In today’s competitive world, stress is inevitable and is becoming part of our lives. Continuously living in high level of stress, can put your entire well- being on risk. It affects your ability to think and to take decisions. High stress level is dangerous for your physical as well as your emotional health. Sometimes we can’t help stress coming into our lives due to various reasons, such as heavy work load, financial situations, cut- throat competition, toxic work culture, etc. But we have to learn, how to manage the stress in our life and how to become happy in every situation. Stress management helps us to take more control over our life, to take better decision to become happier and more productive. In this post we will learn, how to manage stress.

Identify the Cause of Stress

The first step towards managing stress is to identify the source of stress in your life. If you can correctly identify the reason of stress, then you can deal with it easily. There may be numerous causes, giving you stress. Some are minor causes like too many activities at a time, argument with your boss, excessive work load, conflict with inner self, or some are major causes of stress like, financial problem, job issue, etc. Take a pause and think, what is the real cause of stress. Once you are able to identify the actual reason of stress, it is easy for you to focus on remedy for it. 

Don’t take Things Too Seriously

Don’t live carrying all the load at your head. Life is easy and so you feel it. You are not responsible for everything happening in the world, neither can you change everything around you. Focus on your work only and take time for you also. Being ambitious is good but the joy of life is in small things we do every day. Try to seek joy on these things rather than taking stress for achieving something big.

Don’t Carry Whole Responsibility on Your Shoulders

Trust others for their capabilities and intentions. Don’t try to take all the responsibility yourself. Try to learn that others also have their roles and responsibilities. Try to delegate work on others and focus on your task only. If you will worry about other person’s work, then you will always be stressed and will not be able to focus on your task. Also understand that you are not the only persons who is running the world. This world will not stop if you will not accomplish something. Therefore, don’t work on the cost of your mental health.

Exercise Regularly

Exercise regularly keeps you physically and mentally fit. It helps reducing your stress level in a great way. There are many benefits of doing exercise regularly. It diverts your mind from the stressful situation and helps focusing you on your workout. It also increases oxygen level by enhancing blood circulation in your body. Increased oxygen level keeps you fresh and alert all the day and enhances positivity. If you are physically fit and healthy, then obviously you can take everyday challenges successfully without any stress. Morning walk is an excellent exercise, which has many benefits. It helps making your mood light. Morning breeze with gentle sunlight makes you happy and walking fast increases blood circulation which results in enhanced oxygen level in the body. This is a natural mood changer which brings happiness and health. Therefore, you should make it a habit to walk at least 45 minutes daily.

Eat Healthy Food

Choosing healthy food in your diet keeps you healthy, fresh and alert. As mentioned earlier also, if you are healthy, you will be happy and will be able to take everyday challenges easily. Taking unhealthy food makes you ill and lazy, therefore instills negative feelings in you.

Organize Your Work

Organizing your work makes you feel lite. Make it a daily practice to prepare a priority list of works and act accordingly. Disposing works first which are giving you more stress is a great way to release tension. There are some assignments which can be done by you only and some can be delegated to others. Categorizing the works accordingly is of great help. 

Practice Managing Your Time

Time is one of the most important asset. It’s a misconception that you can manage time. You can only manage yourself and your activities according to time. Waking up in the early morning and sparing few hours for yourself is a great stress reliever. In the morning you feel energetic and fresh. Therefore, accomplishing most difficult tasks in the morning hours can make you light and stress free. You should plan your day according to the tasks on your priority list. Wasting time on unproductive things and keep your important tasks pending may enhance your stress level. But besides work, you should also spare time for entertainment and the activities you like to do.

Avoid Thinking and Start Acting

If you will keep thinking about the stressful situation, it will cause more stress. In such situations, stop thinking about the problem and start acting on the solution. It will have two benefits. First, your attention will be diverted towards the solution and second, your stress will be release as the work will progress.

Communicate with Others

Sharing your problems with others is a great stress reliever. Communicate about your thoughts with others. You will feel light if you will share your problems with others. You may also get some solution from others by communicating with others.

Get Moving

Don’t sit idle. Always keep moving so that no negative thoughts ever come to you. Stress is caused only when you think about the problem. Your attention will be diverted from the problem when you will keep moving.

Practice 4 A’s of Stress Management

There are 4 A’s of stress management which may help keeping the stress away from you.

Avoid

You can avoid minor stresses by different means. For e.g. :

(1) learn to say no when you are not comfortable. In this way you can avoid extra burden.

(2) If someone irritates you, try to maintain physical distance from him.

(3) If you have to travel daily in stressful conditions, try to arrange a comfortable vehicle so that you can enjoy travel.

These are among various means by which you can avoid many minor stresses.

Alter

You can alter the situation in case that becomes stressful. Some of the ways of doing it are as follows:

(1) Respectfully ask other people to change their behavior. If you don’t like something in other’s behavior or conduct, you can politely convey it to them.

(2) Communicate your feelings openly to others. You will feel light and you may also find some solution.

(3) State limits in advance. In this way, the other persons will understand it and will not expect more than your limits. This will reduce excess burden from your shoulders.

Accept

If you can’t do anything to the present situation, you have to accept it. Accepting happily the situation is really a stress reliever. Try to do the following:

(1) Practice positive self-talks. Positive self- talks give positive suggestions to your sub- conscious mind and attract positive energy in your life.

(2) Forgive others so that you can throw away negative energy and attract positive energy.

(3) Learn from your mistakes. Every experience gives you opportunity to learn from your mistakes. Every exposure makes you wise. Learn from your mistakes and try to improve continuously.

Share your feelings with someone you trust.

Adapt

In some cases, you can adapt to the situation and this will help you in a great way to relieve the stress. This can be done in following ways:

(1) Adjust your standards. Don’t strive for the perfection and try to seek alternate solutions.

(2) Look at the big picture. Imagine the scenario after five years. Will the situation last that long or will it change? In this way you can keep stress away.

(3) Look the situation from a different viewpoint. Sometimes, a problem comes with an opportunity. Try to discover hidden opportunities from the situation.

Conclusion

Stress is bad for your mental and physical health. You should always try to keep stress away from you. It is not always bad. In some cases, stress helps you to make you more alert and sincere. If you are stressed about accomplishing some task or achieving something big, take it positively. It will help you reaching your goal successfully. In stressful situations, keep watch on your thoughts. Don’t let the negative thoughts control you. The methods described in this post will certainly help you managing stresses in your life effectively.

Also read: Project Risk Management: Identification, Analysis, Response and Control