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Stress relieving is not about an occasional vacation to get away from everything. Stress – and its antidotes – are in the here and now.
I am a TV remote nazi and as soon as ads start running in between my favorite series, I begin channel surfing. However, a few days back a new and vibrant jingle caught my attention and I ended up seeing a brilliant 20 seconder – a part of a series of new ads that Snapdeal has done.
The movie opens on a middle aged woman, opening a bright red box and taking out a pair of ghughroos. The look of pure joy on her face when she rekindles an old passion is beautiful. The next shot shows her dancing and enjoying every moment of it.
It was while watching this ad that I realised, that as we go ahead in life, we tend to leave behind the small hobbies and habits that give us happiness. While donning the many hats of a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend and a corporate employee we tend to neglect the most important person in our lives – ourselves.
We tend to think of hobbies and interests as frivolous and would rather finish grocery shopping, then sketching for an hour. We need to understand that these light hearted activities are also important as they keep us sane.
The lifestyle that we have is hectic and stressful. It tends to take its toll on both our mental and physical health. I have been hearing an alarming increase in the number heart attacks in young people who are barely in their 20s or 30s.
There are other regular health issues due to stress, such as headache, backache, eye irritation, which we tend to pop a pill for short term solution. The constant running around also tends to breed negative feelings. Anger, irritation, impatience become our constant companion hence further deteriorating the health.
The best way to combat the above issues is to reduce stress and since not all of us can afford to change our entire lives, we can try and create small pockets of stress relieving zones.
If dancing is your thing, join a weekend class. Set aside an hour everyday for painting or sketching, relax with a book or music if that helps you unwind. The best part is that some of these activities can be carried out during the mundane hours of traveling to work.
An acquaintance gave up on 30 minutes of extra sleep, to run every morning. It did not just relieve stress but also helped her in becoming more fit. Another friend has taken to writing and squeezes in 30 minutes before sleeping every day.
That is all it takes, a little effort, a little extra time from our end. After all it is not just about surviving but about living. We should all truly try and ‘Unbox Zindagi.’
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Published here earlier.
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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