NIRC Article

Stress has become one of the most serious issues among the people drawing attention in day to day life. Most people try to get away from work in order to look for peace of mind. The cause of stress is not the activity but the attitude with which we approach work. Peace must be part of action not divorced from it. So, this paper brings out the various sources of stress, their nature, consequences and the remedial actions to overcome them.

Stress is a natural and unavoidable feature of modern life. When the pressure of life become too much and an individual finds himself to satisfy or say cope with the reasons behind this. Stress operates like a screw gradually turning tighter and tighter. A person when feels that he is not in position to do or to get or to achieve the desired things or way of life, it creates tension on him that too also known as stress when the individual is attached psychologically or emotionally with it.

There may be several reasons in which a person may feel stress. Conditions that tend to cause stress differs form individual to individual. For example, a particular work condition may be suitable to do the job, but at the same time it may be stressful for another person.

The various stressors can be grouped into four categories i.e. Individual, Group, Organizational and extra-organizational with various subcategories.

INDIVIDUAL STRESSORS

Stress is an unavoidable consequences of life. Without stress there would be no life. But on the other side it is important to have check and balance from time to time to control and monitor the stress. One must learn to recognise and respond to early warning signs of overload and other such symptoms of stress. The main reasons behind the stress are

There are many stressors at the level of individual, which may be generated in the context of organisation life or his personal life. "our mind is a thought producing factory". The mind itself can either generate thought of happiness or of stress;" Stress comes in all shaped and has become so pervasive that it seems to percolate everything and everybody. Stress is an unavoidable consequences of life. Without stress there would be no life. But on the other side it is important to have check and balance from time to time to control and monitor the stress. One must learn to recognise and respond to early warning signs of overload and other such symptoms of stress. The main reasons behind the stress are

Personality Characteristics: There may be role stress either because of role conflict or role assignation. Role conflict arises because of incompatibility of two or more roles. Another source of role stress is the role ambiguity in which people are not clear about actual expectations from a role. This may be because of inadequate knowledge or information to do a job. In many situations, the various roles may have conflicting demands and people experience stress as they are not able to fulfill the conflicting role requirements.

GROUP STRESSORS

In every organization employees join directly or indirectly various formal and informal groups. The department where they work may be known as formal groups. And the departmental colleagues may form informal groups. These groups can also be a source of stress. The group stress may segregated as under:

1.	Lack of Group cohesiveness: If an employee is denied the opportunity to develop sense of belonging, if supervisory style process cohesiveness, if attitude and behavior of other members does not allow the acceptance of an employee, these may become the cause for stress in an individual.
2.	Lack of social support: As member of groups we always look for support from co-members in times of happiness and sorrow. If such support is not forthcoming it can also cause stress.
3.	Interpersonal and Intergroup conflict: The incompatibility of rules and values between supervisor and subordinate and between colleagues usually reach to interpersonal conflicts. Those conflicts can also lead to considerably stress in individual.

ORGANISATIONAL STRESSORS

1.	Organization Policies: Unfavorable and ambiguous policies may affect the functioning of the individual that results adverse and unexpected behavior causing stress.
2.	Organisational Structure: Even a minor defect in organisation structure, like, lack of opportunity of participation in decision making, excessive interdependence of various departments, the hidden fear of boss among staff etc cause stress on job.
3.	Physical Conditions: Organisational physical conditions also effects work performance. Poor physical conditions like crowding and lack of privacy, excessive noise, excessive heat, or cold, presence of toxic chemicals and radiation air pollution, safety hazards, poor lighting, unergonomi-cally designed seating & standing position of an individual also create stress among people.

EXTRA-ORGANISA TIONAL STRESSORS

Apart from the above mentioned factors there are several other reasons that may cause stress. These are as under :

a.	Selfishness: Actions performed out of attachment cause stress. Such actions spring from selfishness and breed further selfish actions.
b.	Indulgence: Within the field of our attachments we continuousl generate desires which look for release. A mind pulsating with unfulfilled desires causes stress.
c.	Top management/seniors keep on changing policies frequently, creating confusion about the clarity of job/work to be done in a challenging environment.
d.	Heavy Pressure to finish the work in deadlines.
e.	The general political element of the organization.
f.	Long Hours /long commuting distance
g.	Continuing battle to reduce costs, to operate with in specified budget, trend of retrenchment of staff, frequent rejection of the demand of staff without giving patience hearing.
h.	The most traumatic and disruptive events such as death of spouse, riots, divorce etc.
i.	Age factor, for eg. Boss is of younger age as well as of inexperienced one.

There are two models presented here to describe about stress-strain phenomenon at work system.

CONSEQUENCES OF STRESS

The main symptoms of stress include:

Tense muscles: A sore neck, shoulders and back
Insomnia
Fatigue
Boredom and listlessness
Depression
Abuse of alcohol, drugs, smoking habits.
Phobia
Palpitations: Heart slip
Worrying about any symptoms we might have can also add to our stress.
Memory loss
Change in behavior, lack of interest in job.

PHYSIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLE

The muscular work play very important role in the development of stress sand strain in the body. Therefore, it is imperative to understand its, mechanism before discussing how to mange the stress. The human: body is able to move because it has a widely distributed system of muscles, which together make up approximately 40% of the total body weight. Each muscle is made up of a large number of muscle fibers (between 1,00,000 and 1 million). The most important characteristic of a muscle is its ability to shrink to half of its normal length.

Sources of Energy

During contraction, mechanical energy in developed at the expense of the reserves of chemical energy in the muscle. Muscular work involves the transformation of chemical into mechanical energy. The energy released by chemical reaction acts upon the protein molecules of muscle fibers, causing them to change position and so bring about contraction: The immediate sources of energy for contraction are energy rich phosphate compounds which change from a high energy most widely used by living organisms is adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The low energy phosphate compounds are continuously converted back to the high-energy remain undiminished. This is one of the wonders of nature: it is as if the exhaust gases of a car could be re-converted into petrol.

Role of Glucose, Fat and Proteins

The regeneration of high-energy phosphate compounds itself consumes energy, which is obtained from glucose and from components of fat and proteins. Glucose, the most important of the sugars circulating in the blood, is the main energy supply in intensive physical work. Under conditions of rest or moderate Physical work the components of fat (fatty acids) and proteins (amino acids) are the dominant energy suppliers. The glucose passes out of the blood stream into the cells where it is converted by various stages into pyruvic acid. Further breakdown can take two directions, depending on whether oxygen is available (aerobic glucoses) or whether the oxygen is supply is deficient (anaerobic glycolysis)

Role of Oxygen

If Oxygen is present, then pyruvic acid is further broken down by oxidation. The end products are water and carbon dioxide. This releases enough energy to reconstitute a large amount of ATP. If oxygen is lacking, then the normal breakdown of the pyruvic acid does not take place. Instead it is converted into lactic acid, a form of metabolic waste product which plays a vital part in symptoms of' muscle fatigue an
"Muscular hangover".

So, in the final anaysis it is the blood supply that is the limiting factor in the efficiency of the muscular machinery. During effort, a muscle increases its need for blood several fold, and to supply this the most important adaptations of the blood system are active pumping by the heart, raising of the blood pressure, and enlargement of the blood vessels that lead to the muscle.

MANAGING STRESS

The alarming increase in stress levels especially among urban Indians in the past decades has made stress management a need for today. Many programmes have been developed by different societies, gurus to reduce and/or eliminate to evils of stress. But one must know that the root cause of stress is psychological. Therefore only psychological treatment can help to reduce stress. Once a person is in the grip of stress it is not so easy to get out of the stress and its so called evils. It is also to be noted that no one can spare himself from stress. It is essential to manage the stress. The following are the tips to manage the stress :

a.	Identify the source of Stress: Identify the unrelieved stress and then work towards changing the source of stress. Once the source of stress is identified than the following action plan may be work out.
b.	Exercise regularly: A healthy, flexible body makes a healthy alert mind. Being physically active stimulates energy levels in the brain and allows an outlet for our frustrations. Meditations, Breathing, Yoga, Morning Walk are few best exercises.
c.	Keep yourself busy: This takes our mind off the problem. It is the best way to deal with the problem. Instead of keeping remembering about it.
d.	Pray to God: lf you are God fearing and of religious' person, the prayer can help in reducing stress.
e.	Keeping sense of humor and trying to be happy: Forget the root cause of stress and divert your attention towards multiple choices of different/varied interesting matters of your choice. Keep your self busy in thinking of the humors, joys always to keep you smiling. A healthy gossip friendly society, playing light games like ludo, playing cards with the children will keep you in a good humour.
f.	Connect with your emotions: Allow yourself to connect with your emotions and then deal with them instead of suppressing them or venting them in an ineffective manner. Your anger, frustration, or distress may be justified but the discomfort of managing one's emotions in an intelligent way.
g.	Food Habits: A change in food habits will also help in reducing the stress. Eating light food, vegetables, juices are suggested in this regard. It is suggested to avoid liquors, smoking, junk food, non veg food, taking food in late hours. Food should not be taken when you are talking over phone or with the clients.
h.	Time management: Improve your time management. Time managed well can help reduce stress resulting from too much to do in too little time. Set up realistic time limits for yourself as for the others.
i.	Learn to relax often: In the midst of stressful situations it might be difficult to relax. Yet just a few minutes of sitting on a comfortable chair, listening to melody music, taking warm bath, doing deep muscle relaxation etc.

Therefore, the contact with world must be under the dictates of the intellect and not the mind. This arrests the multiplication of desires. Remember that stress it self is not a disease but it may give birth to several diseases therefore timely preventive measures are essential to have a long life with happiness and a lot of joys and smiles always. Whatever be one's merits one can never supercede the laws governing life. One can only understand and abide by them. A wise man is one who recognizes this truth and allows the forces of nature to supplement and not contradict his efforts.

The author is a member of the Institute. The views expressed herein are his personal views and do no necessarily represent the views of the Regional Council