December 2022

The world of Internet often tells us that stress is important for a better performance in all areas of life, but then it forgets to tell us “How much stress?” Well to understand, Stress is an emotional experience often accompanied by physical tension and changes in behavior. It can arise from an event or thought that makes you feel nervous, excited, angry or frustrated. It is often the body and mind’s reaction to challenges, expectations or demands. An optimal amount of stress is necessary to motivate a person to act and perform. Optimal stress is basically a moderate level of stress, neither too high nor too low and it motivates a person to step up and perform. But when the experienced stress is prolonged and starts interfering with day-to-day life of a person, it is a situation of alarm and thus needs to be addressed.  The “red flags” of STRESS: Insomnia? Hypersomnia? Nightmares? You may find problem in falling asleep, even after having a mentally or physically tiring day. Or you may find yourself waking up in the middle of the night. Once asleep you may also face difficulty and lack of energy to get up in the morning. Sometimes nightmares may disturb the sleep as well. If you face any of these conditions then you may be experiencing high stress. “Stress eating” or emotional eating is a real condition as well as a matter of concern. If you often find yourself binging onto food when you are not hungry but anxious, it may be an unconscious attempt by your mind to deal with stress. Also, an imbalanced diet or unregulated eating habits may be a consequence of increased stress.  Finding it difficult to complete tasks that were earlier a cakewalk for you? Or losing the motivation to start or finish a task? If you find yourself not being able to keep up with deadlines, unable to finish office, school or home assignments, find difficulty in focusing or paying attention, or often forgetting things now and then; it is a red signal you mind is continuously waving at you. Do you find it difficult to relax or feel that your body is in a permanent state of tension? Do you feel stiffness and tightness in muscles, and even after getting medical consultations you don’t find complete relief? This is body’s way of speaking out to you about the stress and tension it is going through. If you have been experiencing migraine type head ache, prolonged headache, throbbing sensations in the head, have had feelings that the nerves of you head might burst out, or might have been experiencing persistent heaviness in the head, often extending to facial and jaw muscles, then it might be the result of an underlying unresolved stress Do you often feel cramps and stiffness in your back (mainly lower back) and neck area, and the un-welcomed pain seems to come back time and again. This also may be accompanied by feeling burdened under a pile of responsibilities, or feeling that you have a lot of pending and unfulfilled work and duties. This can again be the consequent of the stubborn stress. Do you have frequent complaints of stomach ache? Feeling constipated or experiencing loose motions quite often? You may also experience cramps or sudden gastric pains in the chest or abdominal areas. This is mainly due to imbalance in the secretion of digestive juices in the stomach due to the experience of prolonged stress. If you identify yourself experiencing few or all of these conditions and cannot blame it on any medical cause, then you might want to pay attention to it and address the alarming call of your body and mind. As popularly said, “It’s never too late”, so take a step forward and let not your optimal stress become too much stress. -NANDINI SHARMACLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST

More than 50 principals, vice-principals and counsellors, representing 20 top schools of Lucknow, attended ‘Permanand’, an interactive session on creating positive psychology and happiness at schools here on Saturday. The session — jointly organised by the Lucknow Management Association (LMA) and Global Lucknow, a voluntary organisation — was a prelude to the ‘International LMA Convention on Promoting Happiness though Public Policy’, scheduled on November 16, 2019. Dr Manju Agrawal, dean & professor of psychology and hypnotherapist at Amity University, opened the session by bringing out the child within the participants — making them dance and take part in fun activities. “Participants were given several real-life situations to deliberate upon and come out with suggestions to have happy children at schools,” said Dr Agarwal. “We should not shy away from taking professional help if any undesirable behaviour or symptom stays for more than 7 to 10 days. Mental health issues need to be accepted as much as physical ones. Every family should have a psychologist who understands its members and helps them whenever required,” she said. Dr Agarwal said that the internal happiness of teachers was also very important for them to be able to give unconditional love to children and make them vibrant and happy. “We conducted the workshop with the objective of creating a positive environment for teachers and students, for optimising their functioning, helping them stay happy and healthy and creating a positive environment at schools,” she said. Senior vice-president LMA AK Mathur and career counsellor Dr Amrita Dass were among those who participated in the session. Dr Dass said the programme was meaningful and valuable. “Participants got to learn about positive psychology. Sharing of best practices at schools also added to our knowledge and understanding,” she said. The participants said that such workshops were required for all the stakeholders – teachers, parents and students. “We felt that we are taking away a lot of food for thought and action,” said Aruna Gupta, an educator representing City Montessori School. A few weeks ago, in another initiative aimed at understanding the importance of working towards the happiness of students and teachers, Hindustan Times had organised a round-table of principals of some of the leading schools of the state capital. The participants had said that keeping in view the number of school children committing suicides, it was necessary to address the issue urgently and take steps to create a happy environment at schools.