Man must know how to live in good terms with himself, how to manage and control and sometimes improve himself. Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity. Just being free from disease is not enough. One needs to include emotional, interpersonal, social, intellectual and spiritual well-being. We must take the responsibility on ourselves to keep healthy. To keep well, by being confident, and to the extent possible, being in control of our own little world.

Is there something holding us back from this endeavour and preventing us from being in control of situations? This niggling, nagging demon is Stress, STRESS, and STRESS. While it is very common to blame all ills on stress, do we even realize what exactly stress is? Stress is simply the body’s non-specific response to any demand made on it. Simply put, stress is something that happens in your body whenever you are faced with a situation.

The situation can be anything, from a life threatening illness to merely being late for work, from losing a loved one to a school admission, from uprooting yourself from known surroundings to a quarrel in the family. No two individuals need react to the same stress in the same way, or even regard the same situation as a stressful event.

Stress is not synonymous with nervous tension or anxiety, as is commonly believed. Stress has its good points, and an optimum level provides the means to express talents and energies and pursue happiness. The important thing to remember is that stress is
normal and essential.

In fact, stress is a motivating factor. It is just that continuous and accumulating stress is detrimental to health. Stress is needed to perform. Before we begin to discuss what exactly are the body’s responses to stress, let us start with the attitude that a little bit of tension, a little bit of anxiety, in short, a little bit of stress is a good and essential requisite for our well-being.