Stress. It gets to all of us. The trick is in learning how to manage it. Stress can cause a loss of productivity, depression, and health problems. It turns us into people we don’t want to be. We aren’t ourselves and this has an adverse effect on those around us. So what are some techniques that we can apply in our everyday lives to eliminate the pressures of stress?
In order to defeat the effects of stress you first need to identify what is causing stress in your environment. Once you’ve identified the cause of your stress you can work towards removing it from your life.
How to Reduce Stress
- Learn to manage your time better. Creating a schedule can help you accomplish more in less time. Tackle the important tasks first. Too often the small unimportant tasks overwhelm us and consume far more time than they are worth.
- Learn how to handle your stress. Overeating, smoking or alcohol are not healthy ways to handle your stress. Be honest with yourself and don’t be afraid to ask a close friend for help.
- Change the way you think about things. When you find yourself worrying or stressful thoughts are weighing you down, learn to let go. Think of something happier. If a friend or colleague asks you to do something that could be stressful or add to your burden, say no.
- Ask for help. Your family and friends care about you. They want you to be happy and healthy.
Relieving Stress
- Exercise is the best way to eliminate and manage your stress. Go for a walk as a quick and easy way to get started.
- Keep a diary. By journaling your thoughts you’ll gain more control of them and allow yourself to push stress aside.
- Let it out! Cry, laugh, talk, share your feelings.
- Find a hobby. An old boss of mine said it’s good to have a hobby, something your good at. So that when you have a bad day at work you have something you can go home to that you excel at. Hobbies are a great way to put the everyday world aside for a time.
- Learn to relax. Go for a massage, try aromatherapy or yoga.
Stress doesn’t have to rule you. There are ways to manage it and to beat it, but you need to take control of it and find ways to manage it.
Do you have tips and tactics for how you handle stress?
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Robert McPhillips 11.15.08 at 10:58 am
Stress really amounts to feeling torn between two or more options. Have to be here and here at the same time. Have too much work to do and not enough time to do it, etc.
The key thing is that you have to prioritise and make a decision as to which is more important and which one you are willing to let go. Once you resolve that, the stress will go. And the quicker you can make that decision the less stress,you will experience in your life.