Tips for coping with stress

Stress is the result of psychological and physiological factors that disrupt, or attempt to disrupt our normal activities or overall equilibrium. Stressors are activities or events we experience in our daily lives that create these psychological and physiological factors. For example, the thought of getting up and giving a speech is a stressor. Feeling ill, sweating, and extreme nervousness is the result of thinking about and giving the speech and is combined to what we know as stress. Some of the feelings experienced with stress, such as the ill feeling, sweating, butterflies in the stomach and nervousness may lead to what is commonly called stress anxiety. We will continue to feel ill, begin to pace around the room in anticipation, get irritable toward others, and even try to find excuses to avoid the speech. We get anxious and try to clam ourselves by any means possible.

This whole process of stress affects people differently. Many people strive on stress or stressful situations and seem to be at the top of “their game” when under stress. They see stress as a challenge and focus on beating it, creating a highly productive person. Others are devastated by stress. These people look at stress as the enemy, do not seem to be very productive, have a higher history of health problems, and may become hostile. There is a critical need for those who are affected by stress to learn stress reduction techniques. Major health issues such as headaches, high blood pressure and heart attacks, depression, alcoholism, substance abuse, and even suicide have been a result of severe stress.

Stress management involves techniques to reduce stress, and recognize situations and factors the lead to stress. An effective stress management program should include exercise and other physical activities, a proper diet, and techniques to change biological functions, such as breathing exercises. Fitness and stress experts suggest that exercise is one of the best methods of stress reduction. 30-60 minutes per day of activity, such as lifting weights, walking, jogging, or swimming burns calories to help control weight, improve cardiovascular health, and reduce tension. A proper diet helps the body get needed nutrients which can also affect stress. Instances of sicknesses, diseases and overall poor health are a result of the lack of specific vital nutrients getting to the cells in the body. When the body is not functioning properly, we tend to experience more stress and create a snowball effect that makes us feel bad and run down.

Managed breathing techniques, yoga, and meditation have all been proven to reduce stress and should be part of the stress reduction process. These techniques help us gain control of stress by altering physiological functions and give the ability to be able to better focus on positive outcomes. Yoga is an excellent stress management tool because of the physical and mental exercises involved.

Stress affects people differently and has the potential to destroy lives. It is important that we recognize stressors in our lives, have tools to deal with or eliminate these stressors, and put an effective stress management program into practice that will lead to a successful, enjoyable, stress free life. It has been argued that humans will never be totally stress free, but the counter argument is that we are able to develop ways to recognize stressful events and reduce the effects on our lives.