Reduce Stress with These Tips
by Anna Hart
Filed under Featured Content, Stress Management Techniques
Stress. We think of it as bad. Stress is terrible. We “suffer” from stress. We must find a way to reduce stress.
Actually, not all stress is bad. The response that we call stress – also called the fight-or-flight response – is automatic and immediate when we sense that we are threatened by something or someone.
Physically, our heart rate and blood pressure are likely to increase. As a result, we may find that we have increased agility and strength. Our reactions are faster.
If you have read other articles on this blog, you already understand that stress is not the perceived demands or threats made on you. Stress is your response to those perceived demands or threats.
You reduce stress by altering your response to perceived demands and threats. In this article, we give five stress management suggestions – ideas for practical stress management.
Sustained Stress
Years ago, response to threats or demands was not sustained, as it may be today. It was essential for our survival, so threats and demands were faced, response was made, and people went on with life. In today’s society, stressors such as family relationships, finances, and work seem to be prolonged. They stack up against us. They seem at times to plot against us.
Reduce Stress for Health
We need to reduce stress for the sake of our health. Sustaining the response too long can cause complaints such as anxiety, depression, diarrhea, insomnia, irritability, and other distresses. We need to reduce stress even though the causes (stressors) are not reduced.
Tips to Reduce Stress
1. Tip #1 to Reduce Stress
Search out the stressor. What is the threat or demand that seems too great? Is someone else making demands, or is it your own perfectionism? List the causes of your stress response.
2. Tip #2 to Reduce Stress
Mark the things that you can change. You may not be able to change your employment, but you may be able to change the way you plan your work. You can reduce stress greatly simply by planning out your day.
3. Tip #3 to Reduce Stress
Just say “No” with sincerity and firmness. When it is not necessary to make a commitment, and you cannot handle it, politely refuse.
4. Tip #4 to Reduce Stress
Learn to recognize your individual stress signals. Your body will tell you when stress is building. Do you get a headache? Do your neck and shoulders begin to ache? Do you feel nervous? Stress signals are not the same for everyone. Learn your signals and reduce stress with brief exercise or by changing activity.
5. Tip #5 to Reduce Stress
A well-rested, exercised, healthy body is better prepared to reduce stress. Take care of your body and it will be in better shape to handle the chemical changes brought about by stress. Increasingly, studies are showing that a fifteen to twenty minute nap in the afternoon will reduce stress and boost productivity.
No Blame
Basic to any plan that will reduce stress is a refusal to blame the stress on others. Others can make demands. Others can threaten. Only you can decide how you will respond. A positive response will reduce stress.
I have a quick question:
How would you further explain as Tips #1 regarding searching out the stressor concept?
Once I have determine the problem, what is it that I need to do?
Regards
Izrul Fizal
I would like to add this;
Setting boundaries is a must to avoid negative stress. Become aware of what one allows to take place within ones boundaries. Show respect for oneself and others is a must and make life much more easy to live. Make things simple and erase perfection from ones mind is also to good help.
All the best,
Ulla H
Thank you for your helpful article on stress management. I think we share many of the same views on stress. My mental health blog also has an article on stress management I hope you will enjoy at http://kctherapist.blogspot.com/.
This site is an AWESOME resource! In order to complement the positive effects of stress management and meditative hypnosis, I highly recommend this psychologist’s unique FREEWARE program (the “Virtual Light & Sound Machine” Meditation Software) that effortlessly induces DEEP MEDITATIVE states, via your computer monitor and the phenomenon of audio-visual stimulation…FREE DOWWLOAD!
ThePsychologist.com/virtuallightandsound.htm
Great site!
Check out the free download of an audio relaxation exercise that the non-profit Center for Mind-Body Medicine uses all over the world in areas of extreme stress. http://www.mblwellness.com
Hi all!
As newly registered user i only wanted to say hello to everyone else who uses this forum
I just found this blog! I’ve been extremely stressed out lately. I’m going through a major break up and am searching out any help I can find to reduce my stress and sadness. I appreciate reading about these tips on ways to reduce stress – especially ways to say ‘no,’ which I’ve always had problems with. I’m also reading a book that talks about managing stress. It talks about deep breathing as a way to help with stress. I’ve been slowly getting back into yoga, which really focuses on breathing, which I know will help, if I can just make it to the classes. Thanks for the info on this blog. I will be checking back.
Very good tips.I also agree that stress management is controlling our response to certain stressors.As we get better at controlling our responses so will our list of stressors decrease.
Great tips. I especially like how you noted that one should “just say no”! May not lower stress, but it definitely won’t add to it
Some great tips there. I find that people run into problems when they have unrealistic expections of how something is supposed to “be”. By re-evaluating the situation, and checking if it really is important, worth getting worked up over, then I think most people find it easier to be a bit laid back about issues – rather than dominated by them.
This June I started a regime of walking and core-building exercise and all I can say is-why didn’t I do this sooner? I am much more able to cope with stress and that means emotional as well as physical. All of your tips are excellent and I really like this blog.
I must find ways to cope with stress, to save my job and my life.
I’m okay with a very high stress job 90 pct of the time, but 10 pct. is ‘killing me’ (perhaps literally).
Called into the HR person’s office for second time this year, this time after being rude to a caller. I apologized – but it was too late. She complained, and had every right to.
So I need to learn some skills, and this is a great site. Wondering whether, with things like this, the for-pay places like MindTools are worth it. Interested in anyone’s experiences. Thanks.
Hi Barney,
I wonder if the job has to be stressful 90% of the time. If you found ways to change your beliefs that you have a high stress job, perhaps you would react differently in different situations. It never ceases to amaze me that one person’s stress is another person’s peace. It’s all perception, I believe.
I once knew a woman who “hated”, “hated”, “hated” her boss. The person was rude, disgusting, overbearing, boarish, etc. I think you get the picture. Just coming within 10 feet of him would make her skin begin to crawl. So what was she to do? She needed the job because she was not financially independent. But the idea of working there was so loathsome that her stress level was way out of control.
She made a decision that she had to change the situation. She used positive, private affirmations. Each time he came near her, instead of allowing nausea to take over, she would silently say, “I love you, I love working with you and I love working here” or other related affirmations. It worked. As a result, she changed how she reacted to him and then slowly he changed how he treated her and it even spread out a little through the office.
Perhaps if you used this type of affirmation just before each customer interaction, you would experience a positive change. An excellent book by Ken Blanchard is “Whale Done.” It could change how you process the world and as a result the world won’t reject you anymore.
Great article. Great site. I fully agree with the analysis about Stress and the reaction to perceived threats. Self hypnosis and hypnotherapy are a great way to naturally change the reaction to perceived threats too! Great site.