If you are stressed, sad, depressed or angry all the time there’s a high risk of you developing physical symptoms such as high blood pressure, headaches and aches and pains, particularly in your abdominal area.

Addressing these ailments only deals with the symptoms and not the underlying cause. In fact, often there are times when the underlying cause can never be addressed satisfactorily, at least not in the eyes of someone who is suffering from these stress-related health problems. Of course you can try but a major part of how effectively the cause is addressed depends on the person affected by it. You see, many times a cause is subjective. It could be a minor nuisance that has been magnified in the mind of the affected person to such an extent that it has begun to have adverse effects. The goalpost, you might notice, keeps changing in that it’s almost like playing whack-a-mole.

So if trying to address the cause doesn’t help then the next best thing might be to distract from it.

People find all sorts of ways to make themselves feel better or at least try to distract themselves from their everyday problems because, let’s be fair, everyone has problems in their lives.

Some people try talking to someone about what’s bothering them. If they are fortunate enough to have a good friend who always listens then that’s all they need. But sometimes, friends are not around to talk to in which case the individual needs to seek a professional listener. Sometimes just letting it all out helps but that approach would need to be on a regular basis. However, it’s not really sustainable when a professional could charge an arm and a leg per session. And you don’t really want to wear out your friendship by always griping about something every time you speak to a friend. A friend’s ear only works if it is a two-way street. But I did find that keeping a daily physical diary helps a lot. Take it from someone who has kept one that writing down a litany of woes is like having spoken to someone; it does get it off your chest.

But not everybody likes to write and if you don’t either then you should find other ways to distract you.

Exercising, they say, works wonders. According to doctors exercising releases endorphins, the happy hormone, which should perk you up. Even if it’s temporarily, consider it a reprieve from your everyday troubles.

Speaking to God in private also helps. Some people, however, stop praying when they think He isn’t listening or He didn’t respond in the way they prayed he would but that’s not what praying is about. There’s more to praying than getting what you want.

One thing I would suggest is that everyone take up a hobby. It could be reading books, watching movies, collecting stuff, or painting and drawing, and gardening, whether it’s on your balcony or in an actual garden.

Did you know that studies have shown that tending to a garden makes you happy more so than doing any other activity? How so? According to researchers at the Permaculture College in Australia there’s something about putting your hands in soil that makes you feel good. That all seems to aid in the release of serotonin into the body making you forget your troubles.

To be honest, I don’t think it’s just about getting your hands dirty. I think it’s about having a garden and enjoying everything about it. You have the trees, the shrubs, the flowers and the wildlife that visit it. If, like me, you’re a bird lover you could keep a daily record of the different species that visit your garden and what they get up to. Many residents in the Arabian Ranches, for example, have seen pheasants roaming around in their back gardens and multi-coloured parrots sitting in their trees. They just fly over their walls. And that’s aside from the usual bulbuls, sparrows and hummingbirds.

Then you have the flowers and the lush greenery all around you. That greenery also changes in tone throughout the year depending upon the season. Every day would be different because there would always be something new to do. Watering plants, pruning, planting flowers or fruit and vegetables, picking flowers, feeding the birds or simply sitting outside with a cup of tea enjoying your hard work. With all that going on, and activities to plan and look forward to, who has time to think about the sad things in life?