As a Life & Wellness Coach, people get in touch with me for various challenges they are facing in their life. When working with people one gets some great insights and experience. One common factor which drives people over the cliff, is stress or to be more precise chronic stress. What I have learnt over the years is that people perceive that being “too busy” is a sign of success or a flourishing career. Although this can be true to a large extent, being overworked and completely overwhelmed has more negatives than the positive’s. Our body can handle stress only to a certain extent and post that it will move on to a panic mode. This will invariably lead to irreparable losses in emotional and physical well being.
As we live in the 21st century with severe competition for just about everything, I agree that stress can be helpful and in fact motivating to a certain extent. However over the years enough research articles have been published to prove that regular exposure to chronic stress makes the body release many harmful hormones which will eventually cause severe damage both emotionally & physically.
When I work with clients who lead busy lives, the gravity of chronic stress is realised within a couple of coaching sessions. I can relate to my own life where over the years my stress had reached a tipping point due to fact that the focal point of my life was my work. It took and made up a huge portion of my life. When I learned about the gravity of chronic stress, I made an honest effort to change my habits and keep everyday stress to a bare minimum. There are many ways to effectively manage stress but you can do so, only after you notice and admit that you are indeed too stressed out. Some of the ways you know that you are going through chronic stress would be
You wake up feeling tired:If you wake up tired, exhausted and not feeling like taking on the world then this is the surest sign of being overworked, overstretched and over-committed This implies that you have not rested enough even though you are on the bed for 6-7 hours. Your mind would have been working overtime and not have rested at all. For some it might be that they cannot go to sleep at all.However you look at it,the state you get up is a good indicator to know how much stress is effecting your life to a large extent.
You get infuriated by smallest of things:When we are stressed our minds are so overloaded that we are unable to logically and calmly process situations and information. Hence we have less tolerance for mistakes and irregularities. I have seen this happen for some at work and for others in their personal space. What this does is it generally has a ripple effect on other areas of your life and becomes a vicious circle of being unhappy in general.
You feel a vague sense of unhappiness:What I have observed with some of my clients is that along with stress and unhealthy food habits one tends to ride a roller coaster wave of emotions during the day which will eventually affect your hormones and emotional well-being. This according to me is one of the biggest reasons why depression has overtaken all other lifestyle diseases in recent times.
You are constantly looking for something: Cortisol, the hormone released when you are stressed damages the brain over time and can lead to memory problems is what the recent research articles say. The biggest drawback when one goes through stress is that One’s thoughts are thrown into disarray. The lack of focus and clarity will eventually make one lose track of things. This may not happen overnight but over a period of time I have observed this in many of the people who complain of stress in their life over a long period of time.
You experience frequent headache: One of the common symptoms of chronic stress is the Tension Headache which I feel is the body’s response to unregulated stress over a period of time. This results in muscle spasms around the head, neck and back region. I have worked with many people who have hardly spent a week without this recurring numbness in them. Yes taking tablets might help in the short term but it will eventually reappear if the main source is not taken care of.
Personally, I feel that there is nothing wrong in fulfilling your responsibilities, obligation and duties. However one must know where to draw a line and work on a work life balance which is what I do with people who do realize that chronic stress has overtaken them. I work with them and make them realize that they need to work for a living and not live to work. Usually in a couple of sessions with me, they tend to realize that being “too busy” reduces their quality of life irrespective of the material wealth they posses.
I hope that through these examples, I have made you realize that living with chronic stress is a choice which if you do want to, can walk away from at any point of time. In case you or someone whom you know is going through chronic stress then do reach out to me on my Facebook Page or on my email at coach@satishrao.in. I will be more than glad to work with you or your reference with my proven,guaranteed & simple Life strategies which has worked remarkably well for my clients over the years.