How do you handle stress? Do you control it? Do you identify it? Do you even realize you have it? Or do you let it control you and in the long run impair your progress and peace?
Often when we are faced with stressful situations, we don't know what to do. So sometimes we numb ourselves. This could be a habit, substance, mindless cell phone scrolling, or some other escape mechanism we turn to in times of stress.
Lets face it. Stress is a part of life. We all get stressed out for various reasons. Sometimes it is work, relationships, the list goes on and on. One statistic says that 77% of people experience physical symptoms of stress. 73% percent report psychological symptoms.
Stress can affect your health, mind and lead to high blood pressure and heart disease. It also affects our mood and behavior. How many times have you done something you regret because you were under a large amount of stress, and had not properly identified and dealt with it yet.
Stress is serious business, and we better be aware of it, and better yet, how to deal with it.
I wish I could tell you that you will never face a stressful situation again, but that would be untrue. But there is good news! There are ways to deal with stress. We might call this stress management.
But we don't have to let stress cause us to turn to mind and soul numbing activity. We don't have to let it lead us to form bad self destructive habits in our attempt to escape the stress.
I want to share with you 4 simple strategies to help you better manage your stress.
First, acknowledge stress when you feel it
Sometimes we don't take the time to listen to ourselves and understand what is going on in our mind, body and spirit. We need to learn how to listen to what is happening in our bodies. People who are constantly overworked and tired begin to get short and snarky with people. They do not even realize it normally. They are just simply living out of a response to their constant state of fatigue.
When we do not realize stress is coming on, and are not emotionally mature and aware of our feelings, we begin to be controlled by them. As soon as you feel angry, upset, frustrated or depressed, you need to identify that feeling and begin to discover why you feel that way and how you can eliminate it, it's effects and change your mindset.
Secondly, Control your breathing and relax
Have you ever noticed that? When people being to feel overwhelmed or upset, they often take a deep breath to control their breathing. This in turn helps control the heart, which is being affected by the stressful situation. Getting into a relaxed state, breathing deeply and slowing down help to control your stress. When you do this, you release the tension that stress brings on.
Third, Control Your Response
It is easy to get swept up in our emotions, fears and feelings. Remember that you are in control of how you react to situations. By implementing the two items above, you can better control how you respond. Don't get swept away in reactive mode, but rather identify the stress point, calm down and relax, and control your actions.
Lastly, Build positive habits
As we begin to examine our habits, we can begin to see how much of them are unhealthy responses to stress and pressure. As you begin to change your habitual patterns of action, you will begin to make unhealthy responses to stress be more and more irregular and abnormal for you. This will help you identify when you are triggered and respond to it with unhealthy behavior.
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