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PET FANCY? Pursue it because it’s a great way to beat stress

In the U.S., they have already coined a term for this generation’s harried denizens: stress junkies. Which presumes that we are somehow addicted to and getting our kicks from stress. This is hard to credit but nevertheless, true.

We take on much more than we can handle, then collapse mid-way. We insist on doing things just so and then get into a flap about that ‘just so.’ We are so used to being on the quick-moving treadmill that we don’t know how to get off or worse, what to do once we get off.

Adrenaline, compulsive anxiety, the wheel of life, experts categorise all this as stress. With accomplishment, success and progress, comes stress. And to top it all, now psychologists have found that we are in competition with ourselves, forever driving ourselves to do better, aim higher, become Top Gun and stay Top Gun, whatever it costs.

We are so busy staying connected. We need to stay in the information loop so we read at least three newspapers in the morning and four during the week. Being busy is feeling important about ourselves and we think stress is a small price to pay for that.

Except, it isn’t. Stress in small doses can actually help an individual. It can motivate, energise and propel one. But stress in unadulterated doses leads to a pounding heart, accelerated breathing and the human body is just not made to sustain that kind of adrenaline rush for long. Not without something giving. What usually gives is our health: we find it increasingly difficult to remember things, to concentrate, to sleep well, to perform our tasks efficiently; our bodies ache, we tire easily, fat accumulates in our abdomen (now we know where stress settles!) and our immune system becomes weakened.

We need a plan to tackle stress. We need to breathe slower, deeper, better, for which pranayama is wonderful. We need to move at a measured pace instead of rushing around. We need to stop being so compulsive about most things, be it checking e-mail six time a day, wiping down the kitchen counter every hour, make three trips to the grocers when one — with a list — should do. We also need to turn down what we just can’t handle...learn to start saying ‘no,’ in fact.

Stress makes us eat more, so we need to keep a check on what we ingest. When stressed, we should take time out to do something relaxing — like spending a few happy minutes with the dog, taking a leisurely bath, maybe reading the gossip pages of a film magazine. Whatever works for you, you just need to do it to stave off stress.

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