Understanding stress and exploring ways to alleviate it

I am so stressed and overwhelmed by the number of tasks in my hands lately...

I am so stressed and overwhelmed by the number of tasks in my hands lately. It seems like I am unable to get along with this fast-paced world. I am trying hard but not enough apparently.” — Do you find yourself resonating with such thoughts? In these times when human interactions take place mainly over the internet, and the line between personal and professional life is fading away, people talk about feeling stressed or burnt out more than ever. These situations have a profound effect on a person’s physical and mental health. Therefore, we shall be exploring the reasons behind these feelings and how we could handle such situations. Burnout Vs Stress People tend to use these terms quite casually and interchangeably. But they both are quite different and have different levels of severity. While burnout is essentially damaging, stress can be a fuel for growth. Excess of everything is bad — is what goes about with stress. Stress can evolve due to any recent changes in your environment. It could be a deadline coming up or a disagreement with some other person. But when these stressors turn into constants in your life, several other critical problems are bound to follow. On the other hand, when it comes to burnout, it isn’t a matter of a few days. It slowly progresses until you feel like there’s no hope. Burnout symptoms can start with agitation and micro-aggression, which eventually leads to lack of sleep causing insomnia. You might feel that you’re trying to finish a never-ending to-do list with no space to refresh and not enough support. The person might alienate himself and feel unproductive. It leads to a state where the person no longer has the physical or mental energy to change his or her situation and remains stuck and apathetic. It’s pivotal to keep an eye on these symptoms and bring about changes before things get severe.

Burnot Vs Stress
People tend to use these terms quite casually and interchangeably. But they both are quite different and have different levels of severity. While burnout is essentially damaging, stress can be a fuel for growth. Excess of everything is bad — is what goes about with stress. Stress can evolve due to any recent changes in your environment. It could be a deadline coming up or a disagreement with some other person. But when these stressors turn into constants in your life, several other critical problems are bound to follow. On the other hand, when it comes to burnout, it isn’t a matter of a few days. It slowly progresses until you feel like there’s no hope. Burnout symptoms can start with agitation and micro-aggression, which eventually leads to lack of sleep causing insomnia. You might feel that you’re trying to finish a never-ending to-do list with no space to refresh and not enough support. The person might alienate himself and feel unproductive. It leads to a state where the person no longer has the physical or mental energy to change his or her situation and remains stuck and apathetic. It’s pivotal to keep an eye on these symptoms and bring about changes before things get severe.

Ways to mitigate
A few things that might help have been listed below:

  • Make time for yourself: There’s a huge rush all around to be the best, but you can’t do it unless you feel your best from the inside. Take a pause when you feel overwhelmed. Figure out what’s making you feel so. In that way, you would feel more in charge of your emotions. Take a break if required. Give yourself time to rejuvenate. Pick up some old hobby which might have made your childhood blissful. Get plenty of physical exercise to keep your hormones going. If you take a vacation, be ON vacation. Don’t think of work at that time. All in all, take care of yourself in the best way possible.
  • Go outside: You might be sitting on your desk all day long, eyes fixed on your laptop. Break this monotony. Go outside, get some fresh air. Talk to your family or a friend. Try to keep yourself surrounded by things that remind you of happy times. It could be a picture of your family or a gift from some old friend.
  • Set reasonable goals and avoid procrastination: Easy to say but hard to do. Do you know why you procrastinate? Not because you are lazy, but because you are afraid of whether you would be able to write that 1000 words essay or whether that presentation would turn out to be good or not. Don’t take up a task as a whole. Divide it into parts. Give yourself a pat when you achieve the set goal.
  • Seek help — If things are going out of your hand, seek help. Sometimes you might feel that this is not what you were expecting or you are not being able to receive what your work deserves. Then speak to whosoever is concerned. Let them know your point of view. At least keeping things to yourself would never do any good.

Each one of us is a unique individual with different goals and aspirations but the fact that we want to be happy is common to all. There are no exceptions to that. Though life can be rough sometimes and things might not go as we had expected them to. But then what about a little seed? On its journey to become a plant, it must feel the weight and inertia of the earth as it seeks to break out of its shell. In the same way, we need to embrace the hardships that come our way but we must keep our mental peace in check as well. Taking some time out just for yourself and expressing gratitude for small things help you see the brighter side. It goes without saying that asking for help is never a bad idea. Talk to people you feel comfortable with or seek out for professional help because being able to live a harmonious life is all that matters at the end of the day.