According to the Huffington Post, 54% of Brits say their stress and anxiety levels are increasing. A good bit of that seems related to work, as one-third of the adults they surveyed think about work from the minute they wake up and many people don’t ‘switch off’ till they go to sleep. More than half their respondents say the stress has impacted on their personal relationships and their health.
A vivid example, though not from UK, is cited in my book, “Meditation: Searching for the Real You”: “Dr. Andrew Weil tells of Mr. Shinichiro (Shin) Terayama, formerly a physicist and management consultant in his native Japan. For years he was on call 24 hours a day, sleeping little, drinking ten to twenty cups of coffee daily with a poor diet. After some years, he developed kidney cancer and though it was checked, the quality of his life kept deteriorating. Once he dreamt he attended his own funeral.”
I’ll complete the story later, but first, what is stress? It can be defined simply as ‘wear & tear.’ Dr. Hans Selye say it is: ‘the response of the body to any demand, when forced to adapt to change’. It also applies to the mind.
The Mental Health Foundation sees it as: the way you feel when you’re under abnormal pressure.
Cures? How about quitting your job, or moving to the countryside, or taking up that dream of being an artist, or a mountain climber or starting your own company?
Not bad, but not always possible. Granted that much stress nowadays comes from outside pressures we can’t always control, still, we can control our responses, somewhat, as Shin found out. To continue his story:
“Finally Shin realised he had to make drastic changes in his lifestyle. He found an alternative therapy so he could become involved in the healing process. The next day, thanks to his new attitude, he saw life as ‘unbearably beautiful.’ God seemed to be everywhere. He later realized that he had created his own cancer. Now Shin has vigorous health and is an accomplished cellist and counsels cancer patients. Weil emphasizes that the quality of Shin’s life did not improve so much due to the fact that he recovered from cancer, but because he had undergone a ‘psycho-spiritual transformation.’ “
There are of course a number of approaches to dealing with stress. Broadly, you may need to re-balance or re-focus your life and your priorities.
Specifically:
- some foods can help us, others can hinder us.
- exercise is important.
- mind practices such as meditation can help.
Some tips include:
- Changing your diet
Some of the main foods to help combat stress include asparagus, avocados, almonds, walnuts, berries, chamomile tea, oatmeal and oranges. A number of websites discuss these and other foods and of course you might want to consult a dietician or doctor.
Exercise:
According to the UK National Health Service (NHS): Research shows that physical activity can boost self-esteem, mood, sleep quality and energy, as well as reducing your risk of stress, depression, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
They suggest 150 minutes of “moderate-intensity aerobic activity” weekly, meaning you're working hard enough to raise your heart rate and break a sweat.
Examples include:
• walking fast
• water aerobics
• riding a bike on level ground or with few hills
• playing doubles tennis
There are of course a number of other exercises that qualify.
Meditation
In a study quoted in Huffington Post, lead researcher Dr Madhav Goyal, from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, US, said: "In our study, meditation appeared to provide as much relief from some anxiety and depression symptoms as what other studies have found from antidepressants."
He added: "A lot of people have this idea that meditation means sitting down and doing nothing, but that's not true. Meditation is an active training of the mind to increase awareness.”
You can observe your own lifestyle to see if you are doing your best to minimise damaging stress, but consulting with a qualified therapist may be a good idea for you also.
To Health!
Namaste,
Dada Jyotirupananda
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