How can female fight stress, solve problems

It may be debatable, but I believe women have to work twice as hard as men in several aspects of life ranging from personal to professional to sustain in a world full of competition and stress.

Women wear multiple hats and have acquired the skill to juggle them successfully. We are daughters, mothers, professionals, managers, homemakers, dreamers, achievers.

We want to be seen as strong and confident in all that we do and that comes at a cost -- our self-esteem. Soon, resentment and stress become a part of life. We need to learn to step back, pause and introspect. While navigating through multiple roles in life, our confidence takes a beating because of the stress we are subjected to. Therefore we need to give ourselves time and validation to sustain our confidence level.

So how do we identify a problem when it has become a habit?

Certain facets of our life may not feel right. But we have accepted them as a way of life. We have been conditioned over generations about how a woman should come across as. When we were young, our mothers unconsciously led us to believe that we must maintain a demure image and not argue, fight or talk too loud.

We grow up accepting a lot of 'inequalities' or have to work hard and fight against such 'norms'. Although men have different qualities than women, both important and useful, we bring our own unique attributes to this world, our society, and our family.

We can be fantastic nurturers, we are emotionally stronger, we are likely to have better focus, we turn out to be excellent managers and have an edge when it comes to offering greater attention to details. It helps us to be aware, accept as well as focus on our uniqueness and derive our strength from it rather than complaining about or resenting it.

What will help us in our quest to be the 'ideal' women and be seen as achievers and allow us to dream big?

Does multitasking overwhelm us instead of boosting effectiveness? Perhaps, it may be harder for us to climb the corporate ladder.

Where is the balance? How do we cope with all this stress?

While smoking and drinking socially may not be harmful, as an escape from stress, it could result in addictions. We cope with stress by procrastinating, denial or ignoring the problem at hand and end up playing blame games. My maid is often late and irresponsible; my office staff never gives the report on time, why can't my children be more responsible?

The list is endless. Our body needs rest when certain symptoms arise. These could be aches and pains for which the doctors have no remedy. It might be genetic or it could be just a niggling headache.