Befriending Stress to Neutralize its Danger

By Sujendra Prakash

A stranger walks onto a crowded street and starts shooting everyone in sight.

If the streets are not safe, then where can someone go?

The bullet may not kill us, but the danger the situation brings to us and our loved ones, Is something we need to face day in and day out?

There is danger everywhere: commuting to work, driving a car, eating at a restaurant, purchasing groceries, or even sitting at home.

So, you have to be on guard all the time.

And that brings us stress because whatever we do or don't do, we are in danger.

We can't influence or control criminals or any stranger and tell them to adhere to the rules.

The only recourse we have is to silence our minds instead of falling prey to worries and anxiety.

How do we do that?

This book offers a solution, where you have a clear understanding of what is stress all about, how to use stress as our friend, how to understand the complexities in the manifestation of stress, and how stress is misunderstood.

In my experience as a psychologist for the last four decades, I have come across thousands of people who seek help in overcoming their stress.

However, reducing stress is not a solution because we need the stress to be efficient in our daily affairs.

We always hope to be relaxed but when we see a relaxed individual we call that person lazy.

Isn't this a paradox?

Your stress level has to be higher to fulfill the demands that modernity brings. Right from purchasing groceries to managing work pressures, stress creeps in everywhere.

There is no clear understanding of the types of stress and degrees of stress. This lacking has resulted in considering stress as an enemy.

This book attempts to provide a way to use stress positively so that it benefits us.

So, let us proceed to befriend stress and neutralize its danger.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sujendra Prakash
• Release date: Jan 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201118648

Sujendra Prakash

Professor Sujendra Prakash holds a Ph.D. degree in Psychology from Bangalore University. During his extensive professional career, he has held senior academic positions in several colleges. He has taught graduate and post-graduate students in various subjects of psychology. Dr. Prakash is a professional member of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, Chennai; Indian Society for Training and Development, New Delhi; Associate life member of Karnataka Association of Clinical Psychologists; and was an affiliate of Consulting Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association during 1999-2001. He has published and presented several papers and he has been interviewed on burning issues in Times of India, Bangalore, and other newspapers. He has also been interviewed on several TV and radio channels. He was invited to be a celebrity on Indiatimes.com in 2002. He has counseled and helped thousands of people in developing memory, concentration, study skills, personality development, etc. He has several corporate and institutional clients.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

Thank you for deciding to purchase this book. Hope it will be beneficial to you and your family.

Please use this information with caution and do not come to conclusions until you consult a medical practitioner.

STRESS IS A VERY COMMON word that has come into usage at present. Whenever someone doesn’t understand a problem, they blame it on stress. We don’t know whether they are right or wrong and we accept it thinking our stress is our enemy.

We must understand stress clearly so that we can deal with it effectively.

The first chapter deals with what is stress, its types, and its connection to the level of arousal in the individual.

The second chapter considers the nature of stress and how it manifests in us. A clear delineation of Neustress and the continuum of stress is provided.

Happiness is also a symptom of stress but we are unaware of it because our understanding of stress is still incomplete. We still are unable to distinguish between happiness and relaxation.

Distress is mistaken as stress because the complete manifestation of stress is not understood. Distress has a purpose and is responsible for our survival but because we use it indiscriminately, we encounter health issues.

Leading a perfect life that is devoid of stress is as abnormal as those who have wrecked their lives. It all depends upon how we cope up with stress rather than whether we have stress or not.

Emotions are aroused to deal with the demands from the environment. However, humans are more bothered about psychological and social survival rather than physical survival.

An understanding of the types of distress will enable us to overcome distress and convert it into neustress. The three types of distress come to us every day and when we don’t know how to tackle them, we turn towards ill-health.

The last chapter provides ten pointers to manage everyday distress. Once we achieve this we can befriend stress and lead a contented life.

I hope this book helps you in not only understanding stress and its types but also in overcoming distress and considering stress as a friend and not as an enemy.

CHAPTER 1: IS STRESS NECESSARY FOR SURVIVAL?

As human beings, our needs are quite unlimited.

As we keep fulfilling our needs, new needs will keep surfacing.

Initially, for instance, we may eat to satisfy our hunger. But gradually, we want to choose what we eat. Further, we want specific dishes prepared exactly. We devise our own rules and regulations as to how we should eat. We need a dining table, serving tray, vessels, spoons, and scores of other things.

At first, we try to fulfill a basic physiological need. But later, we would want to satisfy our psychological, aesthetic, social, and achievement needs.

Thus, there is no end to what we need or want.

However, it is not easy to fulfill all our needs. As we live in a society, it becomes all the more difficult to satisfy all our needs. The greater the complexity of a need, the greater will be the difficulty in reaching the goals.

This difficulty sometimes results in not being able to choose an appropriate goal. Even if such a goal is chosen, sometimes it is not possible to reach the goal.

Thus, the extent of difficulty aroused in achieving goals leads to the corresponding amount of stress experienced by the individual.

Nature