become a source of Stress:  9 out of 10 people who quit jobs do so because of people – people quit people.

On an intellectual level, If all your distractions have become your attractions, you feel Stress. The inability, frustration, helplessness you feel are a result of a strong mind and weak intellect.

Stress also has a positive side; it challenges you. When you understand that the resources you have are far greater than the issues and challenges you are dealing with, these challenges become a way to excel and compete in life.. We have incredible resources that enable us to face the situation. You enhance the potential you have.
Stress occurs when the pressure from the outside is far more significant than the resource inside. What if you take it as a challenge?
Actually, competition enhances productivity.  Resilience plays a role as it is the ability to get back up after you have fallen. Resilience is strength; it is essentially a life skill that enables us to utilize our internal resources properly.
“It makes a mute speak with eloquence and a lame person climb high mountains.”  
“You must lift yourself by yourself; you are your greatest friend and worst enemy. “
( quotes from The Bhavagad Gita)
Befriending yourself enables you to deal with your self in a resilient way.

Causes of Stress:
§  The rigidity of thinking: what you think is right and cannot change it. Different schools of thoughts fighting each other. Have the willingness to understand and raise yourself
§  Taking things personally: what people say and do has nothing to do with you. You may wonder what I did or say that made them this way; it could be their minds playing with them
§  Unreasonable expectations:  it is one of the primary cause of Stress. If we are cautious about dealing with expectations, we have the right expectations. With right expectations, no agitations, no stress.
§  The more your happiness depends on outer circumstances, your pleasure and survival depends on external factors, you subject yourself to stress.
§  The more self-centered a person is, they become insecure- the greater insecurity, the greater the Stress

Relief from Stress
§  You only can eradicate it when you identify its root cause: Once we identify the root cause, you can deal with Stress.
 
§  Lack of right assessment ( not judgement )– clear awareness leading to an understanding of a person: when your assessment is correct, there is no disappointment.
 You need to accept things as they are and not as you want them to be.

Relief from Stress happens when you convert non-acceptance into acceptance.”When there is acceptance, there is tolerance; when there is non-acceptance, there is anger. When there is acceptance of someone else success, it is an inspiration; when there is no acceptance, there is jealousy.
§  Acceptance is an product of the intellect. Intellect brings up clarity, and therefore you accept. circumstances may not be in your control. But acceptance or non-acceptance is in your control.
“Accept that which cannot be changed,
Change that which can be changed
Remove yourself from that which can not be accepted. “
 
 
Quotations:

All problems are internal
Diamond is just a piece of carbon that handled Stress exceptionally well
“Any fool can find Shanti in Shanti _ but it takes a person of exceptional calibre to find Shanti in a-Shanti ” (Mahatma Gandhi )
 “Your mind can make a hell out of a heaven and a heaven out of hell.” (John Milton)

We can live a life free of Stress if you know how to deal with your mind.
Conquer your mind, you conquer Stress.