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.
Up Your Avoidance Of Caffeine Alcohol And Nicotine
We previously said that it was a good idea not to have too much caffeine, alcohol and nicotine as a way to avoid stress. If you are already feeling stressed, this becomes even more important. Caffeine and nicotine are stimulants and so will increase your level of stress rather than reduce it.
Alcohol is a depressant when taken in large quantities, but acts as a stimulant in smaller quantities. Using alcohol as a way to alleviate stress is therefore not ultimately helpful.
Swap caffeinated and alcoholic drinks for water, herbal teas, or diluted natural fruit juices and aim to keep yourself hydrated. This will enable your body to cope better with stress.
You should also aim to avoid or reduce your intake of refined sugars – they are contained in many manufactured foods and can cause energy crashes which may lead you to feel tired and irritable.
There is more about this in our page What are Carbohydrates?.
Remember To Seek Help And Support When You Need It
Remember, that it is okay to ask for professional help. If you feel that you are struggling to manage on your own, then you can reach out. It is important to know that you can get help as soon as possible, and that you deserve to get better.
The first person to approach is your family doctor. He or she should be able to give advice about treatment, and may refer you to another local professional. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Mindfulness based approaches are known to help reduce stress. There are also a number of voluntary organisations which can help you to tackle the causes of stress and advise you about ways to get better.
Anxiety UK
Anxiety UK runs a helpline staffed by volunteers with personal experience of anxiety from 9:30-5:30, Monday to Friday. Call 08444 775 774.
Citizens Advice
Citizens Advice provides free, independent and confidential advice for a range of problems as well as providing information on your rights and responsibilities.
StepChange
StepChange provides help and information for people dealing with a range of debt problems. Freephone 0800 138 1111.
Mind Infoline
Mind provides information on a range of mental health topics to support people in their own area from 9.00am to 6.00pm, Monday to Friday. Call 0300 123 3393 or email .
Rethink Advice and Information Service
Rethink provide specific solution-based guidance – 0300 5000927 Fax: 020 7820 1149 email .
Samaritans
Specialist mental health services
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Back And Put The Problem In Perspective
Maybe you’re disappointed that you didn’t get a promotion you were up for or concerned that money is a little tight this month because of an unexpected medical bill. Feeling stressed is a natural reaction. But try to take a step back and ask yourself: Will this issue still matter in a year? In five years? If the answer is no, take a deep breath and try to move forward. Keeping things in perspective is crucial to managing stress.
How Can We Handle Stress In Healthy Ways
Stress serves an important purposeit enables us to respond quickly to threats and avoid danger. However, lengthy exposure to stress may lead to mental health difficulties or increased physical health problems. A large body of research suggests that increased stress levels interfere with your ability to deal with physical illness. While no one can avoid all stress, you can work to handle it in healthy ways that increase your potential to recover.
There are several other methods you can use to relax or reduce stress, including:
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S To Reduce Stress In Your Life And Business
Stressed out? Feeling like you cant take it anymore? Dont let it ruin your life. Use these 10 tips to beat stress.
There is no doubt that stress kills. There are many health professionals and medical analyses that validate the strong negative impact stress has on your health and general well-being, as well as your longevity. It is the chronic, day in and day out stress that is the problem. It can exacerbate pain, cause depression, obesity, digestive disorders, autoimmune diseases, heart disease, and even contribute to the advancement of Alzheimers and cancer. There is good evidence that uncontrolled stress takes a major detrimental toll in so many areas affecting your good healthphysical, mental, and emotional. There is good reason to learn how to control it.
Stress is the result of receiving some sort of threat to our well-being and your body reacts by secreting cortisol and adrenaline which increases your heart beat, blood pressure, strength, stamina, and general alertness. That threat can come from many sources but it usually is job or relationship based but other sources can be problems with your children, your health, or your finances along with your own unrealistic expectations. Your muscles become tight, your senses are heightened, and you are ready for flight or fight. You learned all that to survive many centuries before. We all know that prolonged stress is bad stuffthe important thing is knowing how to deal with it effectively. Here are ten steps to help.
Practical Ways To Reduce Stress In Your Life And At The Office
Stress can be a killer to any business professional. It can wear you down, burn you out and create more worry that is necessary on a daily basis. Taking some time for yourself to help reduce the stress you are feeling can make you more productive at work, as well as help you develop your work-life balance.
According to a , 44% of people frequently feel stress during their daily lives, and 41% say that they lack the time to do what want to. As persistent stress can be detrimental to your health and wellbeing, taking the measures necessary to decrease its effects is imperative.
Below, 10 members of Forbes Coaches Council share the one practical strategy that a modern professional can easily incorporate into their life to reduce stress. Here is what they recommend you do:
Members from the Forbes Coaches Council share a few ways you can tame stress.
1. Set Clear Boundaries
Setting clear boundaries is so very important for reducing stress. Once boundaries are set, communicate them to your supervisor, colleagues, direct reports, family and friends, so they are aware of your boundaries and more importantly, can help hold you to them. Set regular work hours, leave work at work, don’t check email at home and remember that your job is just that a job! – Kyle Elliott, MPA, CHES, Kyle Elliott Consulting
2. Get Rid Of ‘To Do’ Lists
3. Prioritize Based On Urgency And Importance
4. Check In With Your Inner Self
5. Stay Present
6. Check Your Ego
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How To Reduce Stress
Article revised on 26 April 2020.
Stress is a deeply unpleasant state that saps all the texture, beauty, and joy out of being alive. It is an important cause of depression, suicide, anger, accidents, headaches, heart attacks, cancer, and countless other ills. Stressed people live poorer and shorter lives. They live less.
Although stress is often related to life events, such as losing a loved one, getting divorced, or falling ill, most of the day-to-day stress that we experience comes from smaller background stressors such as constant deadlines, tense relationships, painful memories, isolation, discrimination, poor housing, and unpaid bills.
The amount of stress that a person can handle is largely related to her thinking styles and social skills. People with positive thinking styles and social skills are in a better position to diffuse stressful situationsfor example, by doing something about them, putting them into perspective, or talking them through with someone.
1. The first step in dealing with stress is to recognize its warning signs.
2. Next, make a list of situations in which you feel that way.
3. For each situation on your list, come up with one or more strategies for preventing, avoiding, or diffusing it.
Here’s an example:
You can also use some more general strategies for reducing stress.
Deep breathing involves regulating your breathing:
How Stress Affects Your Thoughts And Emotions
You might notice signs of stress in the way you think, act, and feel. You may:
- Feel cranky and unable to deal with even small problems.
- Feel frustrated, lose your temper more often, and yell at others for no reason.
- Feel jumpy or tired all the time.
- Find it hard to focus on tasks.
- Worry too much about small things.
- Feel that you are missing out on things because you can’t act quickly.
- Imagine that bad things are happening or about to happen.
How stress affects you depends on many things, such as:
- Your personality.
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Look At Your Lifestyle
The choices you make about the way you live affect your stress level. Your lifestyle may not cause stress on its own, but it can prevent your body from recovering from it. Try to:
- Find a balance between personal, work, and family needs. This isn’t easy. Start by looking at how you spend your time. Maybe there are things that you don’t need to do at all. Finding a balance can be especially hard during the holidays.
- Quick Tips: Reducing Holiday Stress
Simple Ways To Reduce Stress
Just as the experience of stress itself is different for everyone, the factors and triggers that cause it vary as well. However, if you know the situations and environments that enhance your stress levels, you can effectively handle them. When you are fully aware and in tune with your body and its natural responses, you can take preventive measures to avoid feelings of stress in the first place.
Simply getting outside for some fresh air can help ease stress.
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Simple Ways To Reduce Stress In Your Daily Life
Although our culture may lead us to believe otherwise, not all stress is negative.
There are times when a heightened level of awareness, or the feeling of being slightly overwhelmed, can help you approach and handle a situation. For athletes who feel stressed before a game, that added boost of energy can help them run faster and play harder. Feelings of unease before a deadline at work can be beneficial for performance, giving you the drive to do well.
Simple ways to reduce stress in your daily life include daily exercise – both aerobic and stretching activities like yoga.
However, according to the American Psychological Association, consistent or extreme stress can be harmful to your health.
While your bodys natural defenses are equipped to handle small and common periods of stress, chronic stress has been known to lead to high blood pressure, anxiety, obesity and insomnia.
Chronic stress has even been attributed to major illnesses including heart disease, research has found. Oftentimes, those experiencing extreme stress turn toward unhealthy methods of coping. Habits such as overeating, using drugs or alcohol, working too hard, spending excessive time alone and similar unhealthy practices in turn lead to poor health outcomes.
Here at the Pritikin Longevity Center, we promote a healthy mind and body connection by teaching you how to manage and cope with stress.
- Healthy Mind, Healthy Body
- Listening and Being Heard
- Managing Your Moods
Make Time For Leisure Activities
Leisure activities can be a wonderful way to relieve stress. Yet, many people feel as though their lives are too busy for hobbies, games, or extra fun.
But building time for leisure into your schedule could be key to helping you feel your best. And when you feel better, you’ll perform better, which means leisure time may make your work time more efficient.
Whether you find joy in caring for a garden or you like making quilts, hobbies and leisure are key to living your best life.
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Develop Techniques That Will Help You To Feel In Control Of Your Life
There is plenty of research that suggests that the single factor that causes most stress is feeling out of control.
One way that you can help yourself to avoid stress is to develop techniques to help you solve problems and make decisions more easily.
For example, one problem-solving technique involves writing down the problem and coming up with as many possible solutions as you can. Decide on the good and bad points of each one and select the best solution. Write down each step that you need to take as part of the solution: what will be done, how will it be done, when will it be done, who is involved and where will it take place.
There is more about this and other techniques in our series of pages on Problem-Solving and Decision-Making.
Use The Best Techniques To Add The Spark To Your Intimate Life
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Giving Your Mind A Rest
For people dealing with high levels of stress, it can be hard to fathom how a few moments of meditation will help. After meditation, the stressors are still there youre still getting divorced, caring for an aging parent, struggling with the demands of a high-stress job. How can a few moments of deep thought possibly help your life?
It may help to think about how muscles get stronger. Unrelenting exercise simply tears down a muscle and leads to injury. Smart exercisers know the value of a day of rest thats when your muscles regenerate and come back stronger than before.
Now think about your mind as an emotional muscle. Unrelenting stress without a break will not make it stronger. Your emotions, your brain and your body need moments of recovery to get stronger from stress.
Its about stress and recovery. Just like you build a physical muscle, just like you build biceps, you have to take the same approach to life stressors, says Jack Groppel, co-founder of the Johnson & Johnson Human Performance Institute, which offers a course called The Power of Positive Stress.
Think of meditation like high-intensity interval training for the brain. During H.I.I.T., you go as hard as you can, then you give yourself a few minutes of recovery before returning to the exercise. This cycle is repeated multiple times and has been shown to be more effective for building strength than long, slow bouts of exercise.
