Stress is something that one can not do without. We can only find ways to reduce or make it minimal.
Personally, I experience two types of stress; emotional stress and physical stress. I would like to talk about the two.
Emotional stress
This is the one that affects me greatly. What happened to my family in the last two years is something that I haven't been able to come to terms with.
About two years ago, my eldest sister fell ill. We managed the sickness for many months to the extent that my mother came to Abuja from the village to take care of her. After a few months, we lost her. It was painful to the family. We mourned and my mother went back to the village with my sister's daughter.
I was finding the best way to cope with life without my lovely sister when another tragedy struck. About eleven months after her death, I was informed of the sudden death of my younger brother resulting from a ghastly motor accident. It was a very bitter pill to the family but we accepted the reality.
I took a week off from work to stay with my mum to console her. She was inconsolable. My elder brother and I had to keep on talking to her to see the reason why she should limit her crying. We involved other close relatives to help us console her. After some months, she was able to get over it slightly. Once in a while, my mum's neighbor would call me to inform me that my mum was down emotionally again. I would pick my phone and call her to talk to her. I thank God that the rate of such reports is reducing.
On my own, whenever I sit down alone with nobody around me to talk to, the memory of my two siblings comes to my mind. You may see my eyes becoming red without knowing the reason. The reason is from within me. For the level of emotional stress that I am going through, I understand with my mother and no matter how hard she resists consolation, I keep on pleading with her to prevent complications from too much thinking.
Till I die, I can't erase the memory of my siblings but I have devised ways to manage it. I make sure that I am always connected with supportive people. I don't give a chance to my mind being depressed often from my siblings' absence. My younger sister is staying with my mother and we compliment her efforts by always reaching out to them to offer the needed support. I hope we can improve on our situation since nothing can return my siblings to life again. We need to move on.
Physical stress.
This is as a result of my daily activities. My usual day starts by 4.45 am when I wake up to prepare for prayer. After that I prepare for work. I close from work by 3.00 pm except on Fridays that is 12 noon. I immediately dash out to my farm to put one or two things in place before returning home by 6 pm. In-between, I engage in blogging on hive. This is my routine from Monday to Thursday.
Some days, I would want to spend some time blogging before going to bed but I would find myself waking up at midnight on top of my phone.
This is what happened last night. I was lying down on the chair in the living room with the intention of doing one or two things on hive. I didn't know when I slept off. I picked up my phone from where it fell around midnight and I went to sleep in the bedroom. This is an indication that I am stressed out.
To manage physical stress, I increase my sleeping hours. I do exercise to relax my body. I take a deep breath often to feel relaxed.
Image Source
My wife frequently massages me to make the system balanced from stress. I am planning to take a two week vacation. I will make sure that I increase my stress tolerance by working on my mental and physical outlook.
I can't get rid of what is causing me stress but I can improve on the way I manage it.