War on stress: A phantom menace

Stress isn’t a loud-mouthed villain. Very often you can’t hear its war cry. You just don’t see it coming. Stress can be a cold and calculated sociopath. It won’t catch you in a bear hug and squeeze the life out of you. It waits for you to go to sleep. It climbs into the bed and snuggles up next to you. Then, it whispers sad haiku in your ears to micromanage your dreams. By the time you wake up, it will be gone, along with a part of you that believes that everything is fine

It will even laugh, moan and rejoice with us. And then one fine day, you will wake up, crumbling like a cornered oatmeal cookie. You will find yourself falling into a downward spiral over minor annoyances. The silliest of things will make you snap, crackle and pop.

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist”

Stress isn’t the Queen of Hearts. It doesn’t receive any “off with their heads” orders. For me, it has relied on my incapability to handle accumulated pressure. My persistence in internalizing artificial expectations. It lurks, waiting and hoping that I don’t deal with it.

And when left un-bandaged, it turns into a bigger wound, growing in size.

At times, I can’t do anything to fight the stress. That is when I am most vulnerable to it. That is also when I scramble to identify the source of it. When I find it, I slap it in the face with a white handkerchief and challenge it to a duel. Sometimes I win. Other times, it gets the better of me.

I don’t want to care about the outcomes. I rather choose to channelize the energy, negative as it may be, and learn how to make more aerodynamic paper planes. Or communicate with good listeners.

And I like silence too. The chatter in our lungs can only do that much good when compared to conversations with the stars and the birds.

Don’t let stress bring you down. First, take a step back and understand all the sources causing it. Then, prepare to go to war with each one of them.

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(Photographs: Chennai)