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One of the commonest causes of insomnia is stress.

The Oxford Dictionary defines ‘stress’ as a force, an effort, a demand upon physical or mental energy. We use the word ‘stress’ very often, but what is stress, what is it doing to us, and how do we react to stress and cope with it? Stress can be compared to a mechanical force or pressure exerted on an object To understand the relationship between stress and the object under stress, let us look at a simple example, such as what happens when pressure is exerted on a piece of fruit.

If you put a lot of apples in a bag, the apples exert pressure on each other, and each apple is subject to pressure from surrounding apples. This is a normal level of pressure and stress. However, if you take an apple out of the bag and drop it to the floor, the apple is bruised. If you accidentally step on this apple, you leave a big scar on it Dropping the apple and stepping on it are both extraordinary stresses not normally exerted on apples.

Hence, to put it in plain language, there are two kinds of stresses in our lives: ordinary stress, which most of us experience every day, as in the example of the apples in the bag, and extraordinary stress, comparable to dropping the apple or stepping on it, which we only experience once or twice in our lives, and which some of us may never have to face at all.

However, we are not all apples. Some of us may be stronger, like a coconut, which when dropped on the floor will not be harmed as it takes a few strokes of a hammer to crack it. Or some of us may be weak, like a ripe tomato, that even ordinary pressure can bruise. People come in all shapes and sizes and possess different inner strengths and energies. Some of us may be like coconuts, some like apples, and some like ripe tomatoes. We have no choice as to what we are, as part of this is our inheritance from our parents and part is based on our life experience, just as an apple cannot change into a coconut, and a tomato cannot change into an apple. However, with some help we can strengthen ourselves a lot more and can deal with stress a lot better. Einstein reminded us that we use only 10 per cent of our potential, and there is a lot of strength inside us that we have not recognized.

Hence there are two factors in stress. The first factor is the kind of stress, whether it is ordinary stress or extraordinary stress. The other factor is how tough the person is. Some of us may not be able to face up to ordinary stress, just as the ripe tomato. But some of us may be extremely tough and need a hammer to crack us, like the coconut.

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