What’s Your Stress Buster?

Dear Readers,

Time flies fast – we’re already nearing the end of the year’s second month. We take a few seconds to raise an eyebrow acknowledging this and then we’re back in our robotical grind. Most of us seem to operate on autopilot, whether that’s doing our job, taking care of our family or just going about our daily routine. Some of us stay on autopilot our entire lives, happily – it’s our cozy comfort zone and there’s no unnerving unknowns to rock our boat. Unfortunately, it’s also incredibly boring and stagnating!

We think we have our work-life balance all figured out and settling into the mundane is just the ‘adult’ or ‘responsible’ way of life. The concept of catching a break from the daily hectic or mundane life to just rejuvenate the mind and have some fun, eludes us. Leave alone featuring as a priority in our lives, fun doesn’t even make it as an afterthought in our minds, during those rare times when we get reflective about what we want in our lives. Which is ironic because fun is the fuel that rejuvenates the mind and resets us mentally and physically to take on our daily chores and challenges with renewed zeal. When’s the last time you laughed so hard you had tears streaming down your face? Do you remember the aftermath of that kind of fun? It’s a total stress-buster – and these days, there is no greater premium in life than a stress-buster.

So, what’s your stress-buster? Or who? Identify that answer and work on including that in your life – if not daily, then at least weekly. I’m hoping you will be more imaginative than getting dewy eyed thinking of your nightly ‘takoro’ or the Parsi peg of your favourite alcohol. Vices or addictions like alcohol or smoking or gambling or the worst of them all – gossiping – don’t exactly qualify as fun – they’re more like escape mechanisms and distractions which provide temporary relief and seemingly block out life’s ongoing ‘kaklaat’. These aren’t stress-busters.

A stress buster is positive in nature – it is dynamic – it could be an activity that exercises the brains and the brawns, or it could be another individual whose presence has you inspired, happy or then, simply in splits, or it could be spending time with your pets or pet-projects (not work related) or it could simply be something that brings you peace – like social or community service. It could be anything – as long as the process is fun and the result is a positive and rejuvenated mind. We live in times where stress-busting is soon becoming indispensable to maintaining our balance and even sanity. It would be a good idea this weekend to mull over what busts your stress and how you could imbibe that increasingly in your life. And if you come up with some good answers and solutions, won’t you share them with the rest of us?

 

Have a lovely, stress-free weekend!

Anahita