The other
day, Janak & his parents visited my teen clinic. The parents were extremely
agitated but Janak seemed cool. He has scored around 50% marks in his 12th
prelim. He wants to pursue engineering. His parents feel that his prelim marks
have put a big question mark against his plans. Janak, on the other hand,
thinks he can catch up.
When Ishita
came to me, she was a bundle of nerves! Restless and fidgety, she could not
even verbalise her exact problem. Her Mom came to her rescue and explained that
Ishita is very worried about her board exams. She does fairly well in most of
the tests but is unsure about her performance in the finals.
In both
these situations, people are stressed-out. Stress is an individual’s response
to pressure. Naturally, it varies from person to person. The same situation can
evoke different responses from different individuals. Stress is usually a
by-product of self-doubt. It floods the body with chemicals & induces
primitive ‘fight or flight’ response. Consequently, it wears the body down. For
some, no amount of preparation is enough whereas some leave the preparation
until the end and then panic.
Stress
results in headaches, nausea, abdominal pain, sleep disturbances, moodiness;
flare up of pimples, excessive anger, reduced concentration and sometimes even
depression. All these can further hamper the exam preparation and lead
to a vicious cycle escalating stress.
Stress is an
inevitable part of life. In fact, it is a necessary part. Up to a certain
extent, it can even have a positive effect; it motivates and promotes
productivity.
As the saying goes,
As the saying goes,
“The only
difference between a diamond and a lump of coal is that the diamond had a little
more pressure put on it."
This is
called ‘eustress’. On the contrary, excessive stress or ‘distress’ can snap a person like an overstretched
rubber band and lead to negative consequences.
Exam is one
such stress. It is inevitable, necessary and unavoidable. Since we cannot
bypass it, we might as well convert it from ‘distress’ to ‘eustress’.
India’s only
Olympic individual gold medal winner Abhinav Bindra said that he used to
practice things like ‘tight rope walk’ to get used to the stressful situations.
If you have
seen the movie ‘Life of Pi’, the protagonist, Pi, tells the tiger in the end-
‘Thank you Richard Parker! The stress of trying to save myself from you
actually saved my life!’
So, let us befriend stress, tame it and use it to our advantage rather
than fight it!
nice article. some questions popped up in my mind..do you suggest that we should to put kids in 'controlled ' stressful situations.. say physical stress.. what about emotional stress? can they be trained for that too?
ReplyDeleteThanks Archana!
ReplyDeleteyou are right, controlled physical stress such as sports and outdoor activities is essential to make them physically strong.
To tell you the truth, they are exposed to enough mental stress already, but emotional quotient can surely be worked on.
Participation in daily household chore can be a very good physical stress. Doing it at this age will make them not only self sufficient but more proficient. This will surely add to their confidence and personality in general.
ReplyDeleteVery true, madam. In fact, household chores can be a very good exercise to also learn various life skills such as interpersonal skills, patience, cooperation and creative thinking.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your valuable input!
Nice article.Very true that kids are under tremendous stress nowadays. Vaishali,what should be our reaction as parents when kids go crazy under stress?
ReplyDeleteThanks Manju. Initially I thought you were talking about Parents going crazy :)
ReplyDeleteIt is said that there should be no reaction, rather we should respond. I know, it's easier said than done! But at some time we need to realise that our children are a significant part of our lives, but not the whole life. They will gradually have to take ownership of their own stress.