It’s Tuesday morning and so many of you are already finding the pressures of the week already overwhelming you and that is why you need to understand what is stress management. Once you do it will give you the armoury to prevent you from buckling under the strain of your everyday living. You feel that you have more to deal with than ever before, and the only way you can truly learn to manage is start acquiring the skills offered by stress management.
The secret of effective stress management is finding ways to incorporate a variety of stress-reduction techniques into your daily routine, not just calling upon it when you are at your lowest ebb.
Stress management is not going to miraculously take away all your problems. The bills will keep on coming, there will still never be more hours in the day, and your career and family responsibilities will always be demanding. But you will learn to take more control over things, and learn skills to relax, and techniques to manage things so much better. Once you have acquired knowledge of stress management you will now have a way of taking charge: of your thoughts, emotions, schedule, and the way you deal with problems.
So what is stress management? Stress Management can be defined as interventions designed to reduce the impact of stressors in your life giving you the individual more of an ability to cope with the stressors you face. The goal of Stress Management is to help you to manage the stress of everyday life.
Stress management as described in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia refers to a wide spectrum of techniques and psychotherapies aimed at controlling a person’s levels of stress, especially chronic stress, usually for the purpose of improving everyday functioning.
You have to accept responsibility for the role you play in creating and managing your stress levels, and understand that by decreasing the stress in your life you can improve your chances of living a longer, happier life.
The simple facts are once you learn to relax your body, discover the joy of a relaxed mind, learn how to quiet your thoughts and get your life organized, you’ll watch your worries vastly reduce.
It’s a simple, unavoidable fact that Stress is a part of most people’s lives.
It is a reality that we all live with.
Yet stress management exists to help us reduce its impact upon us greatly.
Being excessively stressed is not just a mental hazard; it’s a physical one too. The more stressed out we are the more vulnerable we are to colds, flu, and a host of chronic or life-threatening illnesses. Not a good thing to allow to continue. Particularly when there is so much available to you through stress management to reduce it’s impact and remove its harm.
So there is no doubt stress is a huge problem, just within the last week or two I have worked with clients whose stress has caused feelings of anxiety or depression, loss of interest in work, tense muscles, disturbed sleep, tiredness or poor concentration to loss of sex drive. However in reality there is a lot you can do to help reduce the problem. And that’s where stress management comes in.
So let me give you a taster of some stress management advise.
Stress management strategy #1: Avoid unnecessary stress
- Not all stress can be avoided, but there are a number of stressors in your life that you can eliminate. Try these methods:
- Learn to say “no” – Refuse to accept added responsibilities when you’re already over loaded
- Avoid people who stress you out – If someone causes stress in your life limit the amount of time you spend with them
- Take control of your environment – Turn off the depressing news, don’t read the newspapers, get your family to do more around the house, change your route to work. Change those things that affect you negatively
- Avoid your hot-buttons– Those things that wind you up, that always upset you or get your blood to boil, avoid them at all costs.
- Reduce your to-do list – Drop tasks that aren’t truly necessary off your to do list stop trying to cram everything on there.
Stress management strategy #2: Change the situation
If you can’t avoid a stressful situation, try to alter it. Figure out what you can do to change things so the problem doesn’t present itself in the future.
- Express your feelings no longer bottle them up. Start to voice your feelings no longer holding things in, but always do it in courteous way.
- Be willing to compromise. Meet people in the middle, find a point in the middle where balance can be achieved where you’ll both be happy.
- Be more assertive. No longer allow yourself to be pushed around, stand up for yourself, and make your own decisions.
- Manage time. Getting the best out of the time available to you is one of the most important things to do for stress management. Plan your days ahead, no longer just go with the flow.
Stress management strategy #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.
- Look at the big picture – Take perspective of the stressful situation. Ask yourself how important this will be in the long run. Is it really worth getting upset over? If the answer is no, focus your time and energy elsewhere.
- Stop setting yourself up for failure – Set reasonable standards for yourself and others, and learn to be okay with “good enough.”
- Focus on the positive. Take time to reflect on all the things you appreciate in your life, stop looking at the negatives all the time
Stress management strategy #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 the recession. In such cases, the best way to cope with stress is to accept things as they are. It’s pointless trying to control the uncontrollable.
- 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.
Stress management strategy #5: Make time for fun and relaxation
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. 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. You’ll find many examples throughout this blog.
Stress management strategy #6: Adopt a healthy lifestyle
Of course, what better to end this than with my particular favourite area. Healthy Lifestyles Living is all about doing the things that your mind and body needs to get in control of stress.
- Exercise regularly. Physical activity for at least 30 minutes, three times per week. Nothing beats a good walk or even better a work out for releasing stress.
- Eat a healthy diet. Start your day right with breakfast, and keep your energy up and your mind clear with 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, so cut down on your coffees and sodas.
- Get enough sleep. Adequate sleep fuels your mind, as well as your body. You know that tiredness will always lead to stress so 8 hours a night is what you should be giving yourself.
So now you know what stress management is, and so you should have no excuse to why you aren’t doing many of the suggested things from this article. Start now and see your stress diminish rapidly.
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