How To Cope Up With Stress

Read Books That Resonate With How You Feel

Sometimes putting feelings into words can be a challenge and it can also add to our discomfort. Knowing that others have gone through similar experiences can be very healing. Head to a book store and browse books that resonates with how youre feeling. Find sections for personal growth, or any books that can help you learn about yourself.

Be Realistic And Practical

Remember whats happened cannot be undone. Theres no use crying over spilt milk.

At times getting too emotional aggravates the situation. If youre facing a permanent loss and nothing can be done about it, make yourself understand the fact.

Try to assess the situation intelligently. Think of other logical options to resolve the problem or conflict. Set realistic goals, have priorities and be focused.

Change your perspective. You can only do all that if you remain cool and your mind is calm, so go back to point #1 and learn to be calm.

This way of coping with stress seems to be like a Zen approach, but you too can do it.

Visualize Your Favorite Place

Think of your favorite place to be when youre feeling stressed. Close your eyes, focus on your breathing, and visualize the place. This will trick your body into calming down and help reduce your stress.

No matter what activity you choose, the best thing about doing something is that you are proactive in your stress management. Stress is a part of being human, but stress doesnt need to control what you do or how you feel. Some activities help to pinpoint the issue, others can be great distractors which is what may be needed at the time.

Also Check: How Do You Manage Stress Among Your Team Members

Common Sources Of Work Stress

Certain factors tend to go hand-in-hand with work-related stress. Some common workplace stressors are:

• Low salaries
• Few opportunities for growth or advancement
• Work that isnt engaging or challenging
• Lack of social support
• Not having enough control over job-related decisions
• Conflicting demands or unclear performance expectations

Keep Your Body Healthy

Another way to increase your ability to resist and cope with stress is by keeping yourself healthy. Put in the good and eliminate the bad. Eat regular, well-balanced meals, and get some endorphins. Research confirms that exercise not only benefits you physically but also mentally. Exercise helps with stress management in the long-run as well as in a moment of stress. Even a quick workout can immediately trigger positive feelings. Getting quality sleep is important as well. On the flip side, there are negative ways to deal with stress. Turning to alcohol, nicotine, drugs, or even binge-eating can seem to be easy ways to de-stress, but they can aggravate your symptoms in the long run. Doctors also suggest reducing caffeine and sugar, as the energy crash they result in can make you more agitated and stressed.

Read Also: What Are The Effects Of Stress On The Body

Start Your Day Off Right

After scrambling to get the kids fed and off to school, dodging traffic and combating road rage, and gulping down coffee in lieu of a healthy breakfast, many people arrive to work already stressed. This makes them more reactive to stress in the workplace.

You might be surprised by how affected by workplace stress you are when you have a stressful morning. When you start off the day with planning, good nutrition, and a positive attitude, you might find that the stress of your job rolls off your back more easily.

Know The Facts About Covid

Sharing the facts about COVID-19 and understanding the actual risk to yourself and your loved ones can make this pandemic less stressful. For most people, the risk of becoming seriously ill from COVID-19 is thought to be low, with 80% of people recovering without special treatment. Older adults and people who suffer from underlying medical conditions may be at a higher risk for more serious complications and possible death.There are simple things that you can do to help prevent the spread of the virus, while also protecting yourself and others. Regularly check the Alberta Health Services website for the latest guidelines and information.

Read Also: How To Reduce Stress Levels Immediately

Keep Perfectionism In Check

Being a high achiever might make you feel good about yourself and help you excel at work, but being a perfectionist can create problems for you .

You might not be able to do everything perfectly, every timeespecially in a busy, fast-paced job. A good strategy to avoid the perfectionism trap is always striving to just do your best and making time to congratulate yourself on your efforts. You may find that your results are better and youll be much less stressed at work.

Talk Yourself Through It

Sometimes calling a friend is not an option. If this is the case, talking calmly to yourself can be the next best thing.

Dont worry about seeming crazy just tell yourself why youre stressed out, what you have to do to complete the task at hand, and most importantly, that everything will be okay.

Also Check: How Can Employers Reduce Stress In The Workplace

Focus On Just Two To Three Stressors At A Time

You cannot deal with everything or everyone in your life that makes you feel stressed. Instead, focus on just two or three main stressors at a time.

Top Tip!

If you use a stress diary, or a tool like our quiz Whats Stressing You Out?, it is easy to identify the most common and/or most stressful situations in your life. You can then start to work out what you can do to resolve them.

Once you have sorted your top stressors, you can then move onto lesser stressors.

Spend Time With Friends And Family

Social support from friends and family can help you get through stressful times.

Being part of a friend network gives you a sense of belonging and self-worth, which can help you in tough times.

One study found that for women in particular, spending time with friends and children helps release oxytocin, a natural stress reliever. This effect is called tend and befriend, and is the opposite of the fight-or-flight response .

Keep in mind that both men and women benefit from friendship.

Another study found that men and women with the fewest social connections were more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety .

summary

Having strong social ties may help you get through stressful times and lower your risk of anxiety.

Its hard to feel anxious when youre laughing. Its good for your health, and there are a few ways it may help relieve stress:

• Relieving your stress response.
• Relieving tension by relaxing your muscles.

In the long term, laughter can also help improve your immune system and mood.

A study among people with cancer found that people in the laughter intervention group experienced more stress relief than those who were simply distracted (

Try watching a funny TV show or hanging out with friends who make you laugh.

summary

Find the humor in everyday life, spend time with funny friends or watch a comedy show to help relieve stress.

Not all stressors are within your control, but some are.

One way to do this may be to say no more often.

Also Check: Is Acid Reflux Caused By Stress

How Can I Help Myself

There are things that you can do to help reduce your symptoms of stress. This is also known as self-care. There isnt a set process for where you should start, or what you should do, everyone is different. You may need to try different things until you find what works for you.

Stress diary

If you dont know what is causing your stress, it might help to keep a stress diary for a few weeks. It may help you to identify things that you may be able to change.

You could write down when you feel stressed. You should include what happens just before or after you feel stressed.

It could also help you to identify things which can make you unwell. These things are known as triggers. Identifying your triggers can help you to have more control over your stress levels.

There is a template for a stress diary at the end of the factsheet, which you can download by clicking the link at the top of this page.

Get practical advice

You may be able to take steps to change the cause of your stress. There are lots of places you can get practical advice on different issues. An advice service may be a good place to start. They may be able to support you to solve an issue. For example, you may want advice on:

• housing,
• money or
• employment.

You can find details of different organisations that give practical advice in the Useful contacts section at the bottom of this page.

Manage your money

Money can cause many different issues such as poverty, debt and relationship problems.

Plan your time

How To Cope Up With Stress

Priyanka Mody |

Are you overwhelmed with your work? Do you always feel irritated? Do you have problems sleeping at night?

These are just some of the signs that you are stressed. Other signs include fatigue, headaches, imbalance between work and social life which results in withdrawal from social relations. A lot of stress can hamper with your physical and mental health and it is important to deal with it.

We are here to help you, it is manageable to cope with this stress and we have a few helpful tips for you. These small tricks will help you be productive and in turn reduce stress.

Plan and prioritize

The most common cause of stress is time crunch. Avoid getting into stressful situations where you have to work till the last moment. Plan ahead of time and prioritize the things you have to work on.

Personalize your desk space

Your workplace is a reflection of your mood. If you work on a messy desk, it will be difficult for you to concentrate on one thing. Declutter your space and lighten up the desk. Get motivational quotes and family pictures if needed. This will make you feel positive at work.

Listen to calming music

Music can calm you down at any time of the day. Listen to calming music or even your favourite music will work. Deep breathing techniques can calm you down instantly.

Sleep well

Exercise

Spend time with people you love / Do what you love

Do not be silent. Talk!

Don’t Miss: What To Do For Stress Incontinence

What Are Some Common Coping Strategies

Some common coping mechanisms may challenge you to:

• Lower your expectations.
• Ask others to help or assist you.
• Take responsibility for the situation.
• Engage in problem solving.
• Maintain emotional composure or, alternatively, expressing distressing emotions.
• Challenge previously held beliefs that are no longer adaptive.
• Directly attempt to change the source of stress.
• Distance yourself from the source of stress.
• View the problem through a religious perspective.

Experts agree that coping is a process rather than an event. You may alternate between several of the above coping strategies in order to cope with a stressful event.

People differ in particular styles of coping or prefer to use certain coping strategies over others. These differences in coping styles usually reflect differences in personality. Rigidity in coping is less likely to help than is flexibility in coping being able to fit the most appropriate coping strategy to the demands of different situations.

However, some situations that require coping are likely to elicit similar coping responses from most people. For example, work-related stressors are more likely to elicit problem-solving strategies. Stressors that are perceived to be changeable are more likely to elicit problem-solving strategies while stressors perceived to be unchangeable are more likely to elicit social support seeking and emotion-focused strategies.

• Get enough good quality sleep.
• Eat a well-balanced diet.

Make Time For Fun And Relaxation

It is important to include time for fun and relaxation in your schedule. These are important for helping you to feel good generally, and that in turn reduces stress, and keeps you healthy. Looking forward to doing things that you enjoy, and that give you pleasure, helps when you have to cope with less pleasant aspects of life. Whats more, laughter has huge positive benefits for both mental and physical health.

If you are working hard, and are conscientious, however, it can feel wrong to take time out to relax and have fun.

It is therefore important to remember that you and your health are important. You should not ignore your physical or mental health in favour of more urgent activities.

If you consciously put relaxing or fun activities into your diary, and think of this as a way to keep yourself healthy and able to work, you are likely to feel much more positive. This, in turn, will mean that you feel less guilty, and therefore stressed, about doing it.

Also Check: Where Is Stress Acne Located

Tips To Manage Stressful Situations

It might surprise you to learn that biological stress is a fairly recent discovery. It wasnt until the late 1950s that endocrinologist Hans Selye first identified and documented stress.

Symptoms of stress existed long before Selye, but his discoveries led to new research that has helped millions cope with stress. Weve compiled a list of the top 10 ways to relieve stress.

Tips For Reducing Or Controlling Stress

If you are feeling stressed, there are steps you can take to feel better. As you read the following suggestions, remember that conquering stress will not come from a half-hearted effort, nor will it come overnight. It will take determination, persistence and time. Some suggestions may help immediately, but if your stress level doesnt seem to improve, it may require more attention and/or lifestyle changes.

Be realistic. If you feel overwhelmed by some activities , learn to say NO! Eliminate an activity that is not absolutely necessary. You may be taking on more responsibility than you can or should handle. If you meet resistance, give reasons why youre making the changes. Be willing to listen to others suggestions and be ready to compromise.

Shed the superman/superwoman urge. No one is perfect, so dont expect perfection from yourself or others. Ask yourself, What really needs to be done? How much can I do? Is the deadline realistic? What adjustments can I make? Dont hesitate to ask for help if you need it.

Meditate. Just ten to twenty minutes of quiet reflection may bring relief from chronic stress as well as increase your tolerance to it. Use the time to listen to music, relax and try to think of pleasant things or nothing.

Exercise. Regular exercise is a popular way to relieve stress. Twenty to thirty minutes of physical activity benefits both the body and the mind.

Read Also: Can I Sue My Mortgage Company For Stress

Leave The Matter To Attorney

Divorce and all that is associated with it might be daunting. Besides, the law is confusing and complex, and the unexpected might be unsettling.

This is why the best possible advice family lawyer Brampton can offer to reduce stress is to let the legal issues be handled by an expert familiar with divorce cases.

An experienced and knowledgeable divorce attorney can be the best guide in the process. The expert can also pursue the right strategies on your behalf, letting you free to concentrate on other vital issues in your life.

Dont Bury Your Head In The Sand

Stress acts as an accelerator: it will push you either forward or backward, but you choose which direction. Chelsea Erieau

Have you ever purposely neglected a problem? It could be not fixing a leaky faucet or voicing your opinion at work. So why do we do this to ourselves? Because if we dont acknowledge the problem, it will magically disappear.

Of course, the opposite is true. By ignoring the issue, it doesnt just go away on its own. In fact, it gets bigger and more problematic. And, this is definitely true when it comes to debt.

Financial denial is when you stop paying attention to your finances, you dont track them, and you dont open your statements. Financial denial is a way to deal with stress you feel better because youre not thinking about it,says Brad Klontz, CFP, founder of the Financial Psychology Institute, associate professor of Practice in Financial Psychology at Creighton University Heider College of Business, and a fellow of the American Psychological Association.

The constant stress leads people into denial, and vagueness, and magical thinking, adds psychologist, professor, author, and executive coach Moira Somers. The sense of loss of control is big, the sense of being trapped and also this cycle of shame, guilt, and remorse.

Bonus tip

You May Like: What To Do When Your Stressed About School

Listen To Music On The Drive Home

Listening to music offers many benefits and can be an effective way to relieve stress before, during, and after work. Playing an uplifting song while you make breakfast can help you start the day off feeling better prepared to interact with the people in your life. Likewise, combating the stress of a long day with your favorite music on the drive home can help you wind down and feel less stressed when you get there.

Pay Attention To Your Eating

Like alcohol or drugs, food often becomes a crutch when coping with difficult times. Soothing your pain with high-calorie, high-sugar, or high-fat comfort foods feels good at first, but it can quickly spiral out of control when your mind and body begin to associate negative emotions with eating. At the first sign of stress, anger, or sadness you’ll instinctively reach for food rather than dealing with the feelings at hand. Overeating can also make you feel bloated and sluggishand that’s not going to do your mental health any favors, Smith says. Instead, he says, focusing the bulk of your diet on “reasonable portions of healthy food” can help you stay clear-headed so you can better tackle the stressors ahead. And, Smith adds, if you happen to have some junk food in the mix, it’s OKjust as long as it’s not your go-to when you feel frazzled.

Recommended Reading: What Stress Does To Your Body