By Dr. Attia Anwar
Stress has become part of everyday living. Stress has many negative effects on our physical and mental wellbeing. I am going to discuss what is happening during stress and why it has become essential part of modern everyday life, and how it impacts us.
During initial period of evolution human were hunter-gatherers. They face the dangers which require quick responses without deliberate thinking. So our flight, fight, and fright response is there. As if they encounter the lion there body should be prepared to flee immediately, and much thinking should not be involved in that. So our heart rate increases our blood pressure rises and we are ready to either fight or run. Unfortunately even in modern day our body responds to stress in the similar way, although modern day stressors do not require immediate response, they require a deliberate response. As when body is in rush it cannot react properly to the situation that further increases stress. We always face a smaller and bigger problems in life. So this stress continues for weeks and months. And we have negative effect on our body and mind. It can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, depression, anxiety and many other disorders.
Now in this century we become stressed by email notification or by any stimulus how trivial it is. So our body is in constant state of stress. In a study young doctors were exposed to a stress of interview and their blood samples were taken. And they showed increase in antibodies which are produced when we are exposed to pathogens. These inflammatory markers helps us to fight against disease but their constant presence will lead to degenerative effects on body. They cause early aging they cause memory loss and they cause certain types of cancers. 
Whenever we experience stress it is important that we should do something about it. Relaxing exercises, like deep breathing or short meditation help to reduce immediate stress .We can use other ways which can reduce our stress like, leaving the situation for a while if it can be handled later. Then we will be more focussed, make right decisions and handle the situation well. For long term reduction of stress regular meditation, exercise or cognitive behaviour therapy can be used.
We all have one formula engrained in our minds from previous centuries. That if you take things seriously or take stress, work hard and you will be successful. Once you will be successful you will be happy. So stress was greatly respected. If you are not stressful about things, you will not work hard in achieving them, and you will be failure and obviously you will not be happy. This formula has long been believed and stress and hard work were taken as a virtue especially if you suffer in the process. This was the case until recently, when somebody started working on positive psychology. And it became a game changer. So what they did, instead of focussing what happens when things go wrong, let us focus on what happens when things are right. What are the habits of highly successful people? What is their mind-set, how do they think? When they started focussing on these, many things were discovered.
Most important of them was stress is biggest hindrance to our performance. So people who are unhappy or stressed they cannot achieve their goals better as compared to people who are happy and start with positive mind-set. People who think they are above average will always able to do well as compared to others. I am giving the example of best high school student who was always brilliant. Then suddenly he goes to a prestigious institution because of his abilities. And finds out there that he is below average or average. His intelligence does not change. His ability to do hard work does not change. What has changed is that they are in a group of people who are smarter than them. That feeling that they are not best anymore reduced their performance, grades and increase their stress level which further reduced their performance. This phenomenon, you can see in every prestigious merit based institution with some students.
Whenever we face a challenge we get stressed and our brain is unable to think rationally. Now our brain is hijacked by emotions. And we are not able to see clearly and our performance decreases. That is why it is advised if you are overwhelmed by something bigger break your goals into smaller manageable goals so that your ability to think clearly is not lost. Otherwise you will not be able to do anything or achieve anything.
So stress is the biggest hindrance in achieving your goals, being at ease which is opposite of being stressed is the way, by which you can work better and become successful.
The author Dr. Attia Anwar is a consultant family physician with a postgraduate degree from the Royal College of GP UK. She is a strong advocate of health and well-being and wants patient participation in decision-making regarding health.
