Tag: stress

Have stress and anxiety taken over your life: which Ayurveda can help

Hello readers I am the intern of HARYALI NGO and want to share the problem of stress and anxiety through this article. Have a read on this and get an idea to solve this problem.

Given the times we live in, stress and anxiety are even more common now. So we got an Ayurveda expert to share how you can deal with these problems.

The importance of harmony and mental equilibrium was well recognized by early Ayurvedic sages over two thousand years ago. Although chronic stress and anxiety may have had low prevalence in ancient India, grief and tragedy are an inescapable reality of the human condition. Thus, ancient Ayurvedic physicians were no strangers to depression, stress, and anxiety.

Stress in Ayurveda is viewed as a nervous system disturbance. The roots of this disturbance are found in the balance of natural energy or doshas that govern our physical and psychological traits. As vata plays a critical role in regulating the nervous system, it is imperative to understand your individual prakriti or balance of doshas to effectively manage stress.

Time to bring scientific rigour to the complex challenge of Ayurvedic medicine - Nature India

By and large, however, such disorders may be linked to a vitiation or aggravation of vata. This can be caused through high exposure to sensory stimulation, such as overeating, inadequate rest, and overworking.

It should be noted that although vata imbalances are commonly to blame for stress and anxiety, pitta and kapha doshas can also play a role depending on the individual’s constitution. While vata-dominant dosha types are most vulnerable to stress disorders, such as anxiety and fear, pitta types are more likely to manifest stress in angry outbursts and impulsive behaviour. Kapha types tend to manifest stress disorders in increased sluggishness, lethargy, and a general loss of interest in activities. These changes also give rise to physical ailments, with a greater likelihood of hypertension, high blood sugar levels, slow metabolism and chronic gastrointestinal conditions.

1. Pamper yourself with a rejuvenating Ayurvedic head massage
Ayurvedic Head massage is an ancient technique to alleviate stress and calm the mind. It involves massaging the pressure points with circular strokes that focus on your head and neck regions.

This ancient but effective technique promotes sleep, enhances the circulation of blood to the mind, and improves scalp and hair conditions. An Ayurvedic head massage also uses natural and warm oils like narayan taila and brahmi oil. These Ayurvedic oils settle the vitiated Vata in the body. Slightly warm the oil and massage it onto your head, shoulder, and neck regions before going to bed to relieve stress and promote sound sleep.

2. Engage your feel-good hormones with delicious stress-relieving foods
Eating the right foods at the right time plays a significant role in controlling your hormones. Following a healthy diet not only keeps your weight in check but also manages your state of mind.

A bowl of warm oatmeal, wholewheat bread and pasta, cereals, oranges, spinach, avocado, pistachios, almonds, vegetables, and black tea are food items to eat every day. These boost the serotonin levels and tame the release of cortisol and stress harmones. In all, avoid sugar, alcohol, and caffeine-rich foods.

3. Experience the magic of Ayurvedic herbs
Ayurveda suggests using medicinal herbs to fight the disorder naturally. Herbs like tulsi, ginger, ashwagandha, brahmi, and jatamansi are adaptogenic and offer neuro-protective benefits. Ashwagandha and brahmi are ancient treasures of nature that lower cortisol levels and enhance cognitive abilities.

4.De-stress with yoga
Ayurveda and yoga go hand in hand. In Ayurveda, we believe in a holistic lifestyle thus, exercising or indulging in any form of physical training expands the capacities and enhances the process of circulation of nutrients in the tissues.

Top Tips For Yoga Beginners | realbuzz.com

WhatsApp Bullying

A few days back, I was casually chatting with my cousin sister discussing about how the pandemic is altering our life. While discussing she cited a very interesting incident which happened to her daughter, Tanaya a couple of weeks back. Tanaya is currently promoted to fifth standard and she has been attending her classes in online mode since June end. My cousin said that they have created WhatsApp group among themselves where they discuss about their ‘school-affairs’. A few days passed by, she noticed that Tanaya was feeling very low and she almost stopped communication with her fellow mates. Distressed, she questioned her if something is bothering her, since it is a very new thing for Tanaya. After a lot of pestering, she opened her unofficial WhatsApp group of their class and she says that she was shocked reading the conversation. She noticed that there were a lot of slangs for fifth standard students. The most oppressive thing that she understood was that Tanaya was completely ignored when she asks or say something, or laughed at or completely victimised her. She was so outrageous that she took the matter up to the Principal and finally after a heated discussion that volunteer parents will be a part of those group and banned the creation of any other unofficial WhatsApp groups. Upon listening, I just saluted her for what she did and how she stood up to it.

WhatsApp is the only source of communication among us right now. That is the platform where everyone, from students to professionals, converse among themselves, trying to keep up with the changing world. That said, now when we all are chatting in a public forum, we usually tend to oversee the boundaries and limitations. Students who have been programmed to attend classes in offline mode were under a lot of restrictions and discipline and so such random conversations were easily avoided. But they have started attending their classes online, where there is no restriction, no rules and especially there is no such ingrained discipline. Well, I have particularly experienced that seeing my cousin’s daughter. Considering her age, it is very well perceived that freedom of such kind in unexpected and very often, such freedom bears its own consequences. They tend to say everything, thinking that it is cool and very often they tend to exhibit groupism. At times, they say something to a particular person, out of ‘longing for acceptance’, without giving it a second thought. This is what constitutes bullying. Repeated avoidance, being laughed at or made mockery of, posting ridiculous and insulting messages as WhatsApp status, sending offensive memes or caricatures in the public groups are some forms of mental harassment in online mode, otherwise known as WhatsApp Bullying.

What I believe is that people, especially such young ones, are going through a massive change. Schools and other such institutions need to understand that just initiating classes in the online mode can make someone ‘educated’ but it will completely erode the ‘mental’ and ‘civilized’ part of our character. Parents and teacher should make them understand that everyone is feeling excluded at this hour and we should take the responsibility of making someone feel inclusive.

While leaving my cousin’s house, Tanaya came to bid me good-bye. I looked at her eyes and remembered about my past too. I smiled, and then left.

Source: Self

Improve your mindfulness!

How are you coping nowadays? Is everything going according to what you have planned? Or are you making the efforts to change your ways?

COVID-19 has surely changed our way of living life, doing business and definitely changed our perception of life. Our body was programmed to wake up in the morning, doing personal work, dressing up and heading for work, returning to our loved ones and spending time with our families. But now we wake up and we feel like we are running in circles. Waking up and trying to do everything at one go, with overloaded information and then there is a huge feeling of procrastination and it seems like everything is taking a toll on our mind. Nowadays we are always feeling like doing “more” and “better”, and that too in a very short span of time. Now there is no harm is trying to do more and in a better way, but there should be a pause on this. Our mind is taking its own time to adapt to this drastic change and we should be patient enough to give time to our mind.

Mindfulness. Such a long word and yet so simple. It is a state of our mind where we are aware of the present and we are aware of our own behavior at each moment. Study reveals that it is very crucial to practice and imbibe mindfulness so that we do not feel stressed and depressed. Now is the time, more than ever when such a practice can improve us and make us feel alive more than ever.

A few tips by which you can bring mindfulness in your life:

  1. Wake up early. It is a good habit to wake up by 6 AM in the morning and take a whiff of fresh air. It clears you brain and makes you feel energized.
  2. Meditate. Make sure to meditate for about 10-15 minutes in the morning. It will make you ready for the day.
  3. Read newspaper. Study shows that what we study in the morning, we tend to remember it for a long time. Newspaper or a few pages of your book will open your mind to face the day.
  4. Sip green tea. Obesity is the new form of smoking. To reduce the caffeine intake and to ensure our health is in good condition, switch from black to green tea.
  5. Eat slowly and mindfully. Take small bites and stay away from T.V, laptop or any kind of social media while eating. Let your body and mind to enjoy the food.
  6. Talk to nature. Staying within the closed doors will make us sicker. Take some time out and enjoy the greenery outside.
  7. Check you digital time. Always try to keep a tab on the time you are spending on social media or on the screen. For this one can use Pomodoro Technique.
  8. Follow your passion. Now is a great time of you want to follow up on something which you previously did not get time to do. It will also be good to keep stress at bay.

These are the few techniques which one can definitely follow to practice mindfulness. It is advisable to acknowledge that things are tough but we should also be mindful to not let stress build its house in our mind.

Till then, stay safe and be mindful….

Source: https://www.ellevatenetwork.com/articles/6170-be-more-mindful-7-tips-to-improve-your-awareness

What to do at the time of depression!!!

If you’re depressed to feel a little bit better and I want to make sure you understand what those are but first I want to start by helping you understand what the typical signs and symptoms are:

1- One of the most common signs of depression is a feeling of sadness or irritability that is really pervasive and doesn’t seem to go away no matter what you do if you’re with friends if you’re by yourself the sadness just sort of becomes your reality irritability can also be present and this is much more typical in teens that they will present with more irritability than sadness when they’re dealing with depression.

adult alone anxious black and white
Photo by Kat Jayne on Pexels.com

2- Feeling really hopeless and this can be hopeless about getting better it can be a sense of hopelessness about the future and the ability of sort of achieving your hopes and dreams and again it’s a very tough symptom to deal with because other people can tell you, know you have so much to look forward to or this great thing is happening in your life but if you’re really struggling with depression that hopeless this just kind of takes over and keeps you stuck.

pensive elderly woman in eyeglasses and trendy bomber
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3- You should be aware of is something called anhedonia. This is really a fancy way of saying a loss of interest in things that you previously used to enjoy so for example you might really be into gardening and all of the sudden you find that no matter how many times you garden or if you try to garden there’s just not the same joy that you’re getting out of it that you used to or maybe you used to really be really social and enjoy spending time with your friends and you find that you just can’t bring yourself to get out of the house and to go and interact with these friends and it’s really difficult to deal with because it’s very hard to motivate yourself. When the things that really used to be what got you out of bed and got you ready for the day no longer hold the same enjoyment and pleasure.

man in blue and brown plaid dress shirt touching his hair
Photo by Nathan Cowley on Pexels.com

4- Either decreased concentration and/or indecision the difficulty with making decisions and this can be really difficult when you have to function either in the workplace or you have a lot of responsibilities at home because you’ll find that it’s harder to complete the tasks that you need to complete and if you do need to make decisions there’s almost like this decision paralysis where you find that you just can’t get yourself to the place of making choices.

adult alone black and white blur
Photo by Kat Jayne on Pexels.com

5- You should be aware of our changes in sleep and this can be either that you find yourself sleeping a lot more than you used to and having like a really hard time getting out of bed maybe you’ve never been a Napper and all of the sudden you’re taking a nap every day on the other side of the spectrum many people who are struggling with depression find that they can’t sleep that they’re racked with insomnia for the first time in their life and they’re laying in bed and their thoughts just keep running around and they’re feeling sad and they’re feeling hopeless and so either too much or too little sleep is a really cardinal sign of depression that you should be aware.

man in black shirt and gray denim pants sitting on gray padded bench
Photo by Inzmam Khan on Pexels.com

6- You should be aware of our changes in appetite or weight and this can be either in the positive or the negative depression sometimes when people are depressed they find that they use food for comfort and end up eating a lot more than typical and gaining weight and sometimes when people are depressed they lose their appetite completely and don’t eat at all and find that they lose weight so if you’ve had any significant weight changes within the last couple months and you also have some of the other signs and symptoms we’re talking about it might be a good idea to consider that there’s some level of depression going on that you’re struggling with so another.

woman in white shirt showing frustration
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

7- Lastly sign of depression that we’re going to talk about today is a sense of worthlessness so and really this is very difficult for people to handle because it’s a sense that no matter what they do they’re not enough their life is not enough and it won’t ever be enough and this is such a difficult thing to be dealing with and so I think my overall message as you’re learning about these signs of depression is that if you’re experiencing these please reach out and make an appointment with a licensed professional to talk about this because this is something that can get better and you don’t need to struggle with it on your own if you think that you or someone you love might be struggling with depression please reach out and make an appointment with a licensed professional for an evaluation there are many therapeutic techniques that can help you or someone you love feel better and so I strongly encourage you not to hesitate to get the help that you need.

man wearing the joker makeup
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Call on +91 730 459 9836 for a better help to Vandrevala Foundation if you are feeling depressed or you find someone else depressed. (https://www.vandrevalafoundation.com)