Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Understanding stress can help you manage it

Kathryn Allen — Stress is anything that makes you feel that you have enough than what you can handle; it may or may not be due to the external factors. Even your own expectations can cause stress. When you feel you can cope up with the pressures certain challenges exert on you and cause a threat to your well-being, look for ways to deal with the stress.

Although stress is an inevitable part of one's life and it is a circumstantial evidence that you are alive, you still cannot live with it and have to deal with it. Stress can result in elevated blood pressure, slow digestion, tense muscles, palpitation, insomnia and weaker immune system. Deciding out priorities and resources, it will be easy to combat stress and live a healthy life. Following are some of the ways to deal with stress.

Positive Self-Talk

This is one of the best things you can do to handle stress. However, self-talk should not be negative as this will further add the stress. Positive talk such as “I can do this, I have handled such situations earlier” or “Things will work out slowly, I just need to be patient and take one step at a time”, can calm you down.

Being positive and practicing positive talk can be a little difficult; thus, start with indulging in positive self-talk every day. Do it often as and when you face a situation that triggers negative thoughts.

Identify the Source of Stress

Dealing with stress begins right from identifying what is causing it. This is not as easy as it sounds because the true sources of stress are not always so obvious. For example, work deadlines might cause stress to someone, but the real cause for this can be your procrastination and inability to line up the priorities and act accordingly.

Most importantly, you must take the responsibility of creating and maintaining your stress level, else you cannot take the control of stress.

Exercises

Work off your stress through effective exercises. Physical activities such as jogging, playing tennis, or gardening can be helpful. Some of the yoga exercises such as breathing and meditation exercises have proven to be effective in managing stress and steering your mind clear off the disturbing negative thoughts.

Avoid Unnecessary Stress

Most of the times, our stress is unnecessary, which can be avoided by certain simple steps. Knowing your own limits and sticking to them can let you avoid personal and professional stress.

Avoid people, who stress you out. If it is unavoidable to end the relationship, at least limit the interaction to the minimum.

Decide your priorities and jot down your to-do list. If the list reads long, just pick the should and musts. Skip the tasks at the bottom of the list.

Accept the Things that you Cannot Change

Trying to change or avoid some unavoidable factors causing stress, such as persistent illness, national recession, layoffs, and death of a loved one. The way to deal with such stress factors is to accept it as it is. In such situations, talking to your trusted friend, sharing your feelings and believing that major challenges make you strong and help you grow can help you to relax.

All of us face stress not less than often. Thus, tips about how to deal with stress can be of interest  to all of us. Take charge of the situation, understand the stress causing factors and avoid it and if you cannot avoid, accept it. Manage your time and priorities well and keep time aside for relaxation and fun. Enjoy a stress-free life!

About the Author

Kathryn Allen is a freelance writer. She enjoys writing and sharing diverse information. She also loves to share her life experiences. To know more about her, you can follow her on Google+.