FEAR FACTOR

It was a year since I had my Open heart surgery and everything is all right now – all right till I went for my first annual checkup last week.

The moment I entered my normal heart beat started to increase – perhaps it went upto 100 and above. While doing ECG and Echo the operators were somewhat amused the way I got tense.

Finally everything turned out to be quite perfect and the heart is doing well – I am not here to start a write-up about myself but about the FEAR FACTOR.

Yes it is the mortal fear – to put it bluntly. It is definitely a sign of mental weakness.

How do you overcome it?

A friend of mine has a similar problem and he tries to overcome it by adopting certain methods.

Deep Breathing well before going to the hospital – Inhale slowly & fully through your (nose of course) but exhale slowly through the mouth.

If your spouse or any other attendant is accompanying talk to them about something or anything that is totally unconnected to hospitals, medicines, doctors etc. (People may advice not to think about the checkup but that is highly impossible – however hard you may try)

Keep telling yourself that you are quite alright – everything is fine – surgery has solved your health problem – anyway that part is true isn’t it?

There are many other relaxation techniques available – A simple one - try this – Press the tips of thumb/index/middle fingers of both hands and count 20 – repeat three o five times. It has some effect in immediately reducing tension and stress.

But finally these are all only temporary measures – How we take the stress factor in our life is what matters. Let there be stress – let there be tension – let them come to us no issue, in any case most of us do not have much choice. But if we start enjoying our life all these words like stress, worries, tension, and sadness will not have any worthwhile meaning.

How to enjoy life – now then that is a different subject altogether - needs a very lengthy discussion – Later perhaps not now.

HAVE A GOOD DAY