The Most Common Causes Of Stress
Certain events are natural stressors . As for the rest of lifes stress-inducers, its really all about interpretation, says Gupta. What we see with patients is that some event happens, and based on what the patient has experienced in the past, theyll react with a certain level of stress and discomfort, or be calm.
The causes of stress can also feel more amorphous. You may experience stress when you feel that youve lost your purpose in life or that youre not relating to friends or a spouse. The triggers really vary widely, she says.
Signs And Symptoms Of Stress
Heres what might happen when youre feeling stressed all the time:
Just in case you havent already informed yourself about what stress really is, heres a quick rundown of what happens in your body.
Ways To Stop Being So Stressed All The Time
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Sometimes the world is just too much. You feel like youre just keeping it together, your commitments and deadlines are hanging by a thread, and your mental health is falling by the wayside. You feel like your brain has holes in it youve got headaches, nausea, and tight shoulders you cant ease and breathing deeply makes you feel like youre on the verge of tears.
This is normal, but it shouldnt have to be. Stress is an important part of our livesin healthy doses it can be a good motivator, and keep us reaching for our goals. Past a certain threshold, however, chronic stress ages us, makes us more prone to falling ill, increases our chances of gaining unhealthy weight, and, of course, simply makes us feel like were falling apart. So, what steps can we all take to gain control over the stuff thats stressing us out?
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How To Stop Caring In Healthy Ways
There are many strategies for learning to stop caring about so many things you can’t control, and as a result, reduce your stress.
Look Inward
Of course, we can influence others. And one of our best opportunities to do so is to ensure that we are being who we want to be. Often, the characteristics that are the most frustrating and offensive to us, are those which we are guilty of ourselves. So it is always a good practice to turn our attention to ourselves as soon as we realize we are annoyed with someone else. Awareness is critical to making changes in ourselves. That about which we are unaware, we cannot control. Stated another way, that about which we are unaware of in ourselves, will control us. Sometimes, just gaining awareness of a tendency in ourselves is all we need to choose to think or act differently.
Change Your Perspective
Another helpful concept is that while it is impossible to simply change our feelings, we do have a much greater capacity to change our thoughts, perspectives, the meaning we attach to specific events, our conclusions, expectations, etc. It may be safe to conclude that much of the disappointment, hurt, offense, sadness, anger, etc. we experience is a result of unmet expectations. So if we can change our expectations, we will be able to dramatically decrease the negative feelings that result from experiencing unmet expectations, right?
Track Your Feelings
Accept That Life Is Uncertain
Try Keeping a Worry Box
Exercise
Meditate
Journal
Smile Like You Mean It
Dont roll your eyes the next time someone advises you to grin and bear it. In times of tension, keeping a smile on your face especially a genuine smile thats formed by the muscles around your eyes as well as your mouth reduces your bodys stress responses, even if you dont feel happy. Smiling also helps lower heart rates faster once your stressful situation ends.
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Stop Worrying By Maintaining A Regular Sleep Schedule
Insomnia is a common side effect of chronic worry. When your mind is running wild, it can be tough to relax and get enough sleep. While you may feel like staying up will help you solve your worries, youre often better off with a restorative nights sleep.
Without sleep, minor worries can trigger a stress response that perpetuates for days or weeks in a row.
Heres how to stop worrying and finally get some sleep:
- Do a quick meditation or mindfulness exercise before bed
- Drink a cup of calming tea and read a book right before you go to sleep
How Do You Let Go Of Something You Can’t Change
There are many things in life we cant change. For example, if a potentially good party got ruined due to the weather, you cant change that. However, you may find yourself worrying about the next party.
Everyone thinks about what they cant change, but there are times where it gets toxic. You may try to force other people to change and scare them away. You may handle the worst case scenario of something you cant change by always thinking about it, while ignoring the better cases.
Heres how you can gain enough control of your mind to stop worrying about what you cant change.
- Think about what you can change and what you cant. Find ways to increase your thoughts about what you can change. For instance, lets go back to the party. Maybe you cant change the weather, but you may be able to build a roof to prevent a storm from ruining a party.
- Think about what you can change and then model and set healthy goals to bring about change. Even if you dont succeed, theres a good chance youre stronger for trying to make the change.
- If you’re still unable to let go of what you cant change, think of quick little phrases to get that out of your head. For example, when youre ruminating, Change the channel is a good phrase to help you move away from what you cant control.
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Become A Person Of Action
When you know how to get started with taking action consistently each day then youll procrastinate less by overthinking.
Setting deadlines and a good tone for the day are two things that have helped me to become much more of person of action.
Taking small steps forward and only focusing on getting one small step done at a time is another habit that have worked really well.
It works so well because you do not feel overwhelmed and so you do not want flee into procrastination or lazy inaction.
And even though you may be afraid, taking just a step is such a small thing that you do not get paralyzed in fear.
Understanding The Obsessed With Perfection
The word that comes to mind when I think of perfect is negativity.
We have all known from a young age that no one is perfect. And that we shouldnt go through life trying to be perfect because we will almost fail from the outset and throughout.
But knowing this doesnt stop us from having anxiety over not being perfect all the time.
The solution to perfection obsession is to focus on the new word for perfection, satisfaction, think of the 180 mind-shift you can do in your life. When I began to feel satisfied this made me happy and wanted to work a lot harder.
Now satisfaction isnt a substitute for everything. This is very important. You can not do things half-a** just to finish something off when it is important. But you do need to draw a line and not cross it.
For example,
- if you wanted to make gravy but it didnt taste as good as the last. Dont keep adding ingredients in case you make it worse, just be satisfied with where its at.
- If youre wanting to go for a job interview, try to pick out the best attire that you are absolutely happy with so you dont stress later.
Its your turn to think of things that you are not finishing or beginning because you are stressing about being perfect.
Start to think from another point of view and if you are happy with what you have got right now.
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How Do You Not Worry About Things
When someone tells you to stop worrying about things, its easier said than done. There are a lot of things in life to worry about, after all. Your brains likes to micromanage, refuse to delegate, and stay on thoughts for far too long. A little bit of worrying is good, but you usually let worrying take a minute of your life, and then soon its taking over. Peoples worries keep them occupied in a self-destructive cycle that is hard to break.
Heres how you can stop worrying so much.
- First, think about the things you can change in life versus what you cannot change. What you cannot change in life should be ignored.
- For the things in life you can change, start making a plan to improve. For example, if you have a business and youre worried about sending the business to fail, spend time thinking of improvements. Delegate tasks related to your business in a more efficient manner.
- Learn to differentiate between ruminating and problem solving. Mentally strong people do not ruminate about their problems over and over, but look for solutions.
- Calm yourself. Take a walk outside, practice meditative breathing, and get plenty of rest.
- Avoid using drugs and alcohol as a way of masking your emotions.
- Develop healthy affirmations that replace your worries. In other words, look at what you do right and keep thinking about it. Say to yourself, Today, I remind myself that Im eating right, or something to the effect. This thought especially works if you have eating disorders.
Put Things Into A Wider Perspective
It’s very easy to fall into the trap of overthinking minor things in life.
So when you are thinking and thinking about something the first step is to ask yourself:
Will this matter in 5 years? Or even in 5 weeks?
I’ve found that widening the perspective by using this simple question can quickly snap me out of overthinking and catastrophic predictions and help me to let go of that situation.
It allows me to finally stop thinking about something and to focus my time and energy on something else that actually does matter to me.
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Why Do I Worry About Things I Can’t Control
Worrying about things, even what we can’t control, is natural. It may come from an evolutionary leftover, where people were always worried about an enemy attacking or the weather making it hard to get water. Another reason is that we dont like to feel powerless. We would like to believe you can change the world, change peoples minds, or even change the weather, but we cant.
For example, you may believe that you can change someone’s ways when they are set in what they believe. Even your family may not listen. For example, a parent can give their child advice, but it may be the child’s choice in the end, especially if they’re an adult.
In the end, when it comes to people’s choices, share your opinion, but realize that the opinion might not matter much.
How Much Worrying Is Too Much
Worries, doubts, and anxieties are a normal part of life. Its natural to worry about an unpaid bill, an upcoming job interview, or a first date. But normal worry becomes excessive when its persistent and uncontrollable. You worry every day about what ifs and worst-case scenarios, you cant get anxious thoughts out of your head, and it interferes with your daily life.
Constant worrying, negative thinking, and always expecting the worst can take a toll on your emotional and physical health. It can sap your emotional strength, leave you feeling restless and jumpy, cause insomnia, headaches, stomach problems, and muscle tension, and make it difficult to concentrate at work or school. You may take your negative feelings out on the people closest to you, self-medicate with alcohol or drugs, or try to distract yourself by zoning out in front of screens. Chronic worrying can also be a major symptom of Generalized Anxiety Disorder , a common anxiety disorder that involves tension, nervousness, and a general feeling of unease that colors your whole life.
If youre plagued by exaggerated worry and tension, there are steps you can take to turn off anxious thoughts. Chronic worrying is a mental habit that can be broken. You can train your brain to stay calm and look at life from a more balanced, less fearful perspective.
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Find The Help You Need
If youre diagnosed with stress, dont fretthere is hope for people dealing with both acute and chronic stress. There are many things you can do to avoid stressful situations and manage the stress youre already dealing with.
The first step is figuring out what your triggers are so you can avoid them. Even if you cant avoid your triggers, understanding them so you can proactively deal with stress is important.
If you are having trouble managing stress and its mental and physical effects, you may need help from a health care professional. You dont need to struggle on your own. Call your primary care physician or a local mental health facility, like McLean, to find the care you need.
Build Strong Positive Relationships With People Who Make You Feel Goodand Avoid Those Who Dont
Research suggests that stress builds up over time, through multiple small interactions with others. By themselves, few single incidents are intrinsically stressful. However, put them together, and the story is very different.
It is hard to avoid these micro-stressors, because they are too frequent and too pervasive. However, there are ways to address them, and the most important is to focus on your relationships with others. Research suggests that the two most important things you can do are to build strong relationships and connections with people who make you feel good, and avoid those who dont.
There is more about this in our page on Micro-Stressors.
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What Is Anxiety Twitching
Anxiety twitching is a potential symptom of anxiety. Not everyone who has anxiety experiences anxiety twitching as a symptom.
Twitching is when a muscle, or group of muscles, moves without you trying to move it. This could be a small movement or a larger, jerking motion.
Anxiety twitching can affect any muscles in the body and any number of muscles at a time. It may last for a few seconds or much longer.
In some people, anxiety twitching can happen off and on indefinitely.
Eye muscles are commonly affected by anxiety twitching.
Anxiety twitching often gets worse when youre trying to go to sleep, but usually stops while youre sleeping.
It also often gets worse as your anxiety gets worse. However, it may take some time for anxiety twitching to go away after you get less anxious.
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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Why I Dont Care About Being Perfect And Neither Should You
I hope when reading this you can take the leap of letting go of being perfect.
Whether thats in your family, friendships, your business, romantic relationships, blog, social media etc. The one thing that makes you different from anybody else in the world, is you.
Being yourself and not feeling like you have to be perfect will make you smile. If not, at least you can avoid hearing or getting crap from other people. As when someone looks at you: who doesnt have to pretend or smiles ear to ear all the time, they want to know your secret.
I dont care about being perfect, Im just doing me and as exactly as this website says, its all you boo!
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