The Basics Stress Management

In this day and age, it seems everything adds stress. You work long hours at the job, file reports that were due yesterday, give presentations in an hour's notice, and deal with absent coworkers who have all the files. Then at home, you have a tired spouse, hungry children, and a mischievous pet. Lamps are broken, picture frames are crooked, and dust bunnies are running wild. Add to that all the bills, car payments, and other personal things going on and you've got one hectic life. No wonder you're stressed.

What Is Stress?

Stress is your body's response to environmental triggers. Things like deadlines, a demanding family, a sick pet, and car payments are triggers.

Stress isn't always bad. People need stress. Some people perform better under stress. Imagine a life without stress. There would be no deadlines. There would be no problems. There would be nothing. Nothing. Pretty soon, you'd be complaining about boredom.

Certain triggers can cause your body to respond in a heightened state (i.e. positive stress). For example, athletes undergo a lot of stress because they are expected to win games. The need for victory may cause the body to respond by playing harder, faster and longer, which may be exactly what is needed.

Unfortunately, so many things trigger a response from the body that the body wears down as stress starts to build up. Too much built up stress and it actually becomes harmful to the body. Therefore, properly managing all your stress so that it doesn't build up is important.

Strategies for Stress Management

The first and most important step in stress management is to identify everything that causes stress. If you can't identify the causes of your stress, you really can't do that much. Once you've identified the stresses, devise some solutions for each stress. Some good strategies for stress management include:

Exercise: Excess stress causes your body to operate at a higher state of energy in order to respond to all of the anticipated stress. Most of the time, the energy is given no outlet (why do you think stressed people pace or tap their fingers). Exercise is the perfect outlet. It gets rid of the excess energy so that you're no longer wired and excited. Once that energy is gone, you can truly relax.

Set reasonable expectations: We trigger much of our stress ourselves. We set high, unrealistic expectations and then get disappointed when they aren't met. For example, if you go into a movie because everyone was raving about it, you're going to expect it to blow you away. Now, if the movie was not what you expected, you may spend the evening grumbling and griping about how terrible the movie was. If you had gone into the movie thinking the movie was going to be terrible, you may have left the theater thinking it was the best movie you had ever seen.

Get enough sleep: Sleep isn't overrated. It allows your body to recharge and heal, giving you the energy to get through another day. Most people who are stressed out often have difficulty falling asleep. This may be a result of pent up energy (exercise can help) or just something on the mind. If your body does get enough sleep, you'll wake up refreshed and ready to tackle the new day.

Laugh a little: Patch Adams had something going there. Laughter is good medicine. Try and take a step back and look at the situation from a different angle: Some men once worried they were loosing their hair, but once they realized they never had any hair, their worries went away. If that's too hard, try surrounding yourself with fun-loving, cheerful people. You may find that the world is in fact a funny place.

Try a relaxation technique: If you're having trouble relaxing, you may want to look into a relaxation technique. Progressive relaxation, self-hypnosis, or meditation may be exactly what you need.

Vent: There's nothing wrong with venting a little (the problem may be finding someone who will listen). It releases your frustrations. Besides, a lot of people feel much better after venting because it feels like a giant weight has been lifted off their shoulders (forgive the cliché, but it's true).

Take breaks: No one expects sports athletes to play through a whole game without a break, so why should it be any different for you? People need breaks. Working all day long without any breaks is counterproductive and will result in fatigue, exhaustion, and possibly burnout. Pace yourself and take breaks as often as you need to. A fifteen-minute break every few hours can do wonders.

Stay away from caffeine: Caffeine often makes a person wiry and jittery, which does not help to reduce stress. If you are taking in a large amount of caffeine each day, slowly wean yourself off of it. Stopping cold turkey will result in very severe withdrawal effects.

Take time for yourself: Remember to reserve some time for yourself. It's a great way (possibly the best way) to reduce stress.