Hi Garima..
Myself Amit Seth basically from Lucknow, presently working with an IT Company at Ahmedabad...
Find below some details regarding the same, you asked for..
Stress
What is stress?
The stress mechanism in humans is a physiological process which helps us summon the energy to act. Too little stress and we do nothing: too much and we do too much, or try to. The art of stress management is in balancing the two.
This is the point at which we have a full and interesting life, but not so many challenges that we’re over-stretched; “the joy of stress”. It is different for different people as we seem to thrive on very different levels of stress.
Managing stress levels
To get near this fluctuating balance you simply choose which kinds of experience you expose yourself to. If you have too little stress (bored and becoming inefficient) take on another challenge, go to see a horror film, take up a high risk sport. If you have too much stress (frazzled and exhausted) you need to cut down your stressors. In this way you need to be aware of your own preferred level of stress and respect it.
Modern life is more stressful than we were designed for and most of us in this culture are faced with too many stressors. Student life is stressful as it exposes you to 1. stressful changes of lifestyle, friendship group, identity, etc and 2. the stress of academic work and deadlines.
A useful rule, when needing to cut down stressors, is “If you can control it, do: if you can’t control it, ignore it.”
Research has shown that being in control is, in itself, a great reducer of stress.
If you can control it, do
Take the position that you are actively in control of these stressors and choose how much and when to experience them, on your own terms. Be assertive!
If you can’t control it, ignore it
This gives you permission to ignore all those things you cannot immediately influence, ie you allow yourself not to fret about them.
Health warning!
If you are experiencing too much stress, not only will you not enjoy your time at LMU but you also run the risk of collapsing with exhaustion. This is because the body cannot tolerate for long the hormonal high that shoots us to our peaks of performance.
We were built for responding to short term stressors (eg lion attack!) rather than the long term stressors which are so common in our lifestyle today.
It is an unfortunate fact that the very hormones (such as adrenaline), which can produce impressive feats, are positively damaging to the body in the long term. Physical damage from prolonged exposure (bad digestion, high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke) is common in this culture.
The body has even more difficulty dealing with the chemicals of stress in the presence of:- bad diet, over eating, alcohol, tranquillisers, caffeine, nicotine, drugs, and lack of sleep.
Strong lifestyle choices:
• A sense of humour
• Right diet
• Physical activity (sport allows the body to use up the hormones as it was designed to)
• Use of alternate stressors (ie relax by using a casual activity that is still a stressor eg competitive games. This seems to help the body to unwind more than blobbing out.)
• Realistic goals
• Understanding of stress
• Relaxation and sleep
• Good preparation before challenging tasks
• Good financial planning
• Stable and supportive friendship network
Food guide for stress management:
• Natural (few additives)
• Maintains indexed body weight
• Eaten slowly
• Balanced: 50% carbohydrates, 30-35% fats, 15-20% protein, 50gms fibre, vitamins + minerals.
• Lots of water (8 glasses daily). This allows the kidneys to filter out excess hormones.
Hope it may help you out upto a some extent....
Regards,
Amit Seth.