Stress is a part of human life. There’s no way around it. Between work, starting and maintaining relationships, raising a family, everything presents an opportunity to elevate stress. While we may not be able to control the stressors in our lives, we do have total control over how much we let them stress us out. It’s a matter of taking a disciplined approach to training yourself to not have knee-jerk stressful reactions, and instead, take a step back and break down why something is stressful to you. Here are some useful tips to help you do this.
Get Organized
Stress can manifest itself in many ways. In extreme cases, it may cause you to rage angrily. In this circumstance, you need to seek professional help. Consider online anger management courses. For most, however, stress builds up a feeling of being overwhelmed and thinking that there’s so much to do that it’s pointless to even try. If you feel this way, it’s amazing how much good a little organization can do. Structure is the enemy of stress!
A simple daily to-do list can go a long way towards alleviating stress. Whether it’s a list of work or home tasks, make it the day or night before, and check it off during the day. Put the most urgent and difficult items at the top. If you tackle the toughest stuff first thing in the morning, it won’t burden you the rest of the day.
Get Exercise
Most people don’t look forward to exercising or consider it a necessary evil. They also know how beneficial exercising is, for both physical health and stress reduction. So how can you fit in exercise to beat stress without making it another stressor? The answer is that too often, people’s definition of exercise is too narrow. Physicians recommend 30 minutes of weight-bearing exercise five times a week. That doesn’t mean you have to sprint or do pushups for 30 minutes straight! You can take a walk, or practice low impact exercise that emphasizes deep breathing and mindfulness like yoga or Pilates.
Take Inventory and Give Yourself Credit
At the end of your day, look at what you’ve accomplished. Some days it may be a lot, some days, not so much. But there won’t be any days where you accomplish nothing. Be kind to yourself and reward yourself for what you have done, and don’t sweat what you haven’t. Tomorrow is another day!
Stress is real, but it is manageable. Use these tips to confront and combat it, and it will soon get out of your way.
