deal with stress?

So how can you help yourself deal with stress?

We spoke to a few health professionals and they came up with some easy tips on how to deal with stress, irrespective of the cause.

1. Create a balance in your life, says Mumbai-based psychiatrist Dr Dayal Mirchandani. You have to make time for activities that are important to you -- spend time with family, friends.

2. Make time for rest and regeneration, he adds. Listen to music, watch movie, take walks, whatever you like doing. Carry your iPod wherever you go.

3. Don't let small things bother you. If something is on your mind, find out more about it instead of relying on undependable sources. Dr Adhiraj Joglekar, consulting psychiatrist says, "Take for example swine flu. The first thing to acknowledge is that the virus is contagious (spreads) but not virulent (deadly). If it was deadly, then deaths would have been a lot higher than they are." Learn how you can protect yourself instead of panicking.

4. Exercise. "Even if it means walking for 10 minutes everyday or climbing the stairs, do it," says Dr Mirchandani. Exercising releases endorphins that help in keeping you positive and happy.

5. Make time to relax at work. "Take those five minutes to look out of the window when you are at office. It is better than later undergoing a stress workshop for two hours a day," says Dr Mirchandani.

6. Rekindle that hobby -- it could be shopping or painting or whatever you like. Do activities that make you happy and take your mind off the routine.

7. Meditate. Cliched as this sounds, there is no shortcut out of this, says Dr Mirchandani. Take short breaks during your work-day to meditate in a quiet corner of your office. Do some deep breathing exercises to calm your mind.

8. Change your habits, if need be. If something is bothering you, a change in habit can work wonders.

9. Change your mindset. "Ultimately, it is how you look at life. Don't let stress get the better of you," says Dr Mirchandani. "If something bothers you, look at it rationally and see how you can reduce its effect on you or eliminate it. Don't let it reach a stage where you need professional help."

Stress leads to obesity, not to weight-loss

Stress leads to obesity, not to weight-loss

Source: Mumbai Mirror

A study has suggested that people fighting the battle of the bulge should de-stress themselves, as it found that too much stress can make you fat.

At one point or the other, everybody suffers from stress. Relationship demands, physical as well as mental health problems, pressure at workplaces, traffic snarls, meeting deadlines, growing-up tensions -- all of these conditions and situations are valid causes of stress.

A study at Harvard University, which was aimed to find a link between weight gain and stress, depression or anxiety disorder, contradicted the commonly-held belief that people lose weight through anxiety.

The research, which was based on study of 1,355 men and women for nine years, found that too much stress can make you fat. For men, weight gain was more likely to be related to work problems, said the research, which was published yesterday.

Overall, the study found people who reported increased stress gained more weight if they already had higher body mass indexes. Though a 'stress' condition seems 'relative' in nature, with the rapid diversification of human activity it has become a common feature of urban lifestyle.

Extreme stress conditions, psychologists say, are detrimental to human health but in moderation stress is normal and, in many cases, proves useful