Efficient Stress Management

Invest in Yourself first!!!

Improperly management stress is a major road block to a healthy happy life. In my practice, I come across a lot people increasingly concerned about their health and well being but not ready to take right steps to manage them. 

Chronic Stress can be manifested as physical symptoms such as aches, pains (many cases mimic cardiac event), trouble sleeping, high blood pressure, weak immune system etc. When people experience these, its ideal to rule out other illnesses like cardiac causes. But in many cases, inspite of their physician/cardiologist ruled out these possibilities, people are not ready to settle down or take actions to overcome the real issue or actual cause of their disability. Man of them keep jumping from one healthcare provider to the other or one modality of treatment to other. No investigation is sufficient for them to feel that they are alright…This trend has gone up multifold during Covid times.

Covid has put us in a high stressful scenario which make us feel isolated and lonely and thereby can increase stress and anxiety. It is natural to feel stress, anxiety, grief, and worry during the COVID-19 pandemic. But if the stress gone to an unmanageable level, one needs to act and take interventions if necessary.

Let me share my own experience with stress and how I overcame the same

I had a history of chronic stress which affected my daily life/functions. Few years back, when IOH (the firm i started up with my husband) was not able to scale up at the expected pace, I went through huge stress. Day time I was busy juggling between multiple tasks or fire fighting. By late evening I am tired, falls asleep by 10/10/30 pm. But get up at 2.30 am and was not able to get sleep. All my ideas to scale up IOH and bring other aspect of life in order (including how to manage my kitchen efficiently) comes to my mind during his time. Some days I started questioning my skills and abilities. By 5.30 am I again doze off for an hour or so. Morning when I wake up I was not fresh, rather tired, waiting for the day to get over so that I could sleep well. The cycle continued for a year or so, I was totally drained off my energy, positivity, vibrancy etc. 

I used to discuss few of these issues with some of my connections those days. Their guidance was “why can’t you stop everything and focus on family, kid and happiness". The mere thought of leaving the greatest purpose of My Life or My existence made the stress and its physical manifestations to double. I started getting palpitations when I wake up, day time sleepiness was killing my productivity. Slowly i started realising the clarity of my thoughts started disappearing. A mental cloudiness or fogginess started setting in. I decided to go slow or click a pose button and reflect.

An internal evaluation made me understood that I may need some cognitive restructuring. I was giving way too much importance to things which matters little and not enough importance to matters which needed attention. Another reflection was, I was confused between Priority Vs Urgency Vs Importance. A third understanding was that Its better to discuss the matter only with people who know who I am (My values, virtues, strengths weaknesses, ambitions, aspirations etc which makes who I am). I took mentoring support from few Experts/Mentors and it took almost another year to got back in to MY ORIGINAL SELF or a BETTER VERSION OF MYSELF. This doesn’t make me feel insufficient or incapable, rather made me feel that I was wise enough to understand the issue, and ready to take the corrective actions at the right time.

Later I realised that the issue was due to the disparity between my skills & capabilities at that moment in time Vs. the roles I played. I didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to take up the roles/responsibilites put on my head as a start up entrepreneur/lifestyle physician/a change agent or influencer//fitness advocate/knowledge disseminator/mother/daughter/wife/friend etc. There was a cognitive restructuring happened during this phase which made me much efficient, happy, positive and purpose driven than ever before. This helped me to be highly efficient now and I am 70-80% efficient in most of the roles I play in life. Feeling grateful for all the support I received during this phase

Invest time in to oneself is an important aspect of leading a a happy Healthy life. Understand the flaws that restrict you from leading an effective life. Take interventions if necessary. Many cases, Behavioural mentoring should work, few cases may need medical intervention