Law of Conservation of Stress

Grass on the other side looks greener, goes the adage. The moment the opportunity to explore the so-called greener pastures knocks on your door, you grasp it and bid a hasty good-bye to your zone, which you later discover, is as cosy as any damn place on earth.

You mull over all the cons of your habitat, outweighing them with the pros of your destination. With a rosy picture of a stress-free new lease of life in your mind, you cheerfully settle into your nest and then the reality hits you!

You start afresh with your routine and ''stress'' gropes its way through your brand new agenda, albeit in a new form. It proves my new Theorem: Law of Conservation of Stress!

Irrespective of where you stay:

1. Stress can neither be created nor destroyed.

2. Stress can be converted from one form into another.

3. The total amount of stress on planet earth remains constant.

I have my own life's example to put forth, in the support of these statements. After staying for two decades in Mumbai, I moved to London. As compared to my feat (sarcasm intended) of travelling unharmed in the chaotic Mumbai locals for years, commuting by London rail was a piece of cake. Transport stress was erased!!! But not destroyed. It raised its ugly head in my house, in the form of daily chores, Do-It-Yourself (DIY) et al...You are the master and you (yes you!) are the house-maid!...Life in Mumbai started appearing more luxurious in this perspective.

The greens on both the sides started appearing in identical shades! Stress had conserved itself, converting its boring-commute-form to repulsive-chores-form! Never budging even a wee-bit from its initial magnitude. And I guess same applies to all the places in the world. Stress will keep peek-a-booing in your life in the form of house-management, work, weather, transport, cooking, seclusion, so on, so forth...

I feel, each place has its own balanced state-of joy and stress. It ultimately depends on what kind of joy and what form of stress you prefer :)

Cheers!

Rati