Stress is a state of tension and it’s a normal part of life. It has both external and internal sources. The most common external sources that can cause stress in our lives are; finances, demands of work, relationships, family and other commitments. The internal sources of stress comes from within us and the pressure we put on ourselves due to our high personal standard, beliefs, values, goals, needs and wants. Some examples of internal sources of stress are striving for perfection in all we do or refuse to do, having internal criticism on ourselves which comes from negative thought pattern, negative experiences and bad habits. Our negative inner chatter if we let it, can be quite destructive and lead us to living a highly stressed and anxious life. If not dealt with, overtime stress can have a devastating effect on your mental and physical health. If you are living with high levels of stress, you’re putting your entire well-being at risk. Stress wreaks havoc on your psychological wellbeing, as well as your physical health. It narrows your ability to think clearly, you may have trouble sleeping, increase or loss in appetite, loss of interest in daily activity, you may be irritable, have headaches or stomach pain, or find that you cry so easily. Stress impairs your ability to function effectively and enjoy life. We become too stressed out and too busy to remember to take care of ourselves.
We need to know that it’s not our job or our life situation that’s stressful, stress happens because of our inability to manage our own system. The one person that can throw stress in your life is yourselves, we just don’t know how to deal with the numerous activities we find ourselves doing and how we can make progress the next day. If we can manage stress in a positive way, this can open us up to new opportunities outside our comfort zone, it can be the catalyst we need to change and empower ourselves to come up with solution and challenges so that we can grow and move forward in our life. We need to set time aside to unwind or our mental and physical health can suffer a break down.
If you are feeling overwhelmed with what is happening in your life; Here are 9 stress management techniques you can use any time you are feeling stressed and want to get your life back. The more you use this tool, the more proactive you are in managing stress levels.
1) Write down 5 benefits you will achieve if you have your stress under control: - When making change or implementing anything new in your life, it is important to identify the benefit for you. The 5 identified benefit becomes the incentive to encourage and motivate you to make the changes and take action. Transfer your responses in a sticker note and put the notes in a place where you will see them every morning.
2) Get to know who you are and give yourselves some slack: Spend some time getting to know you, your personality, strength, your weakness, things you don’t like doing and things you enjoy doing. This will make you more self-aware so that you can quickly identify what things in life stress you out. And how you can manage this activity so that they don’t have such a negative impact on your life. The more self-aware you are, the more accepting you are of what your strengths are and what you are not so good at.
3) Don’t try to control the uncontrollable: - Many things in life are beyond our control, particularly the behavior of other people. Rather than stressing out over them, focus on the things you can control such as the way you choose to react to problems.
4) Make time for fun and relaxation: - Beyond a take-charge approach and a positive attitude, you can reduce stress in your life by carving out “me” time. Don’t get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of life that you forget to take care of your own needs. Nurturing yourself is a necessity, not a luxury. If you regularly make time for fun and relaxation, you’ll be in a better place to handle life’s stressors.
5) Commit to spending time with people who make you smile-: The more stress we face, the more likely we are to withdraw from our friends and family.
6) Exercise Regularly: - Take an early morning or evening stroll around your residence. This enables the body to interact with the natural environment and enjoy the cool breeze. You can also stretch out the muscles in your body. You can try spelling COCONUT with your body movement.
7) Practice Relaxation Techniques:- Such as meditation.
8) Be grateful:- keeping a daily gratitude journal by writing down all the things you are grateful for.
9) Get help from a therapist:- If you still have difficulties implementing this techniques in your daily life, you simply need to talk to a clinical psychologist. This doesn’t mean you are a failure. Seeking for professional help with a psychologist will help you identify further unhelpful ways you have being handling stress and they will provide therapeutic interventions for this.
