Expectation

PLAY BABY

STRESS

The word `stress` is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as "a state of affair involving demand on physical or mental energy". A condition or circumstance (not always adverse), which can disturb the normal physiological and psychological functioning of an individual. In medical parlance `stress` is defined as a perturbation of the body`s homeostasis. This demand on mind-body occurs when it tries to cope with incessant changes in life. A `stress` condition seems `relative` in nature. Extreme stress conditions, psychologists say, are detrimental to human healthbut in moderation stress is normal and, in many cases, proves useful. Stress, nonetheless, is synonymous with negative conditions. Today, with the rapid diversification of human activity, we come face to face with numerous causes of stress and the symptoms of anxiety and depression.

"Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances."
—Thomas Jefferson

The Dyanamics of Stress
In a challenging situation the brain prepares the body for defensive action—the fight or flight response by releasingstress hormones, namely, cortisone and adrenaline. These hormones raise the blood pressure and the body prepares to react to the situation. With a concrete defensive action (fight response) the stress hormones in the blood get used up, entailing reduced stress effects and symptoms of anxiety.

When we fail to counter a stress situation (flight response) the hormones and chemicals remain unreleased in the blood stream for a long period of time. It results in stress related physical symptoms such as tense muscles, unfocused anxiety, dizziness and rapid heartbeats. We all encounter various stressors (causes of stress) in everyday life, which can accumulate, if not released. Subsequently, it compels the mind and body to be in an almost constant alarm-state in preparation to fight or flee. This state of accumulated stress can increase the risk of both acute and chronic psychosomatic illnesses and weaken the immune system.

Stress can cause headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, eating disorder, allergies, insomnia, backaches, frequent cold and fatigue to diseases such as hypertension, asthma, diabetes, heart ailments and even cancer. In fact, Sanjay Chugh, a leading Indian psychologist, says that 70 per cent to 90 per cent of adults visit primary care physicians for stress-related problems. Scary enough. But where do we err?

Just about everybody—men, women, children and even fetuses—suffer from stress. Relationship demands, chronichealth problems, pressure at workplaces, traffic snarls, meeting deadlines, growing-up tensions or a sudden bearish trend in the bourse can trigger stress conditions. People react to it in their own ways. In some people, stress-induced adverse feelings and anxieties tend to persist and intensify. Learning to understand and manage stress can prevent the counter effects of stress.

Methods of coping with stress are aplenty. The most significant or sensible way out is a change in lifestyle. Relaxation techniques such as meditation, physical exercises, listening to soothing music, deep breathing, various natural and alternative methods, personal growth techniques, visualization and massage are some of the most effective of the known non-invasive stress busters.

Stress Can Be Positive
The words `positive` and `stress` may not often go together. But, there are innumerable instances of athletes rising to the challenge of stress and achieving the unachievable, scientists stressing themselves out over a point to bring into light the most unthinkable secrets of the phenomenal world, and likewise a painter, a composer or a writer producing the best paintings, the most lilting of tunes or the most appealing piece of writing by pushing themselves to the limit. Psychologists second the opinion that some `stress` situations can actually boost our inner potential and can be creatively helpful. Sudha Chandran, an Indian danseus, lost both of her legs in an accident. But, the physical and social inadequacies gave her more impetus to carry on with her dance performances with the help of prosthetic legs rather than deter her spirits.

Experts tell us that stress, in moderate doses, are necessary in our life. Stress responses are one of our body`s best defense systems against outer and inner dangers. In a risky situation (in case of accidents or a sudden attack on life et al), body releases stress hormones that instantly make us more alert and our senses become more focused. The body is also prepared to act with increased strength and speed in a pressure situation. It is supposed to keep us sharp and ready for action.

Research suggests that stress can actually increase our performance. Instead of wilting under stress, one can use it as an impetus to achieve success. Stress can stimulate one`s faculties to delve deep into and discover one`s true potential. Under stress the brain is emotionally and biochemically stimulated to sharpen its performance.

A working class mother in down town California, Erin Brokovich, accomplished an extraordinary feat in the 1990s when she took up a challenge against the giant industrial house Pacific Gas & Electric. The unit was polluting the drinking water of the area with chromium effluents. Once into it, Brockovich had to work under tremendous stress taking on the bigwigs of the society. By her own account, she had to study as many as 120 research articles to find if chromium 6 was carcinogenic. Going from door to door, Erin signed up over 600 plaintiffs, and with attorney Ed Masry went on to receive the largest court settlement, for the town people, ever paid in a direct action lawsuit in the U.S. history—$333 million. It`s an example of an ordinary individual triumphing over insurmountable odds under pressure. If handled positively stress can induce people to discover their inherent talents.

Stress is, perhaps, necessary to occasionally clear cobwebs from our thinking. If approached positively, stress can help us evolve as a person by letting go of unwanted thoughts and principle in our life. Very often, at various crossroads of life, stress may remind you of the transitorynature of your experiences, and may prod you to look for the true happiness of life.

Stress Throughout Evolution
Stress has existed throughout the evolution. About 4 billion years ago, violent collision of rock and ice along with dust and gas, led to the formation of a new planet. The planet survive more than 100 million years of meltdown to give birth to microscopic life . These first organisms endured the harshest of conditions—lack of oxygen, exposure to sun`s UV rays and other inhospitable elements, to hang on to their dear life. Roughly 300,000 years ago, the Neanderthals learnt to use fire in a controlled way, to survive the Glacial Age. And around 30,000 years, Homo sapiens with their dominant gene constitutions and better coping skills, won the game of survival. Each step of evolution a test of survival, and survival, a matter of coping with the stress of changing conditions.

Millions of trials and errors in the life process have brought men to this stage. Coping with events to survive has led men to invent extraordinary technologies, beginning with a piece of sharpened stone.

From the viewpoint of microevolution, stress induction of transpositions is a powerful factor, generating new genetic variations in populations under stressful environmental conditions. Passing through a `bottleneck`, a population can rapidly and significantly alters its population norm and become the founder of new, evolved forms.

Gene transposition through Transposable Elements (TE)—`jumping genes`, is a major source of genetic change, including the creation of novel genes, the alteration of gene expression in development, and the genesis of major genomic rearrangements. In a research on `the significance of responses of the genome to challenges,` the Nobel Prize winning scientist Barbara McClintock, characterized these genetic phenomena as `genomic shock`.This occurs due to recombinational events between TE insertions (high and low insertion polymorphism) and host genome. But, as a rule TEs remain immobilized until some stress factor (temperature, irradiation, DNA damage, the introduction of foreign chromatin, viruses, etc.) activates their elements.

The moral remains that we can work a stress condition to our advantage or protect ourselves from its untoward follow-throughs subject to how we handle a stress situation. The choice is between becoming a slave to the stressful situations of life or using them to our advantage.

http://www.lifepositive.com/Mind/psychology/stress/stress.asphe word `stress` is defined by the Oxford Dictionary as "a state of affair involving demand on physical or mental energy". A condition or circumstance (not always adverse), which can disturb the normal physiological and psychological functioning of an individual. In medical parlance `stress` is defined as a perturbation of the body`s homeostasis. This demand on mind-body occurs when it tries to cope with incessant changes in life. A `stress` condition seems `relative` in nature. Extreme stress conditions, psychologists say, are detrimental to human healthbut in moderation stress is normal and, in many cases, proves useful. Stress, nonetheless, is synonymous with negative conditions. Today, with the rapid diversification of human activity, we come face to face with numerous causes of stress and the symptoms of anxiety and depression.

"Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances."
—Thomas Jefferson

The Dyanamics of Stress
In a challenging situation the brain prepares the body for defensive action—the fight or flight response by releasingstress hormones, namely, cortisone and adrenaline. These hormones raise the blood pressure and the body prepares to react to the situation. With a concrete defensive action (fight response) the stress hormones in the blood get used up, entailing reduced stress effects and symptoms of anxiety.

When we fail to counter a stress situation (flight response) the hormones and chemicals remain unreleased in the blood stream for a long period of time. It results in stress related physical symptoms such as tense muscles, unfocused anxiety, dizziness and rapid heartbeats. We all encounter various stressors (causes of stress) in everyday life, which can accumulate, if not released. Subsequently, it compels the mind and body to be in an almost constant alarm-state in preparation to fight or flee. This state of accumulated stress can increase the risk of both acute and chronic psychosomatic illnesses and weaken the immune system.

Stress can cause headaches, irritable bowel syndrome, eating disorder, allergies, insomnia, backaches, frequent cold and fatigue to diseases such as hypertension, asthma, diabetes, heart ailments and even cancer. In fact, Sanjay Chugh, a leading Indian psychologist, says that 70 per cent to 90 per cent of adults visit primary care physicians for stress-related problems. Scary enough. But where do we err?

Just about everybody—men, women, children and even fetuses—suffer from stress. Relationship demands, chronichealth problems, pressure at workplaces, traffic snarls, meeting deadlines, growing-up tensions or a sudden bearish trend in the bourse can trigger stress conditions. People react to it in their own ways. In some people, stress-induced adverse feelings and anxieties tend to persist and intensify. Learning to understand and manage stress can prevent the counter effects of stress.

Methods of coping with stress are aplenty. The most significant or sensible way out is a change in lifestyle. Relaxation techniques such as meditation, physical exercises, listening to soothing music, deep breathing, various natural and alternative methods, personal growth techniques, visualization and massage are some of the most effective of the known non-invasive stress busters.

Stress Can Be Positive
The words `positive` and `stress` may not often go together. But, there are innumerable instances of athletes rising to the challenge of stress and achieving the unachievable, scientists stressing themselves out over a point to bring into light the most unthinkable secrets of the phenomenal world, and likewise a painter, a composer or a writer producing the best paintings, the most lilting of tunes or the most appealing piece of writing by pushing themselves to the limit. Psychologists second the opinion that some `stress` situations can actually boost our inner potential and can be creatively helpful. Sudha Chandran, an Indian danseus, lost both of her legs in an accident. But, the physical and social inadequacies gave her more impetus to carry on with her dance performances with the help of prosthetic legs rather than deter her spirits.

Experts tell us that stress, in moderate doses, are necessary in our life. Stress responses are one of our body`s best defense systems against outer and inner dangers. In a risky situation (in case of accidents or a sudden attack on life et al), body releases stress hormones that instantly make us more alert and our senses become more focused. The body is also prepared to act with increased strength and speed in a pressure situation. It is supposed to keep us sharp and ready for action.

Research suggests that stress can actually increase our performance. Instead of wilting under stress, one can use it as an impetus to achieve success. Stress can stimulate one`s faculties to delve deep into and discover one`s true potential. Under stress the brain is emotionally and biochemically stimulated to sharpen its performance.

A working class mother in down town California, Erin Brokovich, accomplished an extraordinary feat in the 1990s when she took up a challenge against the giant industrial house Pacific Gas & Electric. The unit was polluting the drinking water of the area with chromium effluents. Once into it, Brockovich had to work under tremendous stress taking on the bigwigs of the society. By her own account, she had to study as many as 120 research articles to find if chromium 6 was carcinogenic. Going from door to door, Erin signed up over 600 plaintiffs, and with attorney Ed Masry went on to receive the largest court settlement, for the town people, ever paid in a direct action lawsuit in the U.S. history—$333 million. It`s an example of an ordinary individual triumphing over insurmountable odds under pressure. If handled positively stress can induce people to discover their inherent talents.

Stress is, perhaps, necessary to occasionally clear cobwebs from our thinking. If approached positively, stress can help us evolve as a person by letting go of unwanted thoughts and principle in our life. Very often, at various crossroads of life, stress may remind you of the transitorynature of your experiences, and may prod you to look for the true happiness of life.

Stress Throughout Evolution
Stress has existed throughout the evolution. About 4 billion years ago, violent collision of rock and ice along with dust and gas, led to the formation of a new planet. The planet survive more than 100 million years of meltdown to give birth to microscopic life . These first organisms endured the harshest of conditions—lack of oxygen, exposure to sun`s UV rays and other inhospitable elements, to hang on to their dear life. Roughly 300,000 years ago, the Neanderthals learnt to use fire in a controlled way, to survive the Glacial Age. And around 30,000 years, Homo sapiens with their dominant gene constitutions and better coping skills, won the game of survival. Each step of evolution a test of survival, and survival, a matter of coping with the stress of changing conditions.

Millions of trials and errors in the life process have brought men to this stage. Coping with events to survive has led men to invent extraordinary technologies, beginning with a piece of sharpened stone.

From the viewpoint of microevolution, stress induction of transpositions is a powerful factor, generating new genetic variations in populations under stressful environmental conditions. Passing through a `bottleneck`, a population can rapidly and significantly alters its population norm and become the founder of new, evolved forms.

Gene transposition through Transposable Elements (TE)—`jumping genes`, is a major source of genetic change, including the creation of novel genes, the alteration of gene expression in development, and the genesis of major genomic rearrangements. In a research on `the significance of responses of the genome to challenges,` the Nobel Prize winning scientist Barbara McClintock, characterized these genetic phenomena as `genomic shock`.This occurs due to recombinational events between TE insertions (high and low insertion polymorphism) and host genome. But, as a rule TEs remain immobilized until some stress factor (temperature, irradiation, DNA damage, the introduction of foreign chromatin, viruses, etc.) activates their elements.

The moral remains that we can work a stress condition to our advantage or protect ourselves from its untoward follow-throughs subject to how we handle a stress situation. The choice is between becoming a slave to the stressful situations of life or using them to our advantage.

http://www.lifepositive.com/Mind/psychology/stress/stress.asp

Eve Teasing

It's the same story every day. You step on the street in the morning and jump out of your skin as a car hurtles towards you and swerves just before smashing you to a pulp. The driverlaughs evilly and you're still cursing him under your breath as you pass a group of men standing at the corner, who burst into 'choli ke peechey kya hai' almost on cue. You pretend not to hear and get into an autorickshaw. (Let me not even start about the horrors of traveling in a bus in India and the daily fight against being groped.) The rickshaw driver adjusts his rear view mirror to get a better look at you, and you sit with your files and bag clutched close to your chest as you avoid eye contact with him through the journey. Two men on a scooter peek into the autorickshaw, decide they like what they see and follow you around for a few minutes (depending, of course, on how 'lukkha' they are) staring lecherously and giggling excitedly till the autorickaw driver takes pity on you and waves them off. You reach office and as you're about to enter the gate, a cyclist comes out of nowhere, slaps you on your butt and cycles off.

Office is fine. You have some form of control over your surroundings and take revenge on the male sex by bossing your peon around.

At the 6:30 p.m. show you get 'completely unintentionally' jostled and felt up. Well, what did you expect? You should have sat at home and watched it on VCD you bad, bad girl. As you exit the hall a ruffian whistles and another one passes a lewd remark. You reach home, dodge another speeding vehicle with its underage driver listening to ear-blasting music and hooting as he passes you. 'A***ole!' you mutter irritated, hurriedly enter the gate and bang it shut as loud as you can.

Just another day.

So what's a woman to do?

Many have resorted to carrying pins, pen-knives and even daggers as a deterrent. Others have taken self-defence classes and don't hesitate before landing a karate chop on the offender's shoulder blade.

Fight back

This doesn't mean you have to sock your offender in the face - no matter how tempting it may be. But being too shy and reserved to speak up is just going to work against you. You've got to look your offender in the face and speak up as loud as you can. The crowd will automatically be on your side and you'll have the satisfaction of watching the ball of slime mumble a denial and slink away.

If you're being followed

Nothing psyches your follower as much as this: Just walk up to him and start yelling at the top your voice, without letting him get a word in. Ask him for the name of his employer. Drop the 'You don't know who I am and who you're messing with' line. Tell him you're going to sic the police on his ass if he doesn't do the vanishing act. (Not recommended if you're talking to a 6 ft muscleman or to a group of hooligans, but a wimpy, skinny male will rue the day he crossed your path.)

Walk in well-lit and frequented areas

Don't walk through a dark, lonely street or you're only inviting trouble. In a well lit area you'll be able to see and avoid potential offenders.

Be street smart

Don't daydream and don't look lost - even if you are. Look as if you know exactly where you are going.

Dress appropriately

If you are going to spend the day in crowded areas, don't wear a mini skirt. True, women in salwar kameezes get harassed as well, but there's no need to call attention to yourself. Save your skimpy clothes for the nightclubs, when you're the one who's on a prowl!

Know thy enemy

Is the guy across the street waiting for you to pass by? Does he look like he's out for some 'fun'? Is he huddled with other men and just hanging out, doing nothing in particular? Then it's best to...

Avoid potential harassers

If you see a group of men hanging out, or a man who's making eye contact with you and trying to get your attention, take a detour. Better safe than sorry.

Travel with a male escort

Though this may not always be possible, try and work out some arrangement where you have a male escort. Eve-teasers by and large target women who are without a male escort. Of course, if they are very frustrated, even the presence of a man may not deter them - so better safe than sorry. Take the necessary precautions, drive with your cellphone handy, don't walk outdoors at night, and learn karate!

Thanks

http://www.indiaparenting.com

Impact of Sexual Harassment on Women

To understand the impact of sexual harassment on women one must listen to the account of its victims as no one conveys the meaning and truth of sexual harassment better than the women who have endured it. In response to the question "What kind of emotional response does eve teasing /sexual harassment evoke in you", not a single woman ticked the category of "indifferent". The survey of the Gender Study Group shows that most women felt disgusted, insulted and scared by any sort of harassment.Women often internalise male perceptions of sexual harassment and blame themselves for having brought on the harassment. They not only doubt the validity of their own experiences but begin to believe that they themselves must be 'abnormal', 'cheap' , 'indecent' or deserving the violence that comes their way.
Most respondents, men and women, described 'verbal harassment' as eve teasing and contrasted this with 'physical harassment' which has been seen as sexual harassment. They described eve teasing as relatively harmless behaviour committed usually by strangers, while sexual harassment would be grievous committed by acquaintances or men in positions of institutional power. In addition, most men and women described eve teasing as isolated incidents while sexual harassment would typically be repetitive and sustained over a long period of time. Many respondents said that they felt extreme anger, frustration and helplessness at not being able to do anything about the harassment.
Many women having faced this behaviour also said that they find it difficult to trust or have friendships with men.
In response to the question "Has sexual harassment /eve teasing affected your academic/personal development in any way?' ,45% of women stated that sexual harassment on Delhi campus roads has affected their personal or academic development in one way or another. Many women have found a way of handling these situations by changing their personalities but at one level these changes are also forced by the circumstances over which they have no control, and has left some of them bitter.Authority Structures Despite gross instances of sexual harassment in the past the Delhi University administration has not treated sexual harassment as a serious problem which has traumatic consequences for the women.
The university administrators do not want to recongnize the magnitude of the problem of sexual harassment faced by women in the University, everyday. The general attitude of the administration has by and large been one that either disbelieves the victim or blames her for 'provoking harassment'. By treating sexual harassment as 'normal' the administration has systematically legimatised the sexist violence women face in the University.

Police
A great deal of cynicism exists regarding police action. Women said that even when they have gone ahead to complain to the police nothing has been done about it. In our survey 20.2% women hostellers said that they have faced sexual harassment from policemen, this includes staring, winking and lewd comments. The problem of harassment can be sorted out only if the hostel and university authorities and the police work together in tackling it.

Need for a policy on Sexual Harassment
The suggestions made by the Wad Committee has been included in the report. Some of its important provisions are:
Till the time legislation is passed, the university should frame appropriate statutes for dealing with cases of harassment.

The university should appoint a committee of three women teachers to inquire into serious charges of harassment.
If this committee records prima facie findings of guilt, the person responsible should be suspended in anticipation of disciplinary proceedings. The Disciplinary Enquiry should be headed b a retired judge and should be associated by one woman member, not connected with the University.

What can women students do?
Women need to strategize about their safety and not simply ' avoid going out in the late evening alone'. Some strategies that women could use in case of Street Harassment are:
· ignore as a strategy.
· scream for help.
· lash out.
· Push the person away and hit them with slippers / bags.
· Use self-defense mechanisms E.g. kick them off balance.
· Note down the number and features of the vehicle.
It is a mater of concern that 91.7% of the women hosteller respondents reported having faced harassment on the campus. This report came out in 1996, however nothing concrete has still been done to tackle this problem. It is about time that the university authorities, the teachers associations and various student bodies take responsibility and through open discussions take a political stand, which would ensure action to make the campus safer for its women students. It is important that we question our own perceptions on the issue of harassment, before we can bring about any change!
http://www.legalserviceindia.com
By Deepali Chandhoke