Stress Management: Reduce, prevent and cope with Stress

Stress Management:

HOW TO REDUCE, PREVENT, AND COPE WITH STRESS

It may seem that there’s nothing you can do about your anxiety levels. The bills aren’t going to stop coming, there will never be more hours in the day, and your career or family responsibilities will always be demanding. But you have a lot more control than you might think. In fact, the simple realisation that you are in control of your life is the foundation of stress management.

Managing stress is all about taking charge: - of your thoughts, your emotions, your schedule, your environment, and the way you deal with problems. The ultimate goal is a balanced life, with time for work, relationships, relaxation, and fun – plus the resilience to hold up under pressure and meet challenges head on.

Identify the sources of stress in your life.

Stress management starts with identifying the sources of stress in your life. This isn’t as easy as it sounds. Your true sources of stress aren’t always obvious, and it’s easy to overlook your own anxiety-inducing thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. You may know that you are constantly worried about work deadlines but maybe it is your procrastination, rather than the actual job demands, that leads to deadline stress.

To identify your true sources of stress, look closely at your habits, attitude, and excuses:

• Do you explain away stress as temporary - “I just have a million things going on right now”?

• Do you define stress as an integral part of your work or home life - “Things are always busy around here”?

• Do you define stress as a part of your personality - “I have a lot of nervous energy”?

• Do you blame your stress on other people or outside events, or view it as entirely normal and unexceptional?

Until you accept responsibility for the role you play in creating or maintaining it, your stress level will remain outside your control.

Start a stress journal.

A stress journal can help you identify the regular stressors in your life and the way you deal with them. Each time you feel stressed, keep track of it in your journal. As you keep a daily log, you will begin to see patterns and common themes.

Write down:

• What caused your stress - make a guess if you’re unsure.
• How you felt, physically and emotionally.
• How you acted in response.
• What you did to make yourself feel better.

Look at how you currently cope with stress.

Think about the ways you currently manage and cope with stress in your life. Your stress journal can help you identify them.

Are your coping strategies healthy or unhealthy, helpful or unproductive? Unfortunately, many people cope with stress in ways that compound the problem.

Unhealthy ways of coping with stress.

These coping strategies may temporarily reduce stress, but they cause more damage in the long run:

• Smoking
• Drinking too much alcohol
• Overeating or under eating
• Spending hours in front of the television or computer
• Withdrawing from family, friends and activities
• Using pills or drugs to relax
• Sleeping too much
• Procrastination
• Filling up every spare minute of the day to avoid facing problems
• Taking out your feelings on others

Learning healthier ways to manage stress.

If your methods of coping with stress aren’t contributing to your greater emotional and physical health, it’s time to find healthier ones. There are many healthy ways to manage and cope with stress, but they all require change. You can either change the situation or change your reaction. When deciding which option to choose, it’s helpful to think of the four As: - Avoid, Alter, Adapt, Accept.

Since everyone has a unique response to stress no single method works for everyone or in every situation, so experiment with different techniques and strategies. Focus on what makes you feel calm and in control.

Dealing with stressful situations – the 4 A’s.

Change the situation Change your reaction

Avoid the stressor Adapt to the stressor

Alter the stressor Accept the stressor

Stress management strategies.

1: Avoid unnecessary stress.

Not all stress can be avoided, and it’s not healthy to avoid a situation that needs to be addressed. You may be surprised, however, by the number of stressors in your life that you can eliminate.

• Learn how to say “no” – Know your limits and stick to them. Whether in your personal or professional life, refuse to accept extra responsibilities when you’re close to reaching them.

• Avoid people who cause you stress – If someone consistently causes stress in your life and you can’t change the relationship, limit the amount of time you spend with that person or end the relationship entirely.

• Take control of your environment – If the evening news makes you anxious, turn the TV off. If traffic makes you tense, take a longer but less busy route. If going shopping is an unpleasant chore, do your grocery shopping online.

• Avoid controversial topics – If you get upset over religion or politics, avoid talking about them. If you repeatedly argue about the same subject with the same people, stop bringing it up or excuse yourself when it’s the topic of discussion.

• Reduce your to-do list – Analyse your schedule, responsibilities, and daily tasks. If you have too much to do, distinguish between the “should” and the “must.” Drop tasks that aren’t truly necessary to the bottom of the list or eliminate them entirely.

2: Alter the situation.

If you can’t avoid a stressful situation, try to alter it. Work out what you can do to change things so the problem doesn’t present itself in the future. Often, this involves changing the way you communicate and operate in your daily life.

• Express your feelings instead of bottling them up - If something or someone is bothering you communicate your concerns in an open and respectful way. If you don’t voice your feelings, resentment will build and the situation will probably remain the same.

• Be willing to compromise - When you ask someone to change their behaviour be willing to do the same. If you both are willing to bend at least a little you’ll have a good chance of finding a happy middle ground.

• Be more assertive - Deal with problems head on, doing your best to anticipate and prevent them. If you have work to do and someone insists on interrupting, say that you only have five minutes to talk.

• Manage your time better. Poor time management can cause a lot of stress. When you’re stretched too thin and running behind it’s hard to stay calm and focused. But if you plan ahead and make sure you don’t overextend yourself you can alter the amount of stress you’re under.

3: Adapt to the stressor.

If you can’t change the stressor, change yourself. You can adapt to stressful situations and regain your sense of control by changing your expectations and attitude.

• Reframe problems - Try to view stressful situations from a more positive perspective. Rather than being anxious in a traffic jam, look at it as an opportunity to pause and refocus, listen to your favourite radio station, or enjoy the time alone.

• Look at the bigger picture - Take perspective of the stressful situation. Ask yourself how important it will be in the long run. Will it matter in a month? A year? Is it really worth getting upset over? If the answer is no, focus your time and energy elsewhere.

• Adjust your standards - Perfectionism is a major source of avoidable stress. Stop setting yourself up for failure by demanding perfection. Set reasonable standards for yourself and others, and learn to be okay with “good enough.”

• Focus on the positive - When stress is getting you down, take a moment to reflect on all the things you appreciate in your life, including your own positive qualities and gifts. This simple strategy can help you keep things in perspective.

Adjusting Your Attitude.

How you think can have a profound affect on your emotional and physical wellbeing. Each time you think a negative thought about yourself, your body reacts as if it were in the throes of a tension-filled situation. If you see good things about yourself, you are more likely to feel good; the reverse is also true. Eliminate words such as "always," "never," "should," and "must." These are telltale marks of self-defeating thoughts.

4: Accept the things you can’t change.

Some sources of stress are unavoidable. You can’t prevent or change stressors such as the death of a loved one, a serious illness, or a national recession. In such cases, the best way to cope with stress is to accept things as they are. Acceptance may be difficult, but in the long run, it’s easier than railing against a situation you can’t change.

• Don’t try to control the uncontrollable - Many things in life are beyond our control— particularly the behaviour of other people. Rather than feeling stressed over them focus on the things you can control such as the way you choose to react to problems.

• Look for the upside - When facing major challenges, try to look at them as opportunities for personal growth. If your own poor choices contributed to a stressful situation, reflect on them and learn from your mistakes.

• Share your feelings - Talk to a trusted friend or make an appointment with a therapist. Expressing what you’re going through can be very cathartic, even if there’s nothing you can do to alter the stressful situation.

• Learn to forgive - Accept the fact that we live in an imperfect world and that people make mistakes. Let go of anger and resentments. Free yourself from negative energy by forgiving and moving on.

5: Make time for fun and relaxation.

Beyond a taking-control approach and a positive attitude you can reduce stress in your life by nurturing yourself. If you regularly make time for fun and relaxation you’ll be in a better place to handle life’s stressors when they inevitably come.

Healthy ways to relax and recharge:

• Go for a walk
• Spend time with nature
• Phone or see a good friend
• Exercise
• Write a journal
• Take a bath
• Light scented candles
• Play with a pet
• Work in your garden
• Get a massage
• Read a good book
• Listen to music
• Watch a comedy

Don’t get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of life that you forget to take care of your own needs. Nurturing yourself is a necessity, not a luxury. If you don’t recharge your own light you can’t give it to others and may even need to take some of theirs.

• Set aside relaxation time - Include rest and relaxation in your daily schedule. Don’t allow other obligations to encroach. This is your time to take a break from all responsibilities and recharge your batteries.

• Connect with others - Spend time with positive people who enhance your life. A strong support system will protect you from the negative effects of stress.

• Do something you enjoy every day - Make time for leisure activities that you enjoy, whether it be reading, playing the piano, or walking/cycling.

• Keep your sense of humour - This includes the ability to laugh at yourself. The act of laughing helps your body fight stress.

Learn the relaxation response.

You can control your stress levels with relaxation techniques that evoke the body’s relaxation response, a state of restfulness that is the opposite of the stress response. Regularly practicing these techniques will build your physical and emotional resilience, heal your body, and boost your overall feelings of joy and equanimity.

Find a quiet place and a comfortable chair.

Start by concentrating on your breathing. Breathe in through your nose deeply making sure your tummy rises and your lungs fill with air. When you breathe out make your out breath is longer than your in breath. This automatically makes you start to relax. Do this 4 times then breathe normally but slowly still making your out breath longer than your in breath.

Relax your muscles. You may be able to do this by concentrating on each muscle group in turn and consciously relaxing them, starting with your feet and working up. Imagine the tension flowing out of your body through your toes and fingers. If this is too difficult, clench each muscle group in turn for 10 seconds then allow them to relax.

Imagine a place where you feel safe and comfortable. Think about what you can see, hear, feel, and touch in detail. Think about how you feel psychologically in this place. If other thoughts come into your mind, push them away – remind yourself you can think about that later, this is your relaxation time - then carry on thinking about your safe place.

Stay like this as long as you can until you feel calmer.

6: Adopt a healthy lifestyle.

You can increase your resistance to stress by strengthening your physical health.

• Exercise regularly - Physical activity plays a key role in reducing and preventing the effects of stress. Make time for at least 30 minutes of exercise, three times per week. Aerobic exercise releases pent-up stress and tension.

• Eat a healthy diet - Well-nourished bodies are better prepared to cope with stress so be mindful of what you eat. Start your day with breakfast and keep your energy up and your mind clear with regular balanced, nutritious meals throughout the day.

• Reduce caffeine and sugar - The temporary "highs" caffeine and sugar provide often end in with a crash in mood and energy. By reducing the amount of coffee, soft drinks, chocolate, and sugar snacks in your diet you’ll feel more relaxed and you’ll sleep better.

• Avoid alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs - Self-medicating with alcohol or drugs may provide an easy escape from stress, but the relief is only temporary. Don’t avoid or mask the issue at hand. Deal with problems head on and with a clear mind.

• Get enough sleep - Adequate sleep fuels your mind as well as your body. Feeling tired will increase your stress because it may cause you to think irrationally.

References.

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http://www.helpguide.org/mental/stress_management_relief_coping.htm