COPING WITH STRESS

Sometimes a person can be too controlled. He can appear calm and composed, reasonable, efficient, thoroughly dependable, good at dealing with crises and completely on top of the world. And then without warning, he can suddenly suffer an explosion of stress, which may take the form of serious illness.

We all need control and self-discipline. But beware of that stiff-upper-lip and I can take it attitude. You can be as strong and tough and intelligent and capable as you like-but there is a limit. We can not rid ourselves of our problems and worries and all the pressures of life as easily as that. What we try to do is to forget them for the time being by keeping busy, or by taking something to calm us down. Because we have managed to push stress into the back ground of our mental fort, we feel a bit better.

Yet here is the reason for so much of our tiredness, moodiness and irritability with others, and all those vague feelings of uneasiness. It is the unrecognized hidden pressures, those emotions and feelings which we cannot always let go without hurting, or upsetting or antagonizing somebody.

Nevertheless, it helps to recognize and admit the stress in our lives. If you are unhappy, frustrated, dissatisfied with things as if they do not push it away pretending to yourself and everybody else that this is the way you like it. Accept the oncoming trouble. Recognise there is a problem inside you. You can see it in true colours. Admit honestly to yourself that this not what you want, and that you want to change it.

Most problems can be relieved even when they cannot be wholly solved. But only when we are honest with ourselves, and are not trying to pull the wool over our own and other people’s eyes. If it is possible unburden yourself to someone trustworthy. If you cannot talk to anybody, try writing a letter immediately after reading it through. You may be surprised how your outlook lightens and your attitude changes as you release the stress within you.

Stress is unavoidable. Anybody and everybody can have stress. The way to cope with stress is to let it come out whenever and wherever we can.