Reasons for Stress, Stress management

Let us try to define stress. Stress is psychological response to given physical and social circumstances. This psychological response may manifests itself in physical diseases. It starts with thoughts, thoughts affect mind and mind affects body. Today majority of mankind is under stress. Stress can not be controlled until person is strong in terms of philosophical knowledge. Smoking, Alcohol, Coffee, Energy Drinks are unhealthy options. Various means of entertainment are very temporary solution. Exercise/Sex / Healthy Lifestyle/Yoga/ Meditation/ Medication can do little help but they do not go at the root of the problem.

Let us try to find psychological and philosophical reasons and solutions for stress.

1. Fear: Fear arises due to some insecurity. We can be insecure about anything which we want to preserve like health, life, wealth, relationship, job, various means of pleasure etc. Feeling of fear directly affects our heart beats and kills it consequently. Now we can generalize that origin of fear is attachment to some object that we want to preserve or get. Philosophy can help here. First of all we should leave the illusion of control. The truth is we can not control anything. Government tries to control economy, parents try to control child, businessman tries to control business, boss tries to control subordinates. How successful they are? Do we conclude that we should leave everything at the mercy of chaos or destiny? Existence or non existence of destiny both can not be proven. So the right approach toward life is that we should do our part, we should listen to our inner voice, we should do our duties honestly, according to understanding and consent of our intellect. Then leave everything on chaos or destiny. We can not control events but the response. We can loose everything any time, whole family looses life in a car crash within seconds, so there is nothing to fear. Set your self free from fear and enjoy blissful freedom.
   
2. Overload: Now a days everybody is overloaded. Students, professionals, house makers, businessmen, sports persons, film stars everyone is overloaded. When we are made to do things, more than our mind or body can endure, with or without our consent then we call it overload. Effect of overload is evident from muscle injuries of sports persons and Heart/ Kidny related problems of business professionals. If we want to handle overload then we must draw a line somewhere. This line is going to come with a price tag, it is not free. One who is willing to pay the price will reap the benefits. There will be some fear associated with the line that we are going to draw. Then we have to overcome fear with the rules of handling fear. Again the choice should be made by person according to his understanding of the things. There is always some loss associated with a gain.
   
3. Social conflicts: Let us analyze it, starting with a joke. "I have figured out, what is wrong with my life. It is other people". Human are social animals and there can not be a purely cohesive environment. Here is the solution. We should try to foster compassion inside us for one who is lower than us, with respect to anything like knowledge or wealth or health etc. The person who is underprivileged is most likely to hate a person who is privileged. We should practice friendliness with one who is equal to us. There should be respect for one who is better than us in any way. If a person is better than us, surly that person will have a ego that should be respected. There is another category of people who are always there to do something which is going to make us measurable. We should show indifference to such people and behavior if it is not doing a great harm. Relationships can be harmonized through mutual sacrifice and better understanding.
   
4. Unfulfilled desires: We all have desires. The very existence of life is because of desires of the mind which acts on the matter and manifests itself in various formates. If we do not have desires then why do we live, there has to be some purpose behind living our lives. If desires are not fulfilled they manifest themselves in aggression, frustration and depression. Sometime they become reason of various psychological and physical ailments. Rule number one, we should have rational desires. Rule number two, there should be clear distinction between genuine desires and fantasy. We all fantasize, fantasy is beautiful and source of pleasure. If genuine desires of life are fulfilled we should be contented with that. If by trying all means our genuine desires are not fulfilled still we should be contented with that and leave the things to destiny. Try to find some purpose of living and live the life, as it is a time pass. Be spontaneous about life and be satisfied with what you have. I would like to summarize with the statement that "Try to fulfill your idea of happiness but do not get attached to it, all desires are never fulfilled, they are there to keep us on our toes and make us unhappy, control them."
5. Inner conflict: Inner conflict takes place when there is conflict between multiple personality layers of a person. In simple layman terms, when we have to make decision amidst multiple conflicting self interests. We are all victim of duality of life, we all find ourselves in a situation where we have to choose between two or more options. When we are in such situation we see loss/profit in some format, no matter what decision we make. This inner conflict results in great mental trauma. One should understand the fact that every situation will have equal profit and loss associated with it, so when you are in dilemma just choose any one of the given option without worrying about result. The decision has to be made by the person in context by prioritizing intelligently, moreover one has to be ready for bearing loss for some profit. Some time short term loss results in long term profit. One should not feel guilty later, for the choices he has made today.
   
6. Jealousy: Jealousy does not contribute to stress directly but it destroys inner peace. There is no reason to feel jealous. The absolute truth is that, King or Pawn each one is equally measurable. Everyone actors, sports persons, businessmen, workers, students they are all in situations which are pleasant and unpleasant at the same time. It is the week human mind which things that attainment of a certain scenario will lead him to happiness, but that very scenario will take that person to yet another set of problems. This world called Matrix that is designed that way. An epic on philosophy called movie Matrix, a must watch movie for everyone.
7. Guilt felling: Like jealousy, guilt does not contribute to stress directly, but it destroys inner peace. When we do something or made to do something which is wrong or sinful according to understanding of our intellect, then we get guilt feeling. This is a mental feeling but kills our health insidiously. Right or wrong is not absolute, it is relative and it depends on intellect of a person, for example doing one thing may be right for one person and same thing is considered wrong from another person. One thing is right in one culture and same thing is wrong in some other culture. We should try not to do anything wrong according to understanding of our intellect. If we do something wrong knowingly or unknowingly then we should try to forgive ourselves to get away from guilt feeling.
   

Now I would like to give three general solutions for any type of problem in life:

1. Indifference : It simply means do not bother about the problem and accept the reality. You live life in such a way that gain and loss both become same for you, hence you will have peace of mind.
   
2. Karma Yoga: Try to make things better without bothering about results. It means giving your best, fulfilling your duties and leaving the results on fate.
   
3. Free Will: It means, you decide your goal first then you think of the means. If you have faith that goal can be achieved and you keep pushing the things. That faith is called free will. The goals can be achieved but there is a huge risk involved if your faith was miscalculated by you. You end up pushing so much energy and your efforts fail. But if one has complete faith then anything can be achieved. One more thing, prepare your self for the suffering that will come along.
   

I would summarize by saying that, these are the guidelines, one has to use common sense and tune with his intellect. The earth is crowded by humans and every human want to live with maximum resources, while the resources are limited. Stress is there at macro/global level, stress in the life of individual is macro level stress. It does not mean we have to loose hope, most of the people can get benefited if the guideline are followed. Take a new hobby, nurture a relationship, take on a new venture, try different things in life you will be happier. Life is beautiful and ugly at the same time, try to look at the brighter side of a situation or scenario, you will be happier.


Dark side of stress management:

Do not conclude here, there is another side of the coin. There are times when stress is good, it keeps us on our toes and it makes us smarter and stronger. If stress is not there, no body will stretch himself and everything will stand still. Students will not score well, employees will loose productivity, we will not witness great sporting contests, scientific discoveries etc. The show must go on. The person in context has to manage himself and find out whether stress is creative or destructive. The middle path or the path of moderation is best way out. A person has to analyze his thought patterns properly or take help of psychiatrist or spiritual Guru who can help understand himself better.




"Wretched, ephemeral race, children of chance and tribulation, why do you force me to tell you the very thing which it would be most profitable for you not to hear? The very best thing is utterly beyond your reach: not to have been born, not to be, to be nothing. However, the second best thing for you is: to die soon" -- Aristotle