Stress on relaxing

Stress. It seems to go hand in hand with life these days, and seems to be the ‘in’ thing. Your success in life may not amount to much if you don’t slam your palms on your forehead or look heavenward and let out an audible sigh and say the six-lettered word.

 It is ‘cool’ to mention your s-levels to your loved ones, friends, colleagues (or underlings at work) even as you answer unnecessary calls on your two dual-sim smartphones, while gesticulating wildly about a simple point on whether the meeting with the client should be at 10 am or 11. Or wonder whether the new haircut works. Even as another colleague is frantically going around taking down the number of orders for rava idlis and curd rice for lunch from the nearby darshini.Multi-tasking. Arguments. Raised voices. Grief.

You get the point? Stress.

How does one beat it? I read so often about world leaders and business czars talking calmly about ‘waking up and thanking the Universe for all the good things’ and stuff like that. Or some others talk of the profound efficacy of early morning meditation and activating the 16th chakra on your spinal column. No, I am not mocking or being irreverent — just taking a long route to say that what keeps me going is watching thousands of ordinary people beating stress without all that hoo-ha and fuss. No silent contemplation or watching their thoughts float past for these people. They just plunge noisily in.

Take the chaat-eating stress-beaters. They land up in their family cars or on motorbikes, and station themselves at strategic locations around the shop or the hand-cart. They start with the masalapuri and work their way down the list of items until they reach the paanipuri, which is had in plenty. They don’t forget to have the paani to wash down the debris, with perhaps a little sweet chutney. As the satisfied members of the party shuffle off to the vehicle, the designated payer of bills asks for the total with a satisfied burp and a happy, glazed look in the eyes. And the entire gang zooms away happily, stress and tension-beaten for at least another week.

Staying on the food angle, there is also the packed-food-watch-movie marathon stress buster. You can see them at darshinis and other popular eating places, ordering enough food ‘parcels’ to last out a five-day siege. You can see the stress already disappearing as the man walks away with the jauntiness of a day well planned.

Apart from the various combinations of food-TV-film marathons, there is the ‘clean-house-stress-buster’, success guaranteed on twin fronts: a clean home. and a cleaner mind. Begin your way at the piled up dirty dishes at the sink, and work your way around the house, picking up debris of a hectic week, a forgotten sock here, a shirt there, and segregating all the take-away food containers into cardboard and plastic.

Even as the washing machine is groaning its way through grime-ridden T-shirts and jeans that had almost become water-proof with the accumulated grease, not to forget the kitchen rags that no self-respecting master chef would be seen with. And at the end of three hours or so of amazement at how you let things come to such an un-pretty pass, you are smiling  contentedly, as a spotless house smiles back at you, and you might even hum a song as you go to order the next batch of takeaway food (this time, it is a reward for the hard work). This time, the new containers will go straight into the segregated plastic container space. Really.

People owned by dogs (for that is how the equation is) have nothing to growl at. There are plenty of stress-busting chores to catch up with. From long-pending baths to brushing to long-promised walks to the ‘sensitising the dog to car rides’. Here the choices are limitless, and whether pedigree or pure Indian, the stress-busting quotient of dogs is an easy 8 or 9 out of 10.

There is also the combination of listening to music while reading — a combo stress buster, which neatly morphs into the going-to-sleep-with-glasses-on mode, another surefire rejuvenator.

The list of these easy stress busters is long, and should perhaps be reserved for another day — there isn’t enough space anyway, and one wouldn’t want to stress out the Editor. So, take a chill pill, as they say, because beating stress is not so tough...