Depression… Anxiety… Stress… Unknowingly these feelings affect our life drastically. But people are still not realising how badly these feelings can affect us.
Most of the people experience stress and anxiety from time to time. It starts interfering with our daily life and may indicate a more serious issue. For most people, stress and anxiety can come and go. The common causes of stress may be having an illness or injury, starting a new job or school or can vary.
Despite increasing conversations around mental health, therapy continues to be a step people are hesitant to take.
It is normal to experience stress and anxiety from time to time and there are strategies you can use to make it more manageable.
First of all, pay attention on how our mind and body responds to stressful and anxiety-producing situations so that when any such situation occurs, we will be able to anticipate our reaction and make it less disruptive.
Secondly, lifestyle changes can help a lot in dealing with daily life situations. It can include a healthy diet, getting enough sleep, meditation, regular exercise and recognising the factors that trigger our stress.
If anytime you feel overwhelmed by a stressful situation, try taking a break and listen to some relaxing music as it has a positive effect on the brain and the body. When you are feeling stressed, talk to someone about your problems. He/she can be anyone like a friend, psychologist or anyone close to you.
It sometimes happens that calling someone is not an option, then talking to yourself can be the next best thing. Just ask yourself why you are stressed out and that everything will be okay.
One thing that we ignore is a proper diet, but we need to know that stress levels and proper diet are closely related. Try to avoid sugary snacks and plan. Instead of coffee or energy drink, try green tea as it has a calming effect on the nervous system. “Laughter is the best medicine”. It is not just a saying but a reality. Laughter improves mood and decreases the level of stress-causing hormones. So keep smiling.”
Most of the tips are generally for immediate relief. But lifestyle changes like “mindfulness” can be more effective in the longer run. It has a large part of meditative and somatic approaches to mental health.
Stress is an unavoidable part of life but that doesn’t mean you should ignore it. Untreated stress can cause potentially serious physical and mental health problems.
Now its high time to realise that people who take therapy aren’t mentally weak or unstable. We need to help each other out and do not desolate those who seek therapy back to their shell.
Listen actively to the signals from your body to develop an open relationship between your body and mind, so that both may flourish.
-By Sandhya Dwivedi
Author’s bio:
Dr Sandhya, holding the position of Director at Pathfinder (counselling and guidance) is Counselor, P.G in Psychology and Counselling, Ph.D in Psychology of teenagers with respect to emotions & feelings and role of Psychology in Computer Science. She is a psychologist and child counselor. Dr Sandhya has been working with various students, families and special children for the last 15 years.
