05/06/2014
Practical ways to handle stress
Stress is inevitable and it can easily walk all over us unless we take action. Fortunately, there are many things you can do to minimize and cope with stress. Here are few ideas you can adopt to handle stress without causing more strain and hassle.
Figure out where the stress is coming from
Instead of feeling like you’re flailing day to day, identify what you’re actually stressed about. Is it a specific project at work, an upcoming exam, a dispute with your boss, a heap of laundry, a fight with your family or colleague?
Consider what you can control—and work on that
You can’t control what your boss does, what your in-laws says or the sour state of the economy, you can control how you react, how you accomplish work, how you spend your time and what you spend your money on.
The worst thing for stress is trying to take control over uncontrollable things, doing what’s within your power moves you forward and is empowering and invigorating.
Do what you love
It’s so much easier to manage stress when the rest of your life is filled with activities you love. Even if your job is stress central, you can find one hobby or two that enrich your world. What are you passionate about? If you’re not sure, experiment with a variety of activities to find something that’s especially meaningful and fulfilling.
Manage your time well
One of the biggest stressors for many people is lack of time. Their to-do list expands, while time flies. How often have you wished for more hours in the day or heard others lament their lack of time?
We all have the same 168 hours in a week, and yet there are plenty of people who are dedicated parents and full-time employees and who get at least seven hours of sleep a night and lead fulfilling lives.
Pick off the negotiables from your plate.
Review your daily and weekly activities to see what you can pick off your plate.
Are you volunteering for too many courses and so stealing time from the ones where you could make the most impact? Or do your activities merge with your goals and values? Am I doing things that give my life meaning? Am I doing the right amount of things?
These are questions you should ask yourself when picking off your plate. Reducing your stack of negotiable tasks will greatly reduce your stress.
Are you leaving yourself extra vulnerable to stress?
Whether you perceive something as a stressor depends in part on your current state of mind and body. That is, as Blonna said, ““Each transaction we’re involved in takes place in a very specific context that’s affected by our health, sleep, psychoactive substances, whether we’ve had breakfast that day and whether we’re physically fit.”
So if you’re not getting sufficient sleep or physical activity during the week, you may be leaving yourself extra susceptible to stress. When you are sleep deprived because you are filled to the brim with coffee, even the smallest stressors can have a huge impact.
Preserve good boundaries.
If you’re a people pleaser like me, saying no feels like you’re abandoning someone or becoming a terrible person. But of course, the truth could not be far from that.
Those few seconds of discomfort are well worth avoiding the stress of taking on an extra activity or doing something that doesn’t contribute value to your life. If there is one thing I have noticed about productive and happy people is that they’re very protective of their time and always preserving good boundaries.
Realize there’s a difference between worrying and caring
Sometimes, our mindset can boost stress, so a small issue mushrooms into a pile of problems. We continue worrying, somehow thinking that this is a productive or at least inevitable response to stress. But we mistake worry for action.
Worrying is an attempt to exert control over the future by thinking about it, whereas caring is taking action. When we are caring for someone or something, we do the things that support or advance the best interests of the person or thing that we care about.
Lejeune uses the simple example of houseplants. He writes: “If you are away from home for a week, you can worry about your houseplants every single day and still return home to find them brown and wilted. Worrying is not watering.”
Similarly, fretting about your finances does nothing but get you worked up (and likely prevent you from taking action). Caring about your finances, however, means creating a budget, paying bills on time and reducing how often you dine out. Just this small shift in mindset from worrying to caring can help you adjust your reaction to stress.
