Everyone gets stressed, and you may assume there’s nothing you can do about it. For example, if you have lots of obligations at work and at home, surely you’re just stuck with the strain this puts on your physical and mental well-being. However, studies show that you have more control over your own stress than you might think.
Here are some helpful practical tips that will help you come up with a concrete action plan for dealing with stress:
Identify Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Start by looking at the ways you currently respond to stress (keeping a stress journal can be helpful here, giving you a more objective perspective on your actions). Are any of your strategies unproductive, counterproductive, or downright unhealthy? Here are some examples of coping mechanisms that actually cause more stress down the line:
Smoking
Drinking too much alcohol
Over-eating sweet or fatty foods
Mindlessly watching the TV without caring what you watch
Using medication to relax you
Social withdrawal
Over-sleeping
Taking out stress on others (e.g. in arguments or furious outbursts.
Be Physically Active
Research consistently proves that physical activity both reduces stress levels and helps to prevent many of the negative side-effects of stressful life events. The great news is that you don’t need to run a marathon or devote all your days to the gym to enjoy the benefits of exercise.
Build And Maintain Relationships
Even though your intuitive response to stress might be to shut yourself away and avoid company, there’s plenty of evidence that social engagement plays a huge role in reducing stress regulating emotions.
In particular, it’s so important to have relationships in which you feel safe, seen and understood; this type of experience indicates you’re not in a dangerous situation, which calms you by directly changing the balance of neurotransmitters produced by your brain, okay now consider the following:
Ask a colleague to lunch
Call, text or email an old friend to catch up
Invite your exercise buddy for a walk and a chat
Schedule weekly meetups with at least one friend
Get to know new people by signing up for an evening class or joining a club
Consider volunteer work, which not only counteracts loneliness but also allows you to give back to the world in a way that’s profoundly satisfying.
Change Your Attitude
How you respond to negative thoughts plays a major role in dictating stress levels. After all, when you entertain a negative belief about yourself or your life, your body responds as though you’re currently stressed. In turn, this typically leads to more melancholy thoughts.
There are a few things you can do Firstly, deliberately reframe life’s challenges; ask yourself what opportunities they might present, engage in active and try to find something useful to learn.
Secondly, put your problems into perspective; will you really care about the present difficulty in a month or a year? If not, it’s not really worth getting upset about now, either.
Thirdly, try to avoid perfectionism. rather than setting yourself up for failure by expecting yourself to be flawless every time. Aim to be “good enough”, not perfect.
Use social media only when you need it rather than obsessing over things which will later on hurt you!!!
Abby❤