Stress – The Joy Kill
Are you also struggling with the ‘S’ word and don’t know how to deal with the toll it has taken on your life. Have your stress levels increased excruciatingly high for you to live your daily life contentedly, or are you dragging your day like a zombie carrying this uneasy and anxious feeling in the pit of your stomach.
What’s worse is you feel like it’s an incurable disease that you can’t do anything about, and most people make friends with this horrendous habit.
But that’s not true, though, because stress, tension, worry, nervousness, or whatever you want to call it, can be reversed. Of course, it takes time, constant effort, and lots of self-love to get it out of your system (Goodbye, never see you again, phew).
The Start
Stress or worry can be triggered due to various reasons, and trust us; it doesn’t discriminate between age, gender, or size. Anyone can be a target of this destructive inclination. It could be a small child getting stressed about not being able to make friends in school, and before he/she would know, it could become a habit continuing in his/ her teen years or later.
It could also occur in adults due to the constant pressure one faces by society, be it a homemaker worrying about her child or a working person due to performance pressure. And of course, the social pressure of always smiling, being prim and proper, or not being able to be yourself among people. The financial pressures bring in added distress.
The pivotal point here is how this habit becomes incessant in your life and starts to eat you up from head to toe. It starts to take up most of your mind’s thoughts, thus making you unable to think prolifically.
You begin to distance yourself from your loved ones and society, majorly because a sense of insecurity creeps in, making you incapable of mingling amongst others. Some even start feeling insecure about how they speak and walk. Others get into chronic anxiety and depression mode.
These symptoms take a massive toll on your physical health, making you ill and unenthusiastic about life. Smiling becomes an enormous task in life, and that’s just completely sad. Stress incurs a never-ending chain of pain, low self-esteem, and tiredness.
The Challenge
Many would think that the challenge in eradicating stress from their lives lies in the long hours of involvement in exercise, socialization, time management, and whatnot. Well, these steps come later on, and they could be pretty tiresome for some. The foremost confrontation you have to make to get rid of stress is self-love.
You need to start seeing yourself in a new light believing that you are worth it, that you are worth being loved by yourself first and then someone else maybe. You and only you can work on your worries and your insecurities. For that, you have to prioritize yourself.
Understandably, you could have children or your parents look after you, or maybe you believe you aren’t good enough to be someone else’s friend. It could possibly be that you have financial pressure, or it could just be that you feel lonely all the time.
But still, none of these reasons or more are good enough for you to not work on yourself. Remember, change is the only constant, and to be happy, you have to adapt to changes.
You don’t need to fill your plate full and overdo yourself. Just a start is essential right now. This start could be by reading a small joke on your phone or listening to a lovely song that you use to listen to a long time back.
It could be that you rekindle with one of the habits that you use to enjoy in your happy times in life, like reading a novel. It could also be watching a movie that you have missed out on.
Get out of this haze of unhappiness and just do one of those things you love or use to like. Anything that will make you feel good about yourself. Let your mind and body relax for some time (it doesn’t matter whether it’s just 5 minutes or 5 hours). What’s fundamental here is that your mind wants to try.
Make yourself believe that you are your person and nothing and no stress is worth wearing away your charm and soul. Understand that if no one else loves you at the end of the day, you have got your own back, and that’s a lifetime partnership.
The Constant
Now you have crossed the first hurdle of your ongoing pain. Congratulations, you have won half the battle. We understand that it’s not easy to overcome this. But once you are through, you have to keep a steady pace to make yourself happy through small changes.
Let’s start that by identifying your trigger points. The evident ones like a divorce or a money crunch are easy to spot, but the persistent stress behavior could also be due to camouflaged reasons. For that, try and read your patterns and nature. It could be a person in your life, anxiety while in a large crowd, or maybe just the unnecessary insecurity you have built over many years.
Try and avoid any negativity that occurs due to your trigger. For that, you have to make yourself strong and adamant, believing that this doesn’t affect me. Distract yourself from something productive. Go for a walk listening to music, talk to someone and open up about your worries, involve in some art, or just binge-watch a series.
You could also go for conventional methods like a workout or running session, dinner date with your partner, meditation, yoga, healthy eating, and sleeping patterns. Trust us, only if you are willing to try; there are thousands of doors for you to discover.
And if still, your brain cells don’t listen to your innocent attempts, don’t panic or overthink. The next step is to start preparing the brain to avoid crucial situations head-on.
It’s ok if you put yourself first and alter your direction from the responsibilities and the so-called “maturity” people expect from you. Avoid the person who makes you insecure or the situation that makes you overthink.
Become that small child who is always smiling because he doesn’t know any better. Remember, you deserve a halt, and nothing can stop you from taking that.
The New You
Life has been unfair to you, but that’s how it is; that’s the hard truth. Only you can take yourself out of that agonizing ordeal. Once you start living in the moment, prioritizing yourself over everyone else, you will become the stronger and healthier version of yourself.
Your mind will be at ease to make the right decisions and do the required work productively. Your body will be free of health issues and ready to charge. You’ll find yourself giving more attention and care to your people and society.
Social life will improve because now you are sure of yourself and no longer insecure. The crankiness and irritable factors will longer bother you, unlike before. You’ll sleep well, eat well and live well. Your mind is now in your control, and so are your mood swings and emotions.
What’s important is to maintain this new status quo. Remember, you are your boss, and you can only worry if you allow yourself to. It’s time you take your happiness into your own hands and live the worry-free life you always desired. Life is too short to waste away to delude in unnecessary worry and concern. Happy living!
