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Stress Awareness Month

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Mindera - Global Software Engineering Company

2023 Apr 25 - 1min. Read

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A Minder practicing mindfulness while trying not to think about everyday stresses.

We are all human, and we all experience stress at some point in our lives; things get a bit too chaotic, and you find yourself with too much on your plate. Try not to fret, though; life can be pretty demanding sometimes.

Everybody is beautiful and unique, different stress prevention strategies work for different people, and no single answer will help out all 8 billion of us on this Earth. That being said, there are plenty of things to try and tweak to find something that helps YOU, so we asked some Minders what works for them.

We’ll give you a rundown of the history of Stress Awareness Month, followed by ways to recognise stress and how it affects the mind and the body.

Stress Awareness Month: What is it, and how did it come about?

Stress Awareness Month began in April 1992 and has happened every year since. By raising awareness of the causes of the “stress pandemic”, more and more of us can have open conversations about stress's impact on our lives. Dedicating time to lifting barriers and stigmas over mental health is something super important for any organisation to allocate time to.

The initiative spreads awareness of how mental and physical health should not be considered separate things; instead, they are two sides of the same coin. The super cool and meaningful theme for 2023 is looking after yourself. People are being encouraged to relax and focus on things they enjoy and self-care - that’s 100% something we can get behind here at Mindera. So just kick your feet up, sit back, and have a nice cup of coffee when things are too much! And don’t forget breathing exercises too!

Keerthivasan Kannan spoke to us about how he sees stress in two ways:

“For me, I see stress as based on two factors:

  • Less time: When the clock is ticking, and there are a lot of things to achieve;
  • End result: Sometimes, we want to see the end result as success always; if not, or if we know the probability of failure is high, we can get stressed before even reaching failure.

How do I manage it?

With time management and giving the right time forecast, I believe most of the stress can be avoided.

When I don't see the expected end result, I swap topics and start working on something else, take a break and revisit the topic with peace of mind.”

Stress Vs Burnout:

Stress and burnout are both things that can happen from lots of exposure to challenging and tough things in life.

While these things can feel the same or similar to people going through them, they have a few differences. Stress is a response to perceived threats or demands and is usually temporary. It can be dealt with by reducing sources of stress and practising self-care and stress-reducing techniques (think breathing exercises, meditation, yoga, mindfulness, etc.).

Burnout is more of a chronic state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion that can come about after a long period of stress. Those experiencing burnout may feel cynicism, detachment, and lack of motivation. Burnout can take a very long time to recover from, so it’s crucial to know your triggers and understand if things are heading that way.

Alina Flestea discussed how:

“For me, I see there are two types of stress, the one that energises me and the one that drains me. The first one is triggered by something temporary, and it can create anxiety and excitement at the same time. The satisfaction of dealing with complex tasks can be huge.

Prolonged difficulties, for example, personal life situations or major decisions, cause the other type of stress. I feel drained when I have to deal with long-term uncertainty in my personal life. What I usually try to do is something similar to surfing. I try to stay on the edge of the wave. Mentally, I break down the problem in bits and pieces and identify what I can do, what I can’t control, and how to move forward.

Therefore, I focus on what I can control. My brain does not have the patience to stay in emergent situations; it wants to solve things as fast as possible. So that's why I take small actions that could feed my brain and could slightly change the reality.”

Stress and the Mind and Body:

For ages, people thought that stress was a thing of the mind, but recently it's becoming more widely accepted that stress affects everything - physical and mental.

  • Physically we release a hormone called cortisol when feeling stressed; this causes the “flight or fight” response, which raises blood pressure and heart rate. Therefore, if stress is untreated, we may get physically unwell.
  • Emotionally, stress can cause higher feelings of anxiety, irritability, or overwhelm. Mood swings and concentration also are affected by the dreaded stress monster.
  • Stress impacts people’s cognitive abilities, meaning sleep, memory, and focus can go out of the window.

Darshak Lakhlani shared some insight on how he views and handles stress:

“Stressed is desserts spelt backwards, so when I feel stressed, what keeps me going is focusing on those desserts. Remembering that stress is only a temporary moment that I am feeling at that present time. I am not the stress, so I remain detached by reassuring myself of this. I put into practice my tools that help me manage stress, such as going for walks, breathing exercises, and meditation.

Positive quotes and words of affirmation give me deep meaning. One passage that I like to recite and remind myself from the book - Surrender: The Key to Eternal Life is: “When we find ourselves in situations in which we appear to be suffering, with complications for more than we can bear, we can almost laugh and realise that at some point in our evolution, we will have a chance to become pure and look back at the thorny past as an insignificant daydream””.

Physical Signs of Stress.png

We’d like to thank our amazing Minders who contributed to this article with their perspectives on dealing with stress.

If you can see yourself working as part of an organisation that values mental health and employee wellbeing, check out our vacancies.

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