Dealing with stress in modern Mongolia
We’re living in exciting times with new discoveries and new gadgets made almost each year in every field of science. However, it’s also disorienting and turbulent times we’re living in.
Rapid innovations are amazing and some make our daily lives more convenient but it can also bring negative impacts. Not only can we lose our jobs, not only can our ventures go out of business, but with new technologies, an entire industry can be swept away. To prevent this from happening, we’re required to work faster and more efficiently so that we don’t get left behind. This fast pace to stay “in the know” builds up anxiety, pressure, and stress.
As we all know, not everyone is perfect. Some can handle the pressure but some can’t and get succumbed to the stress. Especially people living in developed countries or rapidly developing countries feel excessively stressed according to international studies. The World Health Organization estimated stress costs American businesses up to 300 billion USD a year.
Work is the leading cause of stress among our population, followed by finances, but the addition of new modern concerns — like liver and stomach cancer and the state of the environment — are adding to the load.
A 2010 study aimed to estimate stress level in workplaces in Ulaanbaatar surveyed 1,000 people including shop assistants, health personnel, policemen and lawyers. It determined that 21 percent of them weren’t feeling any stress in their workplace while 78 percent were stressed. Almost half of the stressed workers were experiencing extremely high levels of stress, 18.1 percent faced second degree of stress and 13.2 percent with third degree stress according to the study. It concluded that 78.9 percent of workers in hospital, legal and commercial organizations feel stress in their workplaces.
Most researchers believed that the media painted the most stressed population as educated, middle-class professionals who, in fact, had the luxury of making choices that would lead to less stress. As they continued to research, they found that young people are excessively stressed. A study published in December 2017 in the journal Psychological Bulletin found that there was a 33 percent spike in two types of perfectionism among college students in Canada, the US and the UK: “self-oriented”, or having high expectations of yourself, and “other-oriented”, where they have rigorous standards for others.
The researchers stated that the stress of perfectionism can lead to eating disorders, high blood pressure, depression and thoughts of suicide.
“The younger generation feels a lot more stress today than they did in the past,” says Dr. Katy Kamkar, a clinical psychologist at Toronto’s Center for Addiction and Mental Health.
Experts noted that young people also feel stress as new technologies emerge in the market. They explained that the advent of technologies make young people susceptible to cyber bullying in addition to affecting their ability to focus and relax.
“A lot of young people are having difficulty maintaining their attention span because they’re always looking to see what’s coming through on social media,” said Dr. Richard Amaral, a registered psychologist in Canada.
Stress was called the “health epidemic of the 21st century” by the World Health Organization. It was said to be an epidemic that will be one of the most significant challenges businesses face over the next decade - a threat to engagement, productivity, retention and looming health care costs. Stress is among our greatest health threats. It’s been linked to complications like high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity and diabetes. It can also present immune issues, higher risk of infertility and miscarriage, headaches, muscle tension or pain, anxiety and depression.
Besides workplaces, key stressors for Mongolians include health problems, especially the high prevalence of liver and stomach cancers, and environmental pollution such as air, soil and water pollution. We can’t always control our environment but we can control our reaction to it.
In fact, many people across the globe are seeking healthy ways to deal with the stress in their lives and one of the most common ways is meditation.
HOW DOES MEDITATION WORK?
Your mind deserves better than to be loaded down with the never-ending job of worrying. A lot of our stress is unnecessary and even harmful. With some meditation, we can become more aware of our emotions.
It gives us some space and time to connect with our emotions and think about the important things in life. In a way, it trains our minds to become more capable, more focused and clear, enabling us to better handle stressful and demanding situations. When we’re not aware, our emotions tend to color our perception and judgment and thus inflate our concerns for unnecessary things.
Meditation is an ancient practice, but scientists are still discovering all of its benefits. Neurologists have found that regular meditation actually changes your brain in ways that can help you to control emotions, enhance concentration, decrease stress, and even become more connected to those around you. With practice, you’ll be able to achieve a sense of tranquility and peace no matter what’s going on around you. There are many different ways to meditate, so if one practice doesn’t seem to work for you, before you give up consider trying a different type that works better for you.
One of the simplest ways to meditate is to find a peaceful environment, sit in a comfortable position with your back straight, close your eyes, focus on your breathing, and slowly drift into a state of clear mind. The point of meditation is to focus on your emotions and yourself for a few minutes each day. This type of self-reflective tool is a powerful way to fight off stress by helping you to feel grounded and to restore calm in your daily life. Once you’ve done this for a month or so, it can become a quick mental exercise.
There are various meditation centers around Ulaanbaatar but if you find them a little time-consuming, far or expensive, it’s possible to get guided meditation lessons online or via phone applications.
WHAT OTHER STRESS MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES ARE THERE?
Other scientifically proven stress-relieving activities include:
Breathing exercises
Deep breathing is an easy stress reliever that has numerous benefits for the body, including relaxing muscles and quieting the mind. Breathing exercises are especially helpful because you can practice them anywhere.
Exercise
Many people exercise to control weight and get in better physical condition to become more healthy or physically attractive, but exercise and stress management are also closely linked. Exercise provides a distraction from stressful situations, as well as an outlet for frustrations, and gives you a lift via endorphins as well.
Listen to music
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by a stressful situation, try taking a break and listening to relaxing music. Playing calm music has a positive effect on the brain and body, can lower blood pressure, and reduce cortisol, a hormone linked to stress.
Call a friend
Good relationships with friends and loved ones are important to any healthy lifestyle, and they’re especially important when you’re under a lot of stress. A reassuring voice, even for a minute, can put everything in perspective.
Talk yourself through it
Sometimes calling a friend is not an option. If this is the case, talking calmly to yourself can be the next best thing. Don’t worry about seeming crazy — just tell yourself why you’re stressed out, what you have to do to complete the task at hand, and most importantly, that everything will be okay.
Eat right
Stress levels and a proper diet are closely related. When we’re overwhelmed, we often forget to eat well and resort to using sugary, fatty snack foods as a pick-me-up. Try to avoid sugary snacks and plan ahead. Fruits and vegetables are always good, and fish with high levels of omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to reduce the symptoms of stress.
Get organized
By working through the clutter of your life, you can eliminate those energy drains that can make you feel like you’re being pecked to death by ducks’ and reserve that energy for dealing with life’s more important challenges.
Laugh it off
Laughter releases endorphins that improve mood and decrease levels of the stress-causing hormones cortisol and adrenaline. Laughing tricks your nervous system into making you happy.
Nowadays, we’re all thinking about outer beauty but inner beauty is just as important. Most people in Mongolia are relatively calm during summer because they’re out of the city, enjoying vacations, escaping the heat with indoor activities, and/ going to music festivals. However, once summer is over, schools will start, office life will become busier, traffic will increase, and the tension will build up. To achieve a true work-life balance, remember to maintain a healthy body and positive attitude, and do activities.