How to cope with stress?

In today’s fast-paced and ever-connected world more often I hear the word „stress” in the office and outside of it. Do you experience stress regularly? Is stress a problem for you? Then you are at the right place to get some helpful tips on how to manage your mind and do self-care in order to equip yourself and be more efficient in coping with it.

Stress is a natural physical and mental reaction to life experiences. Everyone expresses stress from time to time. Anything from everyday responsibilities like work and family to serious life events such as a new diagnosis or the death of a loved one can trigger stress.

Stress can cause people to feel overwhelmed or pushed to the limit. While low to moderate levels of stress can be good for you when managed in healthy ways, extreme stress can become chronic and have a bad effect on the individual.

With the consequences of poorly managed stress ranging from fatigue to heart disease and obesity, it is important to know how to recognize high-stress levels and take action to handle it in healthy ways.

When you’re feeling overwhelmed or anxious, it is easy to forget that you have choices and that you have the ability to handle your thoughts and emotions before you feel overwhelmed by them.

Being able to control stress is a learned behaviour, and stress can be effectively managed by reframing our priorities and by calming the fears that arise in the mind and flipping the body from stress response into its healthy opposite—the relaxation response—you can activate the body’s natural self-healing mechanisms.

It is important to remember that everyone experiences stress differently. You may have a hard time concentrating or making decisions, feel angry, irritable or out of control, or experience headaches, muscle tension or a lack of energy?

• Pause and identify your sources of stress. What events or situations trigger stressful feelings? Are they related to your children, family, health, financial decisions, work, relationships or something else? How are your thoughts or behaviours different from times when you do not feel stressed? Just paying attention to our inner state or reaction will help us to gain clarity and decide more deliberately.

• Pay attention to your own stress signals. Observe your stress signals alike breathing, posture change etc. Meanwhile stressed out you have the urge to rush but taking a few seconds and scanning your body and noticing its signals will open the room for regaining control over the situation and your action.

• Enhance your sleep quality . P eople who are chronically stressed often suffer from lack of adequate sleep and, in some cases, stress-induced insomnia. It is important to take steps to increase the quality of your sleep. Begin winding down an hour or two before you go to sleep and engage in calming activities such as listening to relaxing music, reading an enjoyable book, taking a soothing bath or practising relaxation techniques like meditation.

• Take care of yourself. Eat right and drink plenty of water. Nourishing your body with the right food will give you the energy you need to tackle what life brings you, including stressful situation.

• Move your body or do some exercise. Physical activity, like walking in nature/dancing increases your body’s production of good-feeling endorphins, a type of neurotransmitter in the brain, and decreases the production of stress hormones.

• Retrain your brain for a new outlook. How you define stress can determine how it will affect you. By approaching situations with curiosity and seeing them as opportunities and refuting negative thoughts are all important aspects of trying to minimize your stress. Ask yourself: „How can I make this stressful problem work for me?” Note: Don’t overdo it with trying to think of a way to best use stress! If you’re unable to think of how to take advantage of whatever stressor you’re facing, simply accept that it’s there. Sit with it rather than flee from it.

• Reach out to a friend or trusted fellow. Pour out your heart and thoughts to someone who can listen without judgement. By sharing your stressful mind with another person there is a good chance you might feel hopeful and by sharing you may realize that you are not alone.

• Serve others through action or prayers. Giving time or support to others without a prize may likely to deepen our life satisfaction and purpose.

• Reach out for support. There is no need to face challenging life circumstances alone so stressful situations are a great opportunity to reach out to a friend and/or relatives. Accepting help from supportive friends and family not just improves your ability to manage stress but showing vulnerability would strengthen your relationships. If you continue to feel overwhelmed by stress, you may want to talk to a counsellor/ psychologist/coach , who can help you better manage stress and change unhealthy behaviours.

• Make time for personal hobbies and open room for activities that brings flow and joy into your life.

The point is, we cope with stress in highly personal ways, and what works for one person might not work for another. But it’s always helpful to share stress-management ideas so that we can expand our repertoire and learn new techniques and approaches.

While there’s no one correct way to manage stress, there is a “right” way for you. And the more tools you have at your disposal, the better equipped you’ll be to pick the right one for the situation at hand.

Wishing you a balanced day!