When I was a kid, the word stress never existed.
The word "Tension" was the "in-thing" in those days, and everyone had tension.
But Kids were not supposed to have any tension, as they were kids.
Simply do homework,play,eat,do well in school and be "Bindaas"(cool).
So, even if I had any stress,oops.
.
tension, then I couldn't say so.
Only adults had tensions as they were grown up's and had more tensions than kids.
I had a very forward and maverick Principal in school who's name was Joseph Purayidam.
He was different from most Principal's.
The only thing uncool about him was that even in the 80's he still wore bell-bottoms.
Anyway,maybe his tailor died and couldn't find a better one, I don't know.
But he was a Principal who could play basket ball and base ball with the students.
He also spoke about stress and the need to de-stress.
There were no computers connected to Internet's in those days, to check out what stress meant.
I didn't have the guts to approach him with a query as me and him were always locking horns,as I always challenged every rule he made.
Anyway,the point is that he was the first one who I remember having used the word stress and I'm sure I gave him his share of "STRESS.
" Now Stress aka Tension can wreak havoc in our lives, and it can lead to many a life threatening conditions like cardiac arrest's and even cancer.
Hard to believe, but believe me it has been proven that stress can be a killer.
It doesn't have to be this way as Stress can well be controlled.
It's all in our hands.
After all we are God's supreme creation and we are the most intelligent of his creation's.
He won't be happy the way humans have turned out but we can definitely try and live a healthy and stress free one.
What is Stress? Stress is what we feelwhen faced with a danger or a threat.
It's our body's way of preparing to face an event and preparing to meet a tough situation, the best it can.
Stress can be a problem when we become over-stressed and it affects how we cope with day to day stuff.
Our body responds to events that create stress by pushing the buttons of the nervous system and certain hormones.
This in turn increase heart rate, breathing rate, and metabolism.
These changes prepare us to react quickly and effectively to handle the existent threat.
This automatic reaction by our body, is known as the stress response.
If done correctly, the body's stress response enhances the ability to perform well under pressure.
Stress can be caused by many thing's.
Stress can be caused due to under performing at school, peer pressure, friction with boss/colleagues at work, unsatisfactory marital/sex life, or any other issue.
We all have our stress point's and our own breaking point's.
No other person should judge what is and what isn't stressful for you.
The silliestthing I've ever heard when I was growing up was that "young kids don't have stress".
It's a nonsensical statement.
A lot of kid's end up in psychiatric wards, because no one took them seriously.
Recently there was an interesting movie I watched, in which the lawyer pleads for student's who are driven to point of committing suicide, due to parental pressure for peak performance's.
He demonstrates how all individual's have their own strength's.
He asks the clerk to try bending a foot ruler made of plastic and of steel.
The steel ruler bends but the plastic one breaks.
So, the point is that we all have different levels of tolerating stress also.
These are some of the classic symptom's of being stressed: feeling irritable, feeling anxious, avoiding other people, crying, moodiness, feeling frustrated, low self-esteem,depression etc.
On physical level, one can feel headaches, tummy upsets followed by constipation as a cycle, fever,binge eating and beginning to smoke and drink.
To help manage the stress, it may be helpful to talk to someone about what is bogging you down.
Talking to someone you can confide in, may help you to work out why you are feeling this way, and what you can do about it.
Maybe you can't get rid of the stress from your life, however managing your stress could help you get thing's going.
Things to do to alleviate stress:

• Talking with someone might help get it off your chest
• Doing some exercise
• Yoga/meditation
• Counselling
• Hanging out with friends/having a drink
• Archery/sport.
  

Different thing's work for different people, so we need to figure out what works best for us to de-stress.
Worrying about it definitely doesn't help.
I get stressed out a lot and have tried out many things.
Deep breathing definitely helps de-stress and so does doing some "Hatha Yoga.
" The stretching and the postures definitely help.
If we can control our breathing, we can control our mind's and our bodies.
Of course, auto suggestion,of which my dad is a big fan of, can also help.
The key is to identify the enemy, and stress is something we can befriend and turn around to our own advantage.
Like my mother aptly put it, a little bit of stress is a positive thing; as it keeps us alert and keeps us from being complacent.
So,try and control stress.
Rather than the other way around and life will become better.
Jai Ho