Handling Stress in a Big and Crazy City (Lagos)
Surviving in Lagos is an epic experience. Make no mistake, everyone living and working in Lagos is a walking catalogue of movie scenes inspired by crazy Lagos moments.
What is a crazy Lagos moment? You might ask, let me tell you one. Every workday, I have to take multiple buses to get to work. Yes, multiple. This morning I had just slept in a bit, just a bit. In Lagos, a bit can mean 30 minutes of extra traffic. When I got up and checked the time on my phone, I gave up on even trying to make it to work early.
Somehow I was so lucky when I got on the road, the traffic I met wasn’t as dense as I expected. My hope shot up like the adrenaline you get when you try to cross the road in Oshodi. LOL. So, I began to quicken my steps in between buses, I tried to move faster, and I was on track for a photo finish….until the last shuttle to the office. The driver who himself had called to me with the name of the street I was heading to, who had asked me for the number, suddenly forgot about it and bent into another road just before we got to the gate of my office! There went my photo finish!
A Lagos moment is one that be it subtle or not happens so out of the ordinary and in such a frustrating manner that it causes you to react for survival. The shuttle driver kept driving until I screamed at him just to let me come down. For a mostly reserved person like me, showing emotions in that manner and having to talk to someone who was clearly older than me in such a tone was so confusing, but that is what a Lagos moment does to you. You have to “jazz up” or “No lose guard” to survive normal everyday activities. I got to work that morning already put off and stressed.
Lagos is Stress.
It’s a fact, but we live here, wetin we go do?
I feel it is important to add a small caveat. Lagos has fun sides, like getting a cup of coffee from a stand and taking it while trying to get to work in a keke napep!
Lagos is also full of enterprising people trying to make a living and this fills the rough experience with some rather enjoyable side attractions of life. This could be a special delicious puff puff sold at a bus stop that makes you forget how you had to leap out of a moving bus just minutes ago. It’s all here! It helps in taking away your frown and replacing it with a smile.
That said, living in Lagos is getting to adapt to the stress it throws at you every day, so let me tell you about some of the ways I handle mine.
Taking time outs at work:
I want to make money, but I want to be alive to see the money. The latter is important for the whole process you know. As a writer, my head can feel so strained and clogged from so much time spent crafting and generating ideas that it becomes a need for me to find time to unclog it.
My go-to stress reliever is mobile games. I play different games, but to relieve stress I like one that doesn’t bother my brain too much or needs a lot of brain power to enjoy. Candy Crush is the perfect game for me; endless levels filled with colourful balls and satisfying animations. Apart from occasionally getting stuck in some levels, it’s a great way to relieve pent-up emotions.
CanyCrush is great for me, but there are other options you might fancy if this one is not your cup of tea. You can consider playing popular favourites like Temple Run and Subway Surfers, One underrated option is Alto’s Adventure. It has an intentional design meant to help you relax.
If gaming is totally not your thing, you could read a book or article that interests you. Take your mind off work and thoughts by immersing yourself in another world. Seeing a movie is another way to get yourself immersed in a different world, so if that’s what you like, go for it!
Exploring Passions:
Another way I relieve stress is football. Now I know football is not everybody’s cup of tea, but I believe everyone should have something else (like sports) in their life that with very low personal input brings in a lot of emotional positivity. I watch football whenever I get the chance and while watching I forget how bad my day or whole week has been. It’s hard to find time to rest as a hustler, but 2 hours (I confess I spend more) on my sofa watching and releasing energy celebrating when my team scores do a lot for my mental health.
I also like to do things that work would not let me do. There are things like recording a podcast or taking some time to learn about history. These are things that I’m passionate about but which are not immediately profitable and as such, I would not do during work.
Doing things you have passion for makes you happy and takes the stress away. Gladly you don’t need to stress (again) to find passions that you love, this is because more often than not you unconsciously want to spend time on those things and can identify them already. You might find that you enjoy singing, or that cleaning your apartment takes your mind off things. It might be doing artwork or writing your thought down in your journal. Whatever it is, It doesn’t have to be profound, all you need is something you enjoy doing and which gets you happy, content and relaxed.
A great advantage of this is that over time your passion might be a lot more than a way to relieve stress and can become a source of income.
Extracurricular activities:
One great way I relieve stress is by occasionally going for a swim. I do this on weekends and it really helps me feel refreshed. While swimming, all my thoughts are focused on the swimming actions and enjoying the water, this means that I forget all the stressful moments Lagos had dished out to me that week. In other forms of relaxation thoughts about work or life, in general, can often creep up on me, distorting my relaxation time and making me feel like I’d been working all the while. Swimming is different and I only focus on swimming else I’d drown.
An added benefit is meeting new people who I get to share a fun moment with. It’s also cost-effective when you consider other ways to catch fun in Lagos.
Talking about other ways to catch fun, there are a couple of activities you can partake in such as hanging out with friends on the weekends. You could consider going to see a movie which is a good way to churn out old stories from your head and replace them with exciting and less worrying new editions.
Shopping isn’t exactly cost-effective, but if you’ve got the resources to afford a reasonable grocery run, that could be your go-to stress reliever! Buying new things gives an exciting feeling and causes a rush of dopamine in the brain. Shopping is fun and a genuinely underrated way to handle stress.
There are other small ways that help me. For example, I make friends at work and we have little moments during work hours where we share jokes or discuss non-work related topics. These moments are refreshing too. I also listen to music when I can, it’s amazing what your favourite playlist can do for your mood after a day ruined by your overbearing team lead or when you’re tired but stuck in traffic on your way home.
Lagos stress can feel like a feature, not a bug; It is inevitable. It can make you angry and grumpy and that is a bad trait to have both for yourself and others. While stress is inevitable, I find ways to get around it so I can feel refreshed and keep being myself. You should too.
