Starting your day Stress free

Do you start your day feeling exhausted? Does your sub-conscious sleep at night or is it awake thinking about next day’s work? Are your relationships in shambles? Does your boss hate you?
The answer to all these questions could be just one thing – Stress. Surviving the rigors of everyday life is stressful. Tensions build up when we don’t take time to do what we like to do. A busy professional life should be balanced with a bit of fun here and there. After all, “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy!!”
Ever wondered how some people have it all? However busy their lives are they always seem well groomed and unruffled. The answer to that is in being extremely organized. Time management is the key to making all things possible. How do we manage our time well? Proper time management is possible only when we order our habits well.
Getting up early gives a person at least half an hour for exercise and half an hour for grooming well. Exercise is a great stress buster. Nothing busts stress better than walking or yoga. Exercise, creates a clear mind and a sound body. Endorphins which are neurotransmitters are released after rigorous exercise. This creates an elated feeling that can last up to 12 hours thus improving a person’s mood. Meditation and yoga help in building life coping skills as it calms the mind and strengthens the body. Developing a hobby or nurturing one that already exists is a good way of busting stress, at the end of the day.
Speaking for myself, I know I feel best when the mirror flatters me in the morning. A well groomed person radiates confidence and cool. If your wardrobe bothers you, it could be time for a makeover. Some smart additions and deletions can make a whole new you. Changing a hairstyle, getting a new tote’, new shoes or simply a visit to the dentist can make the grass greener on our own side. Is this all it takes to bust stress, definitely not. Eating right helps bust stress too. Gouging on junk food may temporarily help satisfy craving, however it leaves one feeling exhausted and moody through the day.
Following all this is important to lead a stress free life. The most important however is Perspective. If we perceive everything negatively, our thoughts, words, emotions and body language exhibit negativity. This affects us not only in our interactions with others but also in our attitude towards ourselves. However trying our circumstances might be, keeping a positive outlook is not difficult. After all, every night does end making it yesterday and new hope rides on the wings of the dawn.

Does Education liberate us?

The progression of science, art, communication etc. through the centuries has been phenomenal. Every form of utopic thinking has resulted in a new invention in this extremely fast paced world. The effects of this pace are permanent and the world as we know it is crying out in the form of pollution, stress, inflation etc.
The literacy rate world wide is definitely notches up since the last century. Is all this acquired knowledge making the world a better place? Of course we have iphones, electric cars and biological warfare. Does education truly liberate us? Why are the stock markets plummeting? Why do we have more spas than space stations? Why are we still fishing whales and sharks for cosmetics? While knowledge is plenty, wisdom is lacking. Missions are fulfilled without vision and a scant regard for the future generation is the mindset of the day.
Generation "now or never" are trained to be winners from cradle days. Sadly, ambitions are achieved and the burn-out syndrome is everywhere. Does a mark sheet only make a man, or a woman for that matter? If everyone achieves first place the need for knowledge seeking will cease. Having fun along the way boils down to "party hard". Bad habits and high fliers are the order of the day.
The earth is bursting at its seams with human progeny."India rising" seems to be much better off with her supermarkets, super flyovers, foreign cars, urbanization of rural India etc. than India in the eighties. All the nuclear weaponry that this country possesses doesn't guarantee the safety of the citizen in the wake of terrorism. Sophistication and finishing schools haven't changed the callousness of human hearts. The paper is full of incidents of people left to die on the road because not one good Samaritan can be found in the cities that never sleep. Politicians still make never ending promises and declaration of taxes is a routine only for the honest educated TDS(Tax deducted at source) citizen.
In a land where children were raised on the wisdom of grandparents, old people's homes can be found in every neighborhood. A nuclear lifestyle need not revolve around "I,me, myself". Caring for our families, communities and surroundings are the basic lessons we learn in our civics text books back in school. The pride of every Alma Mater is not the no. of successful professionals that pass out but the no. of good people they send into the world to serve different roles. Education is like Aladdin's genie. Let's make use of our educated backgrounds.
It takes one person to make a difference. One family in a street. One street in a locality. One locality in a city. One city in a state. One state in a country and a country in this world. Let's be the change we want to see and leave a footprint in the sands of time.