Preventing, reducing and coping with stress
The stress is what you perceive to be stress and you may think that there’s nothing to do with your stress levels. In fact, the easy methods of stress management would help you deal with stressful situations decreasing thus your stress levels.
If you want to successfully manage your stress first you must assure that you’re in control of your life. If you’re a pessimistic person, you would have to change the way you think; you would have to take charge of your thoughts and emotion; you’ll have to change your lifestyle, schedule, the way you organize, communicate or deal with problems.
What would be the final goal? A happier person with a balanced life, with a healthy lifestyle and healthy relationships.
First of all start with identifying the sources of stress. If there’s nothing to be discovered and the sources are obvious it would be easier to start the ‘therapy’. Sometimes the real sources and causes of stress aren’t so obvious, the stressed person being in a continuous state of anger or anxiety.
Have the complete control over your life and decrease stress levels.
1. Identify the causes and sources of stress in your life by taking a close look at your lifestyle, job, relationships, habits and life attitude.
2. Define and explain to yourself what stress is and give a mark to your stress levels.
3. Accept the role and the responsibility you play in creating or maintaining your stress levels.
4. Give a mark to the external stress causes and to the inner sources.
5. Start a stress journal that would help you identify stressors in your life. Write all the causes you
think lead to stress, also all stressful situations, the way you acted and how you felt.
6. Learn new healthy methods to manage stress.
When coping with stress pay attention to the strategies you use. Some people use easy but unhealthy strategies that help at the moment but in the long run don’t have any positive effect. So smoking, drinking, drug abuse, overeating, sleeping too much, staying long hours in front of the TV or computer can’t be the solutions for anyone’s problems. Also avoiding friends and family, procrastinating important decisions, taking out stress on other people and making others responsible for your problems is a sign you should start today learn managing your stress.
Below there are few tips and advices on stress managing.
1. Adaptation to the stressor or stressful situations in general
Change your attitude and start the control over your feelings, emotions, the way you interact with people. Have a positive view and look at everything that happens in your life.
Think about how important would be in a long run the situation that induces stress today. If it’s a situation that would be forgotten in a week or month you mush focus your energy on more important things that would matter in time.
Don’t try to be perfect. If you’re a perfectionist try to set reasonable standards for yourself and for other people too.
2. Avoid stressful situations as much as possible. Start with avoiding people that bother and stress you. If it’s not possible to avoid them (some colleagues, superiors) next time when you contact with them learn to build an invisible wall between you and stressor. This advice is valid for other stressful situations too.
Learn to say no when you are surpassing your limits.
If the TV, newspapers or other source of bad news bothers you, limit or fully interrupt watching or reading them.
Avoid important family holidays if they make you nervous. Choose another day for seeing them. If that situation is not for you learn to react normally to people’s behavior and mistakes.
Take a look over your daily schedule and learn to distinguish important tasks from those that can be procrastinated.
If a topic makes you anxious or angry and you’re having the same discussion with the same people, every one of you remaining at his opinion, it’s time to stop and think if this conversation deserves your brain cells killed this way.
3. Accept things that can’t be changed by you.
You can’t control life, death or nature so learn to have a normal reaction to them.
Forget and forgive. This rule is also valid for you and for mistakes you’ve made.
4. Treat well yourself and other people. Make time for relaxation and for important people in your life. Do something you enjoy and do it daily.
5. A healthy lifestyle is very important when it comes for fighting with stress.
Exercise everyday or just go for a 15 minutes walk. Adopt a healthy diet with a lot of fruits, vegetables and that excludes junk food.
6. Throw away any object that reminds you a past relationship or that brings you negative emotions. Also avoid alcohol, smoking and any pills or drugs. You must have a clear conscience and mind when fighting with stressors in your life.
Learn these simple steps and begin a better life today.
