7 Step Program To Stress Management

As we know, stress is a part of life.  There’s no getting away from it.  In fact, some stress is good stress.

You may not believe that, but sometimes stress can motivate us to do things we may not normally do in a relaxed state.

Stress can make you brave enough to go forward when normally you might hesitate.

You have to be resilient in order to effectively cope with stress and help it enhance our life instead of control it.

How do you get strong and resilient?

By learning how to take control of your stress and make it work FOR you instead of AGAINST you.

Recognizing stress symptoms can be a positive influence in that we’re compelled to take action – and the sooner the better.

It’s not always easy to discern why you have stress in each situation, but some of the more common events that trigger those emotions are the death of a loved one, the birth of a child, a job promotion, or a new relationship.

You might experience stress as you readjust your lives. Your body is asking for your help when you feel these stress symptoms.

There are three major approaches to manage stress. The first is the action-oriented approach. In this method, the problems that cause stress are identified and necessary changes are made for a stress free life.

The next approach is emotionally oriented, and in it, the person overcomes stress by giving a different color to the experience that caused stress. The situation, which causes stress, is seen humorously or from a different angle.

Sometimes, if you don’t laugh at a situation, you’ll cry – uncontrollably.  That’s no solution.  Learn to see the humor instead of the doom.

The third way is an acceptance-oriented approach. This approach focuses on surviving the stress, caused by some problems in the past.

The first stress management tip is to understand the root cause of your stress.

No one understands your problem better than you do. A few minutes spent recognizing your true feelings can completely change the situation.

During this process, identify what triggered the stress. If someone close to your heart is nearby, share it with them.

If you are overstressed and feel you are going to collapse, take a deep breath and count till ten. This pumps extra oxygen into your system and rejuvenates the entire body.

When under severe stress, meditate for a moment and pull out of the current situation for a little while. Stand up from your current position and walk. Stretch yourself. Soon you will find that the stress has lessened.

This is because you have relaxed now, and relaxation is the best medicine for stress. Smiling is yet another way of managing stress. If you are at the workplace, just stand up and smile at your colleague in the far corner.

You will see a change in your mood. Learn some simple yoga or mediation techniques.

You can also invent your own stress management tips. The basic idea is to identify the cause of stress, pull away from it for a moment, and then deal with it.

Taking a short walk and looking at objects in nature is another stress reliever. Drinking a glass of water or playing small games are simple stress management techniques.

The whole idea is to change the focus of attention, and when you return to the problem, it does not look as monstrous as you felt before.

They say there’s more than one way to skin a cat. The same goes when you start tearing your hair out with all the frustration, grief, anxiety, and yes, stress.

It’s a state of mental conditioning that is like taking that bitter pill down your throat, causing you to lose your sense of self and, worse, your sanity. Just thinking about it can drive anyone off the edge.

And they say that the proactive ones are already living off the edge.

As one stressed-out person to another, I know how it feels, and believe me, there are many variants when it comes to stress.

Coping with life, and carrying the problems that may or may not belong to you can scratch away the little joy and happiness that you can carry once you head out that door.

You can’t blame them for being like that. They have their own reasons, just as we have our own reasons to allow stress to weigh us down. They say that stress is all in the mind. Well, what’s bugging you anyway?

There are several ways to manage stress, and eventually remove it from your life one of these days. This is divided into a seven-step course for you and it’s not going to be too taxing on the body, as well as on the mind.

1. Acknowledge that stress is good

Make stress your friend! Based on the body’s natural “fight or flight” response, that burst of energy will enhance your performance at the right moment.

Have you ever seen a top athlete totally relaxed before a big competition? Use stress wisely to push yourself that little bit harder when it counts most.

2. Avoid stress sneezers

Stressed people sneeze stress germs indiscriminately, and before you know it, you are infected too!

Protect yourself by recognizing stress in others and limiting your contact with them. Or if you’ve got the inclination, play stress doctor and teach them how to better manage themselves.

3. Learn from the best

When people around you are losing their heads, who keeps calm? What are they doing differently? What is their attitude? What language do they use? Are they trained and experienced?

Figure it out from afar, or sit them down for a chat. Learn from the best stress managers and copy what they do.

4. Practice socially acceptable heavy breathing

This is something I’ve learned from a gym instructor: You can trick your body into relaxing by using heavy breathing.

Breathe in slowly for a count of 7 then breathe out for a count of 11. Repeat the 7-11 breathing until your heart rate slows down, your sweaty palms dry off, and things start to feel more normal.

5. Give stressful thoughts the red light

It is possible to tangle yourself up in a stress knot all by yourself. “If this happens, then that might happen and then we’re all up the creek!” Most of these things never happen, so why waste all that energy worrying needlessly?

Give stress thought-trains the red light and stop them in their tracks. Okay, so it might go wrong – how likely is that, and what can you do to prevent it?

6. Know your trigger points and hot spots

Presentations, interviews, meetings, giving difficult feedback, tight deadlines…. My heart rate is cranking up just writing these down!

Make your own list of stress trigger points or hot spots. Be specific. Is it only presentations to a certain audience that get you worked up? Does one project cause more stress than another? Did you drink too much coffee?

Knowing what causes you stress is powerful information, as you can take action to make it less stressful. Do you need to learn some new skills? Do you need extra resources? Do you need to switch to decaf?

7. Burn the candle at one end

Lack of sleep, poor diet, and no exercise wreak havoc on our body and mind. Kind of obvious, but worth mentioning as it’s often ignored as a stress management technique. Listen to your mother, and don’t burn the candle at both ends!

Having stress can be a total drag, but that should not hinder us from finding the inner peace of mind that we have wanted for a long time. In any case, one could always go to the Bahamas and bask under the summer sun.

5 Minute Daily Program for Stress Management

“Relaxing with a Mental PDA” Your 5-minute daily program for stress management.

We all have this favorite expression when it comes to being stressed out.

But when it comes down to it, it is how we work, or even relax, for that matter, that triggers stress.

Ever been stressed even when you’re relaxed and bored?

Since Error! Hyperlink reference not valid. is unavoidable in life, it is important to find ways to decrease and prevent stressful incidents and decrease negative reactions to stress.

Here are some of the things that can be done by just remembering it, since life is basically a routine to follow, like brushing your teeth or eating breakfast.

You can do a few of them in a longer span of time, but as they say – every minute counts.

Manage Time

Time management skills can allow you to spend more time with your family and friends and possibly increase your performance and productivity. This will help reduce your stress.

To improve your time management:

• Save time by focusing and concentrating, delegating, and scheduling time for yourself.

• Keep a record of how you spend your time, including work, family, and leisure time.

• Prioritize your time by rating tasks by importance and urgency. Redirect your time to those activities that are important and meaningful to you.

• Manage your commitments by not overcommitting or under-committing. Don’t commit to what is not important to you.

• Deal with procrastination by using a day planner, breaking large projects into smaller ones, and setting short-term deadlines.

• Examine your beliefs to reduce conflict between what you believe and what your life is like.

• Build healthy coping strategies

It is important that you identify your coping strategies. One way to do this is by recording the stressful event, your reaction, and how you cope in a stress journal.

With this information, you can work to change unhealthy coping strategies into healthy ones-those that help you focus on the positive and what you can change or control in your life.

Lifestyle Choices

Some behaviors and lifestyle choices affect your stress level. They may not cause stress directly, but they can interfere with the ways your body seeks relief from stress.

Try to:

• Balance personal, work, and family needs and obligations.

• Have a sense of purpose in life.

• Get enough sleep, since your body recovers from the stresses of the day while you are sleeping.

• Eat a balanced diet for a nutritional defense against stress.

• Get moderate exercise throughout the week.

• Limit your consumption of alcohol.

• Don’t smoke.

Social Support

Social support is a major factor in how we experience stress. Social support is the positive support you receive from family, friends, and the community.

It is the knowledge that you are cared for, loved, esteemed, and valued. More and more research indicates a strong relationship between social support and better mental and physical health.

Change Thinking

When an event triggers negative thoughts, you may experience fear, insecurity, anxiety, depression, rage, guilt, and a sense of worthlessness or powerlessness.

These emotions trigger the body’s stress, just as an actual threat does.

Dealing with your negative thoughts and how you see things can help reduce stress.

• Thought-stopping helps you stop a negative thought to help eliminate stress.

• Disproving irrational thoughts helps you avoid exaggerating negative thought, anticipating the worst, and interpreting an event incorrectly.

• Problem solving helps you identify all aspects of a stressful event and find ways to deal with it.

• Changing your communication style helps you communicate in a way that makes your views known without making others feel put down, hostile, or intimidated. This reduces the stress that comes from poor communication. Use the assertiveness ladder to improve your communication style.

Even writers like me can get stressed even though we’re just using our hands to do the talking, but having to sit for 7 or 8 hours is already stressful enough. We have our own way to relieve stress.

Whether you’re the mail guy, the CEO, or probably the average working parent, stress is one unwanted visitor you would love to boot out of your home, especially your life.

 

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