The document summarizes two movies about coping with stress - Amélie and Destressed. In Amélie, the protagonist copes with her lonely childhood by spreading happiness to others. Destressed follows a man's journey to reduce his stress by meeting others who face hardships positively. Some lessons are to find joy in small things, connect with others, be grateful, and create your own destressing story. The document also provides background on stress and strategies to improve coping skills.

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Picture credit - ​FilmDaily
Day 60 - Coping with Stress
8 June 2020
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Prabodh Sirur
sirurp@gmail.com
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My learning for the day
Today I want to summarise two movies on coping with Stress.
Movie 1 - Amélie (2001)
The Plot ​(source - ​FilmDaily​ and our own ​Wikipedia​)
Amélie is a waitress at a Café.
She had a stressful childhood because of her eccentric parents. Her parents
incorrectly believed that their child has a heart defect and decided to
home-school her. To cope with her loneliness, Amélie develops an active
imagination and a mischievous personality.
By accident, ​she finds her purpose​ - to spread joy and happiness wherever
she goes.
She secretly executes complex schemes that bring happiness in the lives of
those around her.
For example, she escorts a blind man to the Métro station, giving him a rich
description of the street scenes he passes, she persuades her father to follow
his dream of touring the world, she starts a romance between her
hypochondriacal co-worker and one of the customers in the bar, she
convinces the concierge of her block of flats, that the husband who
abandoned her had sent her a final conciliatory love letter just before his
accidental death years before.
Once in a while she gets creative when playing pranks to torment the
mean-spirited.
In the end, this good samaritan, allows herself to find the happiness and love
she deserves.
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The learning
Practice to take joy in little things in life (like Amélie practices - dipping her
hand into sacks of grain, cracking crème brulée with a teaspoon, skipping
stones at St. Martin’s Canal...)
Create a higher purpose (like what Amélie had - to spread joy and happiness
wherever she goes)
Make it a point to connect regularly—and in person—with family and friends
(There is nothing more calming than spending quality time with another
human being. Such interactions trigger a cascade of hormones that
counteract the body’s defensive “fight-or-flight” response. It’s nature’s natural
stress reliever - Source - ​HelpGuide​).
Movie 2 - Destressed (2014)
The Plot ​(source - ​Viewer reviews​)
This movie is a man's journey to get de-stressed.
Who does not have stress in today's world?
It took a man like Garry Pastore (Actor and Director of the film) to bring this
to our attention and to show us ​what can happen​ if we do not do
something to fix this problem
This movie is a look into a man's stress related illness and his way back to a
healthy, happy life
On his journey he meets several people who have all the reasons to be
stressed or depressed; we meet survivors of hurricanes, tsunamis and
earthquakes, we meet a young military soldier who lost his arm and both
legs, a 106 year old woman who, I am sure, must have seen so many
tragedies and deaths of her dear ones in her life, a paraplegic woman who
has seen life only from her wheelchair since childhood…...
Not one of the people interviewed says, "poor me, look how bad my life is".
No matter what story is told, and what blow life dealt them, everyone was
positive and smiling
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At the end, he comes home to peace and tranquility after witnessing other
people's tragedies and how they face the new life with positive attitude.
The learning
Be grateful for what you have
Be aware that life is full of events many of which are outside of your control
Make your life beautiful by taking care of your body, mind and soul (and
celebrating whenever you do this)
Invest at least some of your time in acts that make you happy
Take a vow to create your own story of how you destress
My learning so far on this topic
Day 10 post​ - What is Hans Selye’s stress theory?, Ways to cope with stress
Day 20 post​ - Symptoms of stress, Main causes of workplace stress,
Holmes-Rahe stress inventory
Day 30 post​ - Stress and Anxiety; are they different?, Mobile Apps to cope up
with stress
Day 40 post​ - Two TED talks - All it takes is ten mindful minutes & How to
make stress your friend
Day 50​ - Two books - Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers & Manage Your Time to
Reduce Your Stress
What is stress?
When you perceive a threat or a major challenge, chemicals and hormones surge
throughout your body. ​This is called stress​. It is basically a survival mechanism of
our body.
There is good stress (eustress), bad stress (acute stress) and chronic stress
Eustress is the type of stress when we feel excited e.g. when riding a roller coaster
or when competing for a promotion etc.
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Acute stress is a short term stress because of some stressors e.g. stuck in a traffic
jam when we are late for a meeting, an argument with your spouse, an unkind
criticism from your boss etc.
Chronic stress is a long term stress brought on by continual acute stresses when we
repeatedly face stressors. This condition gives a feeling of helplessness and a
feeling of being put in inescapable state. Chronic stress causes many physical and
mental health related issues e.g. heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, accidents,
cirrhosis of the liver and suicide.
How to improve this skill?
Set a goal to ​become a go-to person​ by mastering the art and science of ​coping
with stress​.
Follow the ​LAST model​ to build your personal brand as a Guru of ​coping with
stress​.
Learn​ - Invest time in learning different frameworks/ models/ techniques of ​coping
with stress
Apply​ -
Identify a model suitable to you
Create a template to document the flow of the process
Find opportunities to use the selected method/ template
Maintain record/ process flow of every important activities you did with
respect to ​coping with stress
Maintain notes of your thoughts/ insights/ failures/ challenges…. to be used
for sharing/ training others
Share​ - Share the insights captured in step 2 above in a planned manner (social
media posts, blogs, videos, study notes…)
Train​ - Generate opportunities to train your peers and team members so that, over
time, your organization benefits from your efforts
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Purpose of this document
I took a 66 day challenge​ to study Life Skills last year (10 April 2019). To my
astonishment, I succeeded in studying for 66 days one skill a day.
My objectives of learning these skills were - To strengthen my mind to face life’s
challenges with ease, To use these skills in my worklife for a better performance, To
use these skills in my personal life for enriching my relationships, To open new
possibilities to surprise myself.
This is my next 66 day challenge​ (from 10 April 2020) - To share my Life Skills
learning with my social media friends.
I pray that my toil helps you in your success journey.
What are Life Skills?
UNICEF​ defines Life skills as - ​psychosocial abilities​ for adaptive and positive
behaviour that enable individuals ​to deal effectively with the demands and
challenges of everyday life​. They are loosely grouped into three broad categories
of skills
- cognitive skills​ for analyzing and using information,
- personal skills​ for developing personal agency and managing oneself,
- inter-personal skills​ for communicating and interacting effectively with others.
Which LifeSkills are covered?
The ​World Health Organisation​ identified these basic areas of life skills that are
relevant across cultures:
1. Decision-making
2. Problem-solving
3. Creative thinking
4. Critical thinking
5. Communication
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6. Interpersonal skills
7. Self-awareness
8. Empathy
9. Coping with emotions
10. Coping with stress.
Some trivia
‘Life skills’ was never part of the school curriculum. WHO/ UNESCO mandated
academia to teach these skills in all schools across the globe in 1993.
Different countries educate their children in these skills with different objectives
- Zimbabwe and Thailand - prevention of HIV/AIDS
- Mexico - prevention of adolescent pregnancy
- United Kingdom - child abuse prevention
- USA - prevention of substance abuse and violence
- South Africa and Colombia - positive socialization of children.
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