Little known stress management tips techniques how to relax more worry less

What is Stress?

To understand the need for stress management, we must first understand stress. When a person is in danger, the body reacts, preparing to defend itself. The heart rate increases, blood pressure climbs higher, breathing becomes faster and blood flows to the muscles. This is great if a fierce dog is chasing you, because it gives you additional energy to get out of harm’s way. Unfortunately, the body reacts in the same way in response to daily problems and changes and over time this causes issues. Your body is ready to flee, but you don’t need an extra spurt of speed. With no way to release this additional energy, you become nervous, anxious and worried. This is called stress.

Physical issues such as an illness, lack of sleep or eating poorly can cause stress. Stress can also be caused by mental pressures like worrying about work or a death in the family. Major life changes can also cause stress. Not only negative changes such as being laid off from a job, but changes that are considered positive as well, such as a marriage or a promotion at work can result in stress.

What Problems are Associated with Stress?

Stress management can help with the physical effects of stress. Stress can cause a number of health problems and can make existing problems worse. Fatigue, back pain, depression, high blood pressure, insomnia, headaches and constipation are just some of the signs of stress.

Stress Management Techniques

Stress management is the process of dealing with stress and lessening its negative effects.

To effectively deal with stress, it is necessary to sense when you are feeling stress. Next, you must determine what is causing the stress. This will be different for each individual. For example, one person might consider the daily commute a great time to wind down from work and listen to relaxing music in the car, while another finds the rush hour traffic incredibly stressful.

Once you have recognized the cause of the stress, see if you can get away from it or avoid it completely. If that is not possible, consider ways to lessen your exposure to the stressor. For example, can you spend less time engaging in a stressful activity? Can you limit the activity to certain days?

Think about your emotional reaction to stress. Do you try to perform every task perfectly? Are you trying to keep everyone happy? These attitudes are bound to cause stress when you fail to live up to your own expectations. In the name of stress management, take it easier on yourself, ask for help if you need it and recognize that no one is perfect.

Exercising regularly is a great stress management technique. The physical activity releases pent-up energy and distracts you from your anxiety, helping you to relax.

Other Stress Management Tips

- Get plenty of sleep every night

- Get away from stressful situations by participating in hobbies and other activities you enjoy

- Prepare well in advance for stressful events

- Meditate or use deep breathing exercises

- Eat healthy, nutritious meals and limit the amount of alcohol and caffeine you consume

- Manage time wisely and don’t take on more than you can handle

- Ask for help if you need it

- Learn conflict resolution skills and use them

Occupational stress management

There are many people in the world who can not stand where they work. Their occupation causes them no end of stress and can leave them struggling to get to sleep at night. There are also many days taken off sick through stress related illnesses. It is now time for people to deal with these issues and to start to react in a more positive and proactive way.

In the past I have worked for companies whose employees have made my life unbearable. These so called colleagues were very bitchy, hanged around in various clans and would stab people in the back at regular intervals. At times I would even dread going to work and would feel sick whilst travelling to my office.

I would return home feeling very drained and would have little energy to do anything in the evenings. I would then decide to go to bed early but would basically just lay their worrying about the next day. This could last for hours on end and at times would last all of the night.

I have read that plenty of sleep is a good way at reducing levels of stress, the question is, how does one get to sleep in the first place?

When I did have the energy to socialise with family or friends, the fear of going to work would end up ruining the night and would stop me from enjoying myself. I felt sorry for the people I was with and hoped that I did not ruin their night as well.

For whatever reason I did not have the confidence to tell people about the problems I had and kept it bottled up to myself. This I now realise was a mistake and I have since learnt to talk about any issues that I have.

For all the stress I had to endure, I certainly was not paid enough. The people who I worked with, including the team leaders, did not treat me with as much respect as I felt I deserved. This period was a very unhappy stage of my life and my health started to become affected.

I wanted to leave this company a lot earlier than the time that I eventually did, the problem was that I did not feel that I could afford to. I decided to save up enough money over a period of about six months so that I could then make my escape. At the same time I started to look at finding alternative work and thought long and hard about which career path I wanted to take.

On the day that I left this job, I will never forget my journey home. I could not stop smiling, I was so relieved that this nightmare was over once and for all.

I am happy to let you know that I have not found myself in a similar situation since. There may well be a time in the future of course when I do and if this ever happens to me again I am determined to leave a lot quicker than I did before. Life is to short to spend living in the way that I had.