Feeling stressed out? Learn how to effectively recognize and deal with stress using these critical keys of stress management.
Stress is often defined as the inability to cope with a perceived threat (real or imagined). We feel that a particular situation may have a negative impact on our mental, emotional, physical or spiritual well-being.
Some things that can cause stress include financial, marital, work or health-related issues.
We all have different ways of coping with situations or change, so each person will feel stress differently.
Much of the stress we feel is based on our own perception of a situation, not necessarily the reality of what is actually happening. It's commonly the fear of what could happen that gets us stressed out, not what is actually happening.
And guess what???? Even fun things can cause stress.
A little stress can actually be a good thing. During a physical competition, stress might push you to perform better. If you're facing a deadline, stress can help you push through to get more accomplished.
When a little stress increases to the point where it starts to affect you emotionally or physically, you know it's time to stake some steps to get it under control.
Some of these stress symptoms can also be signs of depression. If you exhibit these symptoms for an extended period of time or feel like your stress is more than you can cope with, please seek professional assistance.
The human machine really is an amazing thing! Your body has some built-in ways of dealing with stress. Here are a few ways that your body deals with stress, which also happen to be good indicators that you are stressed out:
When your body gets hit by stress it can make you feel like you are getting sick for no apparent reason. To quickly shake that feeling just try taking a few deep breaths and telling yourself everything is going to be okay.
If that doesn't work, try a simple meditation, do some yoga, or take a walk outside. Getting some fresh air and a change of scenery can do wonders towards giving you a fresh outlook and a change of heart.
It can be helpful to find ways to manage, decrease or even prevent stressful incidents. But since stress really is unavoidable, it's even more important to learn how to manage the way that we react to stress.
It sometimes seems that learning and practicing good time management would lead to an increase in stress. All those calendars and lists and spreadsheets.... But if you do it right, good time management practices will actually lead to a reduction in your stress levels. Knowing where your time is going and what you have coming up next can greatly reduce task-caused stress.
Here are a few things you can do to step up your time management.
Coping strategies define the way you identify and deal with stress. The best way to identify and develop good coping strategies is to keep track of each stressful situation. Maybe use the day planner we just talked about.
Record each situation that makes you feel stressed. Identify the situation, your reaction to it, and what the eventual outcome was. Chances are pretty good that the things that stress you the most turn out to be not that big a deal when you get through them.
Once you know what stresses you and how you handle it, you can work to enhance those strategies to make stress more positive.
Some lifestyle choices greatly affect your stress levels. Things such as spending too much time at work, overeating and being a couch potato might not directly stress you, but they do interfere with the way your body and your mind deal with stress when it comes your way.
Here are a few lifestyle changes you can make to help deal with stress.
Lean on me... when you're not strong. I'll be your friend, I'll help you carry on...
Having a good support system can be crucial in developing a good stress management program.
Social support is the positive support you receive from friends, family, co-workers and the community. It's the knowledge that others care for you, love you, and see the value in you as a human being.
Here are a few ways you can increase your social support system:
All of these are great ways to meet new people, find new interests and feel more connected. And that reduces stress!
Stress leads to negative thoughts and feelings such as fear, anxiety, insecurity, guilt, depression and even rage.
Your body reacts to those feelings just as it would an actual physical threat.
That's not good!
Most stress is a perceived concept in your mind. Which is great, because with that knowledge you can learn to combat those negative thoughts and more effectively deal with stress.
Here are a few tips to help you deal with negative thoughts and feelings:
Everybody feels stress at some point in their life. Most people will feel stress several times a day. The key to putting a stop to the feeling of constantly being stressed out is learning how to recognize and identify the stress so that you can deal with it in a more positive manner.
