What Is Stress?
Stress is our body's way of responding to any kind of demand. It can be caused by good or bad experiences. When people feel stressed by something going on around them, our bodies react by releasing chemicals into our bloodstream. Such chemicals give us more energy and strength, which can be a good thing if such stress is caused by a physical danger. But if the stress is in response to something emotional, and there is no outlet for this extra energy and strength. This is called bad stress. Thus, there are two kinds of stress, the good stress called as "eustress", and the bad stress which is called "distress". Remember, stress can affect both our body and our mind. People under large amounts of stress can become tired, sick, and unable to concentrate or think clearly. Sometimes, they even suffer mental breakdowns.
Good Stress vs. Bad Stress?
So if stress can be so bad for us, how can there be "good" or "positive" stress? If we are suffering from extreme stress or long-term stress, our body will eventually wear itself down. But sometimes, small amounts of stress can actually be good.
Understanding our stress level is so important. If nothing in our lives causes us any stress or excitement, we may become bored or may not be living up to our potential. If everything in our life, or large portions of our life, causes us stress, we may experience health or mental problems that will make our behavior pattern even worse.
Recognizing when we are stressed and managing our stress levels can greatly improve our lives. Some short-term stress -- for example what we feel before an important job presentation, test, interview, or sporting event -- may give us the extra energy we need to perform at our best. But long-term stress -- for example constant worry over our job, school, or family -- may actually drain our energy and our ability to perform well.
What Causes Stress?
Many different things can cause stress -- from emotional to physical. But knowing and identifying what may be causing stress is often the first step in learning in dealing with one's stress.
The most common sources of stress are:
A. Survival Stress - This is a common response to danger in all people and even with animals. When you are afraid that someone or something may physically hurt you, your body naturally responds with a burst of energy abling one to survive a dangerous situation.
B. Internal Stress - One of the most important kinds of stress that is easy to understand and manage, thus, internal stress happens when people make themselves stressed. This happens when we worry about things we can't control or put ourselves in stressful situations. Some people become addicted to the kind of hurried, tense, lifestyle that results from being under stress. Looking for stressful situations and feel stressed about things that aren't stressful at all.
C. Environmental Stress - A response to things around us that often causes stress, such as noise, crowding, and pressure from work or family. In lowering our stress levels, we need to identify these environmental stresses and in learning to avoid them or deal with them, is one big step in attaining a stress free day.
D. Fatigue and Overwork - This kind builds up over a long time and takes a hard toll on our body. This can be caused by too much work, or too hard job(s), school, or even at home. It can also be caused by mismanaged time or schedule. So one should do well in his work, or know how to take time out for rest and some relaxation with friends or family. This one is hard to avoid because lots of people think that dealing with fatigue is often out of control.
Facts about Stress
• Large number of people around the globe suffers from stress each year.
• 3 in every 4 people say they experience stress at least twice a month.
• Over half of those people say they suffer from 'high' levels of stress at least twice a month.
• Stress contributes to heart disease, high blood pressure, and strokes, and makes you more likely to catch less serious illnesses like colds.
• It can also contribute to alcoholism, obesity, drug addiction, cigarette use, depression, and other harmful behaviors.
• In the last 20 years, the number of people reporting that stress affects their work has gone up more than four times.
• Drug abuse rises due to stress related problems.
Physical and Mental signs of Stress
We've heard before that recognizing when we are under stress is the first step in learning how to deal with stress, but what does it mean? Sometimes we are so used to living with stress; but we sometimes don't know how to identify it.
Whether we are experiencing immediate or short-term stress or have been experiencing stress for a long time, our body and mind may be showing the effects. Here are some 'warning signs' that stress is already in control, and affecting our body and mind.
In Short-Term Stress – Often occurring in quick 'bursts' in reaction to something in our environment, short-term stress can affect our body in many ways. Making our heartbeat and breathing faster. Like those listed below:
• Making us to sweat more
• Leaving us with cold hands, feet, or skin
• Making us feel sick to our stomach
• Tightening of our muscles or making us feel tense
• Leaving our mouth dry
• Going to the bathroom more frequently
• Increase in muscle spasms, headaches, fatigue, and even shortness of breath
While this burst of energy may help us in physical situations where our body needs to react quickly, it can also have bad effects on our mind and performance if there is no outlet or reason for our stress. These effects may include:
• Interfering with our judgment and causing us to make bad decisions
• Making us see difficult situations as threatening
• Reducing our enjoyment and making us feel bad
• Making it difficult for us to concentrate or to deal with distraction
• Leaving us anxious, frustrated or mad
• Making us feel rejected, unable to laugh, afraid of free time, unable to work, and not willing to discuss problems with other people
In Long-Term Stress - Long-term stress or stress that is occurring over long periods of time can have an even greater effect on our body and mind. Long-term stress can affect our bodies by:
• Change in appetite (making us eat either less or more)
• Change in sleep habits (either causing us to sleep too much or not letting us to sleep enough)
• Encouraging 'nervous' behavior such as twitching, fiddling, talking too much, nail biting, teeth grinding, pacing, and other repetitive habits
• Causing us to catch colds or flu more often and causing other illnesses such as asthma, headaches, stomach problems, skin problems, and other aches and pains
• Affecting sexual life and performance
• Making us feel constantly tired and always worn out
Long-term stress can also have serious effects on our mental health and behavior. If we are under stress for long periods of time, we may find that we have difficulty in thinking clearly, dealing with problems, or even handling our day-to-day situations as simple as shaving, picking up clothes or arriving somewhere on time. Some mental signs of long-term stress include:
• Feeling worry and anxious, sometimes leading to anxiety and panic attacks
• Feeling out of control, overwhelmed, confused, unable to make decisions
• Experiencing mood changes such as depression, frustration, anger, helplessness, irritability, defensiveness, irrationality, overreaction, or impatience and restlessness
• Increased dependence on food, cigarettes, alcohol, or even drugs
• Neglect of important things in life such as work, school, and even personal appearance
• Developing irrational fears of things such as physical illnesses, natural disasters like calamities and earthquakes, and even being terrified of ordinary situations like heights or small spaces around.
While occasionally experiencing one or two of the above symptoms may not be cause for concern, having a number of these symptoms may mean we are under more stress than what we think. But realizing we are under stress and knowing how to manage it, is the first step in learning how to deal with stress.
What is Stress Management?
Stress Management is all about taking charge, taking in control: of our thoughts, emotions, schedule, environment, and the way we deal with our problems.
The ultimate goal in managing stress is to attain a balanced life, with time for work, relationships, relaxation, and for fun – plus the resilience to hold up under pressure and enabling us to meet head on challenges in life.
How to identify stress in our life?
Managing Stress starts in identifying source of stress in our life. True sources of stress aren’t always obvious, and it’s all too easy to overlook your own stress-inducing thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
To identify our true sources of stress, one should look closely at our habits, attitude, and excuses:
• Do you explain away stress as temporary?
• Do you define stress as an integral part of your work or home life?
• Do you blame your stress on other people or outside events, or view it as entirely normal and unexceptional?
Unless one accepts responsibility for the role we play in creating or maintaining it, stress level will remain beyond our control.
Making a Stress Journal
This can help us in identifying regular stressors in life and the way we should deal with them. Each time we feel stressed; keep track of it, having a daily log, we should begin to see patterns and common themes. We could write down the following:
• Causes of stress
• How we felt, both physically and emotionally.
• How we responded.
• What we did to make ourselves feel better.
Looking at how we are coping with stress
In thinking about the ways in managing and coping with stress, stress journal can help us identify them. But are coping strategies that we did healthy or unhealthy? Helpful or unproductive? Unfortunately, many stress coping techniques seems to be unhealthy. Unhealthy ways of coping with stress are as follows,
These coping strategies may temporarily reduce stress, but they cause more damage in the long run:
• Smoking
• Drinking Alcohol
• Overeating or Under-eating
• Zoning out for hours in front of TV / Computer
• Withdrawing from society
• Using of pills or drugs
• Too much sleeping
• Procrastinating
• Filling up every minute of the day to avoid problems
• Taking out stress on others (like lashing out, angry outbursts, physical violence
Healthier ways in managing Stress
It’s time for us to find healthier ways in Managing Stress. There are many healthy ways for us to manage and cope with stress, but they all require change. We can either change the situation or change our reaction.
Dealing with Stressful Situations:
Change the situation:
• Avoid the stressor.
• Alter the stressor.
Change your reaction:
• Adapt to the stressor.
• Accept the stressor.
Stress Management Strategies
#1: Avoiding unnecessary stress
Since not all stress can be avoided, remember that it’s not healthy to avoid a situation that needs to be addressed or resolved. We may be surprised, however, by the number of stressors in our life that we can eliminate.
• Say “NO” – Know our limitations and we should stick to them. Whether in our personal or professional life, refuse to accept added responsibilities when we’re close to reaching them. Taking on more than what we can handle is a surefire recipe for stress.
• Avoid people who stress us out – If someone is consistently causing stress in our life and we can’t turn the relationship around, we should limit the amount of time we spend with that person, or we could end the relationship as well.
• Control our environment – If the evening news makes us anxious, turn the TV off. If traffic’s got us tense, take a longer but less-traveled route. If going to the market is an unpleasant chore, do our grocery shopping online.
• Avoiding hot-button topics – If we get upset over religion or politics, cross them off our conversation list. If we repeatedly argue about the same subject with the same people, stop bringing it up or excuse ourselves when it’s the topic of discussion.
• Pare down your to-do list – Analyze our schedule, responsibilities, and daily tasks. If we’ve got too much on our plate, distinguish between the “shoulds” and the “musts.” Drop tasks that aren’t truly necessary to the bottom of the list or eliminate them entirely.
#2: Altering the situation
If we can’t avoid a stressful situation, we should try to alter it. Figure out what we can do to change things so the problem doesn’t present itself in the future. Often, this involves changing the way in communicating and operating our daily lives.
• Express our feelings instead of bottling them up - If something or someone is bothering us, communicate our concerns in an open, constructive and respectful way. If we don’t voice our feelings, resentment will build and the situation will likely remain the same, and may worsen.
• Be willing to compromise - When we ask someone to change their behavior, be always willing to do the same. If both parties are willing to bend at least a little, we’ll have a good chance of finding a happy and peaceful middle ground.
• Be more assertive - Don’t take a backseat in our lives. Deal with problems head on, doing our best in anticipating and preventing them. If we’ve got an exam to study for and a chatty friend arrived for a visit, say up front that you’ll only have five minute talk.
• Manage time better - Poor time management can cause lots of stress. When we’re stretched too thin and most likely running behind, it’s hard to stay calm and focused. But if we plan ahead and make sure we don’t overextend ourselves, we can alter the amount of stress we’re under.
#3: Adapt to the stressor
If you can’t change the stressor, change yourself. You can adapt to stressful situations and regain your sense of control by changing your expectations and attitude.
• Re-frame problems - View stressful situations from a positive perspective. Rather than fuming about a traffic jam, look at it as an opportunity to pause and regroup, listen to your favorite music, or enjoy some time alone.
• Look at the big picture - Take a perspective look of the stressful situation. Ask ourselves how important it will be in the long run. Will it matter in a month? A year? Is it really worth getting upset over? If the answer is no, focus our time and energy to some worthwhile activities in work or at home.
• Adjust our standards - Being a Perfectionist is a major source of avoidable stress. Stop setting ourselves up for failure by demanding perfection. Set reasonable standards for ourselves and others, and learn to be okay with “good enough.”
• Focus on the positive side - When stress is getting us down, take a moment to reflect on all the things we appreciate in our lives, including our own positive qualities and gifts. This simple strategy can help us keep things in right perspective.
Adjusting our Attitude
How we think can have a profound effect on our emotional and physical well-being. Each time we think a negative thought about ourselves, our body reacts as if it were in the throes of a tension-filled situation. But if we see good things about ourselves, we are more likely to feel good; the reverse is also true.
#4: Accept the things we can’t change
Some sources of stress are unavoidable. We can’t prevent or change stressors such as the death of a loved one, a serious illness, or a national recession. In such cases, the best way in coping with stress is by accept things as they are. At first glance, acceptance may be difficult, but in the long run, it’s much easier than railing against a situation we can’t change.
• Don’t try to control the uncontrollable - Many things in our lives are beyond our control — particularly the behavior of other people. Rather than stressing out over them, try focusing on the things we can control such as the way we chose to react to problems.
• Look for the upside - When facing major challenges, try to look at them as opportunities for our maturity and personal growth. If our own poor choices contributed to a stressful situation, reflect on them and learn from our mistakes.
• Share our feelings - Try talking to a trusted friend or make an appointment with a therapist. Expressing what we’re going through can be very cathartic, even if there’s nothing we can do to alter the stressful situation we're dealing with.
• Learn to forgive - Accept the fact that we live in an imperfect world and that people often makes mistakes. Let go of anger and resentments. Free yourself from negative energy by forgiving and moving on. Like what we often heard, Forgive and forget.
#5: Make time for fun and relaxation
Beyond a take-charge approach and a positive attitude, we can continue to reduce stress in our lives by nurturing ourselves. If we regularly make time for fun and some relaxation, we’ll be in a better place to handle life’s stressors when they inevitably come.
Here are some healthy ways to relax and recharge our body
• Go for a walk.
• Spend time in nature.
• Call a good friend or a family
• Sweat out tension with a good exercise or workout.
• Write in your journal.
• Take a long cool bath.
• Light scented candles
• Savor a warm cup of coffee or tea.
• Play with a pet.
• Work in your garden.
• Get a body massage or foot spa.
• Curl up with a good book.
• Listen to good music.
• Watch a movie or a TV show
Remember, don’t get ourselves so caught up in life that we forget to take care of ourselves and our own needs. Nurturing ourselves is a necessity, and not a luxury.
• Always set aside relaxation time. Include rest and relaxation in your daily schedule. Don’t allow other obligations to encroach. Remember, this is your time to take a break from all responsibilities and recharge your batteries.
• Try to connect with others. Spend time with positive people who enhance our lives. A strong support system will buffer you from the negative effects of stress.
• Do something that we enjoy every day. Have time for leisure activities that bring us joy, whether it be stargazing, playing the piano, or working on your bike, or have a walk with a loved one by the beach.
• Keep our sense of humor. This includes the ability to laugh at ourselves. The act of laughing helps our bodies fight stress in numerous ways.
Learn the relaxation response
We can control our stress levels with relaxation techniques that evoke our body’s relaxation response, wherein we feel a state of restfulness that is the opposite of the stress response. Practicing these techniques will build our physical and emotional resilience, heals our body, and boosts our overall feelings of joy in facing life's challenges.
#6: Adopting a healthy lifestyle
We can increase our resistance to stress by strengthening our physical health. Thus, we should do the following:
• Exercise regularly - Physical activity plays a key role in reducing and preventing the effects of stress. Have at least 30 minutes of exercise, three times a week.
• Eat a healthy diet - Well-nourished bodies are better prepared to cope with stress, so be mindful of what we eat. Start our day right with a healthy breakfast, and keep our energy up and our mind clear with balanced, nutritious meals throughout the day. Don't skip meals.
• Reduce caffeine and sugar - The temporary "highs" caffeine and sugar provide often end in with a crash in mood and energy. By reducing the amount of coffee, soft drinks, chocolate, and sugar snacks in our diet, we’ll feel more relaxed and we’ll sleep better.
• Avoid alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs - Self-medicating with alcohol or drugs may provide easy escape from stress, but the relief is only temporary. Don’t try to avoid or mask the issue at hand; instead deal with problems head on and with a clear mind.
• Get enough sleep. Adequate sleep fuels our mind, as well as our body. Feeling tired will increase our stress because it may cause us to think irrationally.
Conclusion
Remember that stress can be truly isolating. Stress can be, well, stressful. But we are not alone; we shouldn't be ashamed; because we can overcome it.
Recommendations included in this course are just a few of the ways we can try to deal with stress. There are numerous options and numerous resources about stress, whether online or in print, and available from health care organizations and professionals. Be always interested in learning more about stress and ways of coping with stress, for us to have a healthy and much more attainable way of life.
Everyone's stressors, reactions to stress, and ways of dealing with stress are different. It may take a little experimentation, a little time, and a little practice, but surely we'll find something that works for ourselves. Keep trying -- and try not to be stressed about it.
