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Handling Stress
Ways to handle stress in your life. Real answers to problem of tension, stress & pressure of stressful living today. Techniques to beat hassle! Email advice available
| These include worsening relationships with people, breathlessness, weight loss or comfort-eating, lack of sleep, and depression. Stress can start, or make worse, many physical illnesses. | |
| One of the main reasons for stress is work and work-related problems. People are often pressured into working harder, and for longer hours. But stress can also result from studying at school or college, or from any difficult situation. | |
How to beat stress | Not always easy! As with any other problem, it is important to find someone to talk to. If the symptoms are bad, then you should get help as quickly as possible from a doctor, health professional or other advisor. But there is a lot you can do yourself: |
| 1) Sit down with a friend if you can, and talk about the problem. Find out what things in your work or life are causing stress. Even just talking to someone can bring relief from stress. | It will help you to see the picture more clearly if you write a list of all the things that seem to be problems. |
| 2) Consider - are there responsibilities in your work or life, which you do not need to have, and can be laid down? | Are you the sort of person who takes on more things than you should? |
| 3) Can you work out better ways of handling stressful things in your life? Perhaps they are not as important as they seem? | Perhaps it is your reaction to the things that is the problem, not the things themselves? |
| 5) These things seem bigger than they really are, but it may be possible to work out ways of keeping them to their real size. | |
| 6) Learn to find ways of relaxing and thinking of other things. | |
Work tips
Learn to make priorities (ie to put the most important things first) How? At the beginning of the day, write down everything you plan to do that day, on a piece of paper, a "TO DO"list.
List the jobs according to importance.
- "A" must be done today.
- "B" can be left until tomorrow.
- "C" can be left for some days.
- "D" is it really necessary?
Then carry out the tasks according to your list of importance, with "A" tasks being done immediately.
At the end of the day, don't worry about things that have not been done.
Write them down on the list for the next day, perhaps giving them a different priority. Then forget them till the next day! (This little idea is so effective that many businesses pay big money to Work Advice Companies, who suggested this as a way of improving efficiency!)
Remember you are not perfect - you will always make mistakes
Learn to say 'no' politely to extra work
Always take time for a proper meal break. Maybe it will help to take a quiet meal break away from everyone else.
Don't leave things till the last minute. Allow spare time for travel, for appointments, for the unexpected.
Don't drive yourself hard all the time. No one is Superman or Superwoman. Everybody has a breaking point. Recognise where yours is. If it is less than for other people in your place of work, don't worry. You must not always try to live up to what others expect of you, or even what you demand from yourself. You can only do your own best.
What else?
- Learn to relax at home - do things you enjoy. Take time out to do other relaxing things or hobbies. Take days off, and go somewhere completely different.
- Get plenty of exercise - our bodies are made to be used. If your job keeps you always sitting in one place, you must get your blood circulating another way! And eat a good balanced mixture of healthy food, with plenty of fruit, fibre, and green vegetables.
- Get involved in helping other people - this always brings our own problems down to their proper size.
- Don't hold a hard feeling or resentment against anyone at work, in your family, or anywhere else. It will always damage you, and cause extra stress. Find a way quickly to forgive them, and sort out the differences.
- As a father told his son, "If you would only realise and accept the fact that life is a struggle, things would be so much easier for you." You cannot change some things! Learning to live with, and get on top of, struggles, is what helps us to grow and mature.
Is there more?
Yes. You no longer need to fight these battles on your own. It is possible to find a new strength for living, and a whole new way of looking at life. We have found that God can be a personal friend, who can lead us through these difficult times.
He promises us a special peace of mind, which cannot be found anywhere else.
