The Stress on Stress….!!??

Amita Raina

• Have you ever observed your child who is 2 or 3 years old walk on a balancing beam for the first time… 
  
• Have you ever been so still as to not make any movement while holding a baby chick so gently so as not to squeeze its life out… 
  
• Have you ever spent time watching the butterfly struggle out of its cocoon, waiting for their wings to dry in order to be able to live a butterfly’s life….
  
• Have you ever comforted a child (and the parent in some cases) from separation anxiety…
  
• Have you tried to fulfill the needs of a child who cannot express themselves due to a language barrier or special needs…
  
• Have you ever made countless efforts to find answers from a selectively mute child…

If you HAVE….  you have encountered STRESS…  and not just for yourself… but also of the other being simultaneously… STRESS times TWO… or more…

But in all the ‘Stress’ taken above there was one thing common…. Neither knew that they were stressed… it was just a momentary feeling of not being in control but with the aim of a happy and victorious outcome… In Fact the word ‘stress’ did not even occur to me … it was more of a challenge or a life changing and a learning moment ..

Nowadays, I hear the word stress…… all around. From grown ups, from teenagers and even children. how easily we have created this bubble of stress around us!

If you are Stressed doing what you are doing, should you be doing it at all… ???

If we, grown ups cannot handle our situations and our so called Stress… what examples are we setting out for our children to handle situations and be in a state to find solutions! 

more than often it’s the parents’ lingo .. saying ‘My child is stressed because of her exams’ or ‘I am stressed because of my child’s exams’… 

The parent should be the calming factor, the happiness quotient and someone who holds their child’s hand to walk across the beam.. we know more than anyone else that just one exam or fall does not determine one’s destiny..

Children do not know anything about the existence of the word ‘Stress’… instead they know about PERSEVERANCE…. 

I’ve worked with children for a long enough time and observed them when they are making their first connections with the outside world… (most of the separation anxieties are within the parent which get transferred to the child)…When these little people first walk into a new world they are ready to explore and experiment in their time,  some at a faster pace than the others.. They observe their peers, adults while making their own decisions on how and when to approach different things accessible to them. When they are actually ready, they dive in and don’t stop until they get it right… they persevere until they get the desired result .. they repeatedly do the activity until they get a certain fulfillment because with each repetition they are on a path of SELF-DISCOVERY!! 

Each day when I  walked into my classroom, I had no room for my stress because the children came in with so much positive energy to discover another new day…  teaching us how to live each moment with the greatest spirit …. and STRESS-FREE!!! 

Let’s not dampen their spirit by introducing them to the word Stress, instead… 

Give them the…..

• courage to deal with failures..
  
• self believe to Never give up..
  
• ability to reflect on ones strengths..
  
• curiosity to never stop learning..
  
• attitude to give your best to achieve.. 
  
• an environment which is beyond judgements..

At every stage, life throws us various challenges but to be able to Accept, Adapt & Achieve requires a certain Mindset and work ethic.