NAMA, NAMASMARAN AND TOTAL STRESS MANAGEMENT (PART 13) DR SHRINIWAS J. KASHALIKAR

Student: Sir, Will you explain; apart from satisfying my curiosity this account of stress will be useful to me also; isn’t it?

Teacher; Yes! In us; physical, chemical, biological and instinctual stressors; are present and in fact; all these become more in severity and complexity. All these stressors cause and aggravate emotional and intellectual stress! Moreover there are emotional (related to our feelings) and intellectual (related to our thinking) stressors; in their own right!
Thus; in human beings; there is excessive stimulation of the receptors for vision, smell, taste, hearing, touch, pressure, vibrations, and pain. This is due to sensory stressors in the form of reading, dirty smells, lack of sunlight. enclosure in air-conditioned spaces, commuting, crowding, vibrations, loud speakers, glittering & flickering lights, strange and rapidly mixing frames with aggressive and loud advertising on TV, electrical /electrostatic strong fields, radiations due to various articles containing radioactive materials or computer and color TV screens! In addition; other stressors are exhaust of vehicles, mills, factories, excreta, lack of open space, lack of fresh air, lack of breeze, new cancer promoting chemicals, infectious microorganisms, parasites and vectors.
The instinctual Stressors are multiplied in human beings because of overexposure to glorified display of brazen and crude sexuality, indiscriminate violence, perverted eating and drinking, perverted struggles, conspiracies, manipulations for material success, perverted parental behavior, petty selfish achievements etc. causing undue stress on instincts. Child in crèche, KG, schools, boarding schools etc. develops insecurity. Lack of enough privacy due to small houses and crowding disturbs sexual life and causes stress. Similarly, inability to breast feed causes stress on parental instincts. Violence in the form of murders, mass killings, hijacking, terrorism insurgency etc. has brought stress on survival instincts in cities as well as villages. The instinctual stressors contribute to emotional stress.

Student: This is really a revelation! We used to consider stress very superficially!

Teacher: The emotional stressors; come into play; because of further development of nervous system in us! This development makes us stronger in one sense; but vulnerable because of sensitivity in another sense!
Thus; the sources of emotional stress can be our body; because of pain, disease and poor self image due to obesity, dwarfism, disfigurement, handicap, aging etc. The source can be our family. Ageing, disease, disablement, handicap, addiction, death, discord, harassment, loneliness, unwantedness, individualistic thinking, undue craze for quick money, social status, popularity, glamour and glitter, political power and the resultant behavior; tear apart the human bonds amongst the family members. All these become much more unmanageable because of nuclear family.