No visit to doctor, therapist or counsellor is complete without the word “stress” coming up. Whatever be the ailment, stress is attributed as one of the main causes and our favourite whipping boy! We do not know when stress entered our lives. A few decades ago, there was no stress, except as a technical word in civil engineering textbooks. Not that stress was absent, we just called it differently! “Do not take so much tension!” was the advice earlier. In this IT age, tension has morphed into stress and taken over our lives!
The word is bandied about so much that “I have no stress” is an invalid statement! People will stare at you incredulously. “What do you mean you have no stress? Do you carry your work home and do you work on weekends?” If you answer is yes, you will be immediately pinned! “All that adds to stress. You just don’t know!” If you stick to your point, you will sink deeper into the quagmire. “In fact, denial of stress is one of the symptoms of stress!” At the end of it, it looks better to admit you have stress since there is no escape!
We do not deny the existence of stress. We only question whether we have attributed it more fangs and teeth, giving it a far greater import than it deserves. Magazines, newspapers and self-help books are replete with articles on stress and how it is a “silent killer”. Leave alone your IT job, even if you took buffaloes out for grazing, you will still be stressed. It is as pervasive as that, sparing none.
Luckily, these stress articles have gatecrashed into us along with suggestions on how to tackle stress. We are so well equipped that we can give a pep-talk on stress avoidance — how to take recourse to yoga, how to squeeze a stress-ball as a stress-buster, how to take a break periodically and gaze out of the window, how to spend quality time with the family and how to pick up a new hobby.
The next time I visit the doctor, I will go sufficiently armed. I will carry a diary with my daily timetable. It will have all the details — 8 a.m. to 8.30 a.m.: deep breathing; 8.30 a.m. to 9 a.m.: meditation; 9 a.m. to 10.30 a.m.: long walk ... My entire day will be spent entirely on stress-busters, like taking vitamin C pills proactively to avoid a common cold. Perhaps, then, the discussion on stress can be laid to rest.
But I am still worried. I may be told that that my fixation with the stress-buster routine is the cause for my stress. We now need a stress-buster for the stress-buster!
shankar.ccpp@gmail.com
