Importance of Stress Management

Many of us experience stress in life, whether this is in the short term from one-off projects or long-term stress from a high-pressure career. Not only can this be profoundly unpleasant, but it can also seriously affect our health and our work. However, it is possible to manage stress, if you use the right tools and techniques.

Stress can cause severe health problems and, in extreme cases, death. While these stress management techniques have been shown to have a positive effect on reducing stress, they are for guidance only, and readers should take the advice of suitably qualified health professionals if they have any concerns over stress-related illnesses or if stress is causing significant or persistent unhappiness. Health professionals should also be consulted before any major change in diet or levels of exercise.

Signs of Stress:

Everyone reacts to stress differently. However, some common signs and symptoms of the fight or flight response include:

• Frequent headaches.
• Cold or sweaty hands and feet.
• Frequent heartburn, stomach pain, or nausea.
• Panic attacks.
• Excessive sleeping, or insomnia.
• Persistent difficulty concentrating.
• Obsessive or compulsive behaviors.
• Social withdrawal or isolation.
• Constant fatigue.
• Irritability and angry episodes.
• Significant weight gain or loss.
• Consistent feelings of being overwhelmed or overloaded.

 

Importance of Stress Management:

If you’re living with high levels of stress, you’re putting your entire well-being at risk. Stress wreaks havoc on your emotional equilibrium, as well as your physical health. It narrows your ability to think clearly, function effectively, and enjoy life. It may seem like there’s nothing you can do about stress. The bills won’t stop coming, there will never be more hours in the day, and your work and family responsibilities will always be demanding. But you have a lot more control than you might think.

Effective stress management helps you break the hold stress has on your life, so you can be happier, healthier, and more productive. The ultimate goal is a balanced life, with time for work, relationships, relaxation, and fun and the resilience to hold up under pressure and meet challenges head-on. But stress management is not one-size-fits-all. That’s why it’s important to experiment and find out what works best for you. The following stress management tips can help you do that.

How to Manage Stress:

The first step in managing stress is to understand where these feelings are coming from. Keep a stress diary to identify the causes of short-term or frequent stress in your life. As you write down events, think about why this situation stresses you out. Then, consider using some of the approaches below to manage your stress. You’ll likely be able to use a mix of strategies from each area.

Action-Oriented Approaches:

With action-oriented approaches, you take action to change stressful situations.

Managing Your Time

• Your workload can cause stress if you don’t manage your time well. This can be a key source of stress for very many people.
• Take a time management quiz to identify where you can improve, and make sure that you use time management tools to manage your priorities.
• Then use Job Analysis to think about what’s most important in your role, so that you can prioritize your work more effectively. This helps you reduce stress because you get the greatest return from your efforts, and you minimize the time you spend on low-value activities.
• Also, avoid multitasking and don’t use electronic devices for a while before going to bed, so that you use this time to “switch off” fully.

Working Environment

Workspace stress can come from irritating, frustrating, uncomfortable, or unpleasant conditions in the workplace. Take action to minimize stress in your working environment

Emotion-Oriented Approaches:

Emotion-oriented approaches are useful when the stress you’re experiencing comes from the way that you perceive a situation. To change how you think about stressful situations:

• Use Cognitive Restructuring, the ABC Technique, Thought Awareness, Rational Thinking, and Positive Thinking to change the way that you perceive stressful events.
• Take a positive thinking quiz to learn how to think more positively.
• Use Affirmations and Imagery to overcome short-term negative thinking, so that you feel more positive about stressful situations.

 

Acceptance-Oriented Approaches:

Acceptance-oriented approaches apply to situations where you have no power to change what happens, and where situations are genuinely bad.

To build your defenses against stress:

• Use techniques like meditation and physical relaxation to calm yourself when you feel stressed.
• Take advantage of your support network, this could include your friends and family, as well as people at work and professional providers, such as counselors or family doctors.
• Get enough exercise and sleep, and learn how to make the most of your downtime, so that you can recover from stressful events.
• Learn how to cope with change and build resilience, so that you can overcome setbacks.