Stress to Zest: Stories and Lessons for Personal Transformation
By Aritra Sarkar
Penguin Enterprise, 376 pages

Here is a book that takes the reader on a journey using compelling fictional narratives to understand how seven common stress factors impact the human mind. It then helps the reader to use stress as a catalyst for personal growth, teaching readers to evolve and become more resilient in the face of adversity.

In times when stress-related mental health problems have skyrocketed worldwide, especially since the pandemic, the sufferers usually turn to psychologists, counsellors, acquaintances, religious/spiritual individuals or the works of eminent scientists to resolve them. The answers are mostly scholarly, prescriptive, technical or generic in nature and are unable to provide personalized relevance and empowerment. Instead there is a need for actual examples from human experiences on stress providing relatable, actionable insights.

Marking the first installment of Aritra Sarkar’s planned series that explores transformative journeys from various forms of adversity, blending fiction with self-help; ‘Stress to Zest’ emphasises the interconnectedness of mind, body, and spirit, offering insights into how to achieve overall harmony and well-being by addressing various aspects of life.

Each story concludes with reflective sections, prompting the reader to introspect, understand their own experiences with stress, and apply the lessons to their own lives.

‘Stress to Zest’ takes the reader on a journey to help you understand how seven common stress factors impact the human mind:

•         Financial Stress: The weight of bills, debts and financial uncertainty.

•         Relationship Stress: The tides of love, conflict and connection.

•         Job Stress: The demands of work, deadlines and ambition.

•         Health Stress: The fragility of our bodies and minds.

•         Competition Pressure: The race against others and ourselves.

•         Social Pressure: The expectations that shape our choices.

•         Parental Pressure: The balancing act of nurturing and self-care.

Before fully dedicating himself to literature and spiritual development, Aritra Sarkar was with The Wall Street Journal and then with the ABP group in Kolkata for several years. He then founded MeVero, the world’s first passion-based social networking platform.

Here is an excerpt from the book:

Understanding Financial Stress

To lead a quality life, we must have the resources to meet our needs. The only way to access these resources is by having a stable stream of income. However, there are times when our earned wealth is inadequate to satisfy our needs. During those moments, we are often hounded by stress.

Financial stress is the inner negativity we experience when we try to solve our resource constraints. We require resources to fulfill a variety of needs: shelter, transportation, health, nutrition, education, careers and relationships, to name just a few. These resources may be in the form of goods or services, to access which, we need to pay. Most of us might find ourselves without a partner or a guide to help us in this process and trying to solve the challenge alone can produce a negative web of thoughts and feelings which might further isolate us. This is how we experience financial stress. Here’s a metaphor to better illustrate how financial stress plays out in the mind.

Initially, when we first set out to address our resource constraints, our minds may be clear. We may see a dimly lit path in front of us and that might make us nervous—we might ask ourselves if we can travel alone on this path. It seems to get darker the further ahead we move. Now we might feel too scared to continue walking on it alone. We may think about who could join us on this journey and may not be able to think of anyone. We will likely become even more afraid as more dark paths seem to diverge from the one we’re on, forming many scary crossroads. A clear decision about which path to follow becomes more and more complicated. Fear and anxiety envelop us. Then we might start seeing potholes appear on all of these paths. Now we might ask, which path is the safest? We don’t know the answer. So doubt starts to cloud our mind. We ask ourselves unnecessary questions. To our horror, the paths multiply further and further in all directions in response to our questions. The potholes seem to increase manifold, too. The web of fear, anxiety and confusion takes hold of our minds. What a terrible price to pay for doubting ourselves!

To give you my own real-life encounter with financial stress, I’d like to share my experience of raising funds for my company during the coronavirus pandemic. At the beginning of 2020, I was extremely upbeat about the prospects of my digital startup, MeVero. The social media app had garnered strong reviews from customers and gained significant traction in just eight months since its launch. Impressed by the results, an angel investor had signed an agreement to bankroll us for a full year. Buoyed by these developments, I thought that nothing could go wrong. Success was just a hop-skip away.

I couldn’t have been more delusional!

It took just a few weeks for the pandemic to decimate the prospects of millions of entrepreneurs and working professionals. I was one of them. Three weeks into March—ten days before we were supposed to receive our first tranche of funds—our investor pulled out of the deal we’d agreed upon. In a tone of regret, he informed me that he couldn’t go through with it because his own business had completely tanked, and he was almost out of cash. Shocked, I begged him to reconsider. He could not. Fortunately, he threw me a slim chance at a lifeline by extending funding by a month. But after that, I would be on my own. So I had to raise funds amid the worst financial crisis imaginable.

The next eight months proved to be the most stressful period of my life. India was in the midst of a strict lockdown—a total shutdown of almost all businesses around the nation, including Kolkata, my city of residence. In this warlike scenario, I had to somehow find and woo investors for my startup. It seemed like an impossible task.

Between April and May, I contacted more than 5,000 investors from different countries, both personal contacts and complete strangers. To my horror, I found that no one was even willing to talk, let alone invest. The common refrains I kept hearing were, ‘You’re too early’ and ‘This is a bad time for me’. During that phase, I had funds for only two more months. Meanwhile, rejections from banks and private investors also started to pour in. Time was running out and my options were highly limited. I tried to maintain a brave face, but internally, I was a nervous wreck. Financial stress had me by the balls.

Every night, I’d toss and turn in bed, unable to sleep . . . racked with doubt and anxiety. During the day, I’d wait to hear from the few who’d responded to my initial outreach. They never called back. On many occasions, I’d curl up in bed midday, debilitated by the tension. I couldn’t bring myself to continue with my physical fitness regimen. To take my mind off my problems, I started binge-eating sweets and junk food.

These gave me a temporary sugar high, but I gained a lot of weight and sustained tooth decay in the bargain. A fusillade of anxious thoughts blasted my mind. ‘What will happen to me if the company shuts down? What will I do next? How will I live with failure?’ I despaired, my heart buffeted by a tornado of negativity.

This is a classic experience of financial stress. Our desperation to rid ourselves of it can further force us to take drastic decisions with adverse, long-term consequences. Financial stress would not have been so suffocating had we had easy access to a community support system—as people did in the past.

In the analogue industrial era (pre-1990), most people lived in neighbourhoods with a deep sense of community spirit and shared values. These communities provided members with support and camaraderie. People trusted each other and it was usually easy to get help. Moreover, the world felt like a smaller place because the reach, frequency and volume of media were limited. In those times, it was easier for people to fulfill their needs and aspirations. There wasn’t a huge gap between one’s aspirations and the means required to achieve them, as a result. Life was simpler and much less stressful.

In the digital, globalized age, the migration of people to different parts of the world has increased exponentially. Technology has disrupted old-world manufacturing industries, causing the decline of many towns and cities. Erstwhile homogeneous neighbourhoods have either been hollowed out or repopulated with people professing different value systems. Thus, communities have become more diverse in terms of identity, making it harder for people to discover things in common. Social bonding has, overall, declined and people have become more isolated. Social trust—the glue that keeps communities together—has been frayed. At the same time, people are better exposed to information and trends through advances in technology. Aspirations have skyrocketed. However, with the decay of social trust, people cannot easily find help on their journey to fulfill their aspirations. With the gap between aspirations and means widening, resource constraints have become more acute, making financial stress inescapable for the majority.

[The excerpt reproduced with the permission of the publishers.]