Factors facilitating positive health and well-being are:

1. Diet: Diet can affect health independently or may enhance or modify the effects of stress in combination with other factors:

(a) How much nutrition one needs depends on one's activity level, genetic structure, climate and health history. In fact, there is no one diet, which is ideal for everyone, in all situations.

(b) Stress is supposed to affect diet and weight in many ways. People, who are under stress or in a negative moods are often seen eating more. They seek 'comfort foods' or foods that make them feel better.

(c) Stress may increase consumption of less healthy foods. Such people gain weight and loose stamina to fight stress.

(d) Obesity and weight gain is a problem for a section of the society. A much larger section of the society, which is below the poverty line, suffer from malnutrition.

(e) In the condition of poverty, women are the one who are most malnourished. Studies have shown that in India diets of female children and women are inadequate due to discriminatory practices.

2. Exercise:

• Exercise is directly related to promoting positive health.

• Two kinds of physical exercises essential for good health are 'stretching exercises' such as yogic asanas and 'aerobic exercises' such as jogging, swimming and cycling.

• Stretching exercises have a calming effect.

• Aerobic exercises increase the arousal level of the body.

• Yogic asanas provide systematic stretching to all the muscles and joints of the body and massages the glands and other body organs.

• Regular exercise reduces stress because it improves efficiency of vital body organs and improves immune system.

• Positive health and well-being come through a positive attitude of the mind.

• Positive health is the state of complete physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being. It is not merely the absence of disease.

• Positive health comprises high quality of personal relationships, a sense of purpose in life, self regard, mastery of life skills and resilience to stress, trauma and change.

Positive Attitude:

Positive health and well-being can be realized by:

• Perceiving the reality fairly accurately.

• Tolerating and understanding different points of view.

• Having a sense of purpose in life.

• Having a sense of responsibility, accepting blame for failures and taking credit for success.

• Being open to new ideas, activities, or ways of doing things.

• Having a good sense of humour, to be able to laugh at oneself and absurdities of life helps to see things in their proper perspective.

Positive Thinking:

• Positive thinking leads to a belief that adversity can be handled successfully whereas negative thinking and pessimism anticipate disaster.

• Optimism, which is the inclination to expect favourable life outcomes is directly linked to psychological and physical well-being.

• Optimists use more problem-focused coping and seek advice and help from others. This optimism function helps the individual to cope up stress effectively.

Stress can cause illness by impairing the workings of the immune system. The immune system guards the body against attackers, both from within and outside. The white blood cells (leucocytes) within the immune system identify and destroy foreign bodies (antigens) such as viruses. It also leads to the production of antibodies. There are several kinds of white blood cells or leucocytes within the immune system, including T cells, B cells and natural killer cells. T cells destroy invaders, and T-helper cells increase immunological activity. It is these T-helper cells that are attacked by the Human Immuno Deficiency Virus (HIV), the virus causing Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). B cells produce antibodies. Natural killer cells are involved in the fight against both viruses and tumours.

High school students these days avoid extremely stressful lives, with increasing completion, expectations and demands. Therefore, I would suggest 'task-oriented strategy' as explained by Endler and Parker, to be an effective means in coping with stress.

Task-oriented coping involves:

1. Obtaining information about a stressful situation.

2. Deciding our priorities.

3. Dealing directly with the stressful situation.

Such an approach helps during exams and project deadlines.

I would also suggest the adoption of positive attitude and thinking which promotes health and well-being.

A positive attitude where the individual has a fairly accurate perception of reality; ability to take credit for success and blame for failure; acceptance and tolerance for other's view-points.

Positive thinking interns of being optimistic. Optimism points towards the inclination to expect favourable life outcomes. An optimist will always use problem-focused coping and try and find the source of stress. Relaxation Techniques, Exercise, Balanced Diet all contribute significantly to stress reduction.

Life skills are abilities for adaptive and positive behaviour that enables individual to deal effectively with stressful situations. Few such skills are as follows:

(i) Assertiveness:

• It helps to communicate, clearly and confidently, our feelings, needs, wants and thoughts.

• It is ability of an individual to say 'no' to a request which is against his wishes.

• If one is assertive then he or she feels confident high self-esteem and maintains his/her identity.

(ii) Time Management:

• Learning time management determines quality of life.

• It is setting the priorities, goals and values in life. Each day making list of things one wants to accomplish:

• Arranging work schedule.

• Changing perception of time.

• Setting aside time in schedule for exercise and leisure activities

• Learning to plan time.

(iii) Rational Thinking:

• It is challenging the distorted thinking and irrational beliefs.

• Deriving the anxiety provoking thoughts.

• Making positive statements.

• It is learning to ignore negative thoughts and images.

(iv) Improving Relationship: It consists following essential skills:'

(a) Listening to what the other person is saying.

(b) Expressing what one feels and thinks.

(c) Accepting the other person's opinions and feelings, even if they are different from your own.

(d) Avoiding jealously and sulking behaviour.

(v) Self-care: Healthy mind in healthy body.

• Learning right pattern of breathing i.e., relaxed, slow, stomach-centered breathing from diaphragm.

• Avoiding environmental stress like pollutions, because it affects our mood.

(vi) Overcoming Unhelpful Habits: Perfectionism, avoidance, procrastination and our strategies which provides short-term gain but makes the individual vulnerable to stress.

Perfectionists want to get everything just as they want which is not always possible. Avoidance is ignoring the issue and refusal to face it or accept it. Procrastination means putting off what we know we need to do, i.e., postponing the things like 'I will do it later' just to avoid confrontation due to the fear of failure.

• Loosing a long-term job is a life event which is likely to be a cause of stress to an individual.

• A person's response to stress largely depends on how the events are appraised or interpreted.

• This was explained by Lazorus in his Cognitive theory of stress.

• According to this theory, stress depends on his primary or secondary appraisal. A new or changing event is positive, negative or neutral.

• A negative event, such as loosing a long-term job, can be appraisal for its harm, instead a challenge.

• If it is appraised as a threat, which may result in future damage, it will result in high levels of stress.

• If it appraised as a challenge, then the individual, who lost the job, will have more confident expectations of the ability to cope with the stressful event, overcome it.

• If appraised as a harm, assessment of the damage, which has already been caused by the event, will result in high stress.

• Through secondary appraisal, one's coping abilities and resources are analysed as to whether they are sufficient in meeting the harm, threat or challenge.