How stressed are you? Yoga therapist explains best ways to control, manage & overcome it

An appropriate level of stress is needed in our daily life. In the absence of this stress, we would probably end up missing office or school. The need to strive harder in our lives would also be missing.

This appropriate stress, also known as Eustress, is needed for our overall well-being. This form of benign stress is not a problem; on the contrary, it is much needed as it directly helps in improving one’s productivity and overall performance. But beyond an optimal point, with increased anxiety, the problematic “stress” emerges and can severely deteriorate professional and personal wellness.

How Does Stress Become A Problem?

To understand how stress becomes an issue, imagine a scenario – a furious or upset dog relentlessly barking or running behind you. Now placing yourself in that moment, just observe yourself for 5 seconds and you’ll notice, a raised heartbeat, increased blood flow all over, profuse sweating, a sense of speed (incase you need to run), a sense of sharpness (noticing all that can be used to protect yourself in that moment) etc.

In that moment, all you get to think of is how to escape this unfolding edgy scenario, and sooner or later, when you do manage to escape the dog, you are joyous, hopefully unbitten and carry a story to repeatedly narrate over the years.

So, clearly, there are two parts to this incident: one is the intense stress scenario involving the dog, and the other is a relaxed scenario involving the stories around it when the stressful situation has been somewhat sorted. Stress becomes a problem when the dog is persistently behind you and the storytelling relaxed scenario does not emerge.

Do You Need To Manage Your Stress?
If the fierce dog is persistently chasing you for several days, months or years, you can calculate the extreme intensity in terms of raised heartbeat and elevated functioning of all bodily systems that would go on for a long time.

As a result of this overloaded state of functioning, you and your body will be totally exhausted and this state of persistent overload can be understood as chronic stress which might manifest as bodily systemic issues, psycho-somatic issues or acute health problems.

Normally when stress strikes, there is a natural subsequent phase of relaxation, which is when the body recuperates from the stressful incident but the problem arises when this relaxation does not take place and resultantly there is constant stress.

A long-term financial problem, relationship troubles, chronic health issues, office-related interpersonal issues or persistent deadline pressures are some typical examples when there could be constant & chronic stress and just no respite. This is the kind of prolonged stress which may lead to any or many of the following symptoms and needs to be addressed with “Stress Management”.

The best way to manage stress, however, is to contain it right at the start.

If you consistently experience a majority of these symptoms, then do not hesitate to reach out for stress-management advice from professionals.

(Mallika Bhanot is a yoga therapist and conducts stress-management programmes for corporations.)