Take the stress out of stress
What would it be like if you woke up every day feeling refreshed and confident for the day ahead, with enough energy and resilience in reserve to face whatever comes your way? Yes, unexpected challenges do arise from time to time, but what would it be like if you generally knew yourself well enough to be able to handle stress, cope well, and have some time for yourself, including breaks for those important people and things? ? in your life?
In a busy life, we often focus on work, letting home, friends, and outside interests take care of themselves. But often the personal areas will remain silent, gently fading into the background, not wanting to force us to choose or increase our stress. At some point achievement hits us. Friends and family no longer include us. They are living their lives without us. It may take us a while to figure it out, but it’s not an uncommon situation.
A little stress is good for us. It keeps us on our toes, helps us think outside the box, generate new ideas, offer more than we thought we could. But ongoing stress is counterproductive and can cause a lot of problems and stuff over time. There are 360 documented physical symptoms of stress and you may be working to overcome them all!
At first, the occasional symptom may go unnoticed or explained away. Intermittent headaches, sleepless nights, irritability, loss of humor, and lack of concentration can all be explained by being busy and overwhelmed. You may have a stressful period at work, problems at home, health-related concerns, things on your mind.
But if they continue unabated or start to escalate, it may be time to address what is going on, what is the root cause or trigger for these changes in your balance. Ignored, things often go on until you can no longer dismiss or put them aside. Continuous drips can become an overflow that begins to impact and affect every area of your life.
Starting to take responsibility and take charge of how you feel, the way you live your life is an important first step in managing stress. When we acknowledge our responses, acknowledge that we need to take control, and then begin to do so, we become more able to move to a better place both mentally and physically.
Here are some steps to de-stress from stress;
Does dealing with stress mean compartmentalizing it, leaving it at the door, or is it more effective to find positive ways to manage your life so that each area is in balance as often as possible?
– Recognize what happens to you. What does your inner voice say? that you should do it all yourself or feel guilty, a failure, less successful? Do you fear being ‘found out’, found out as an impostor if others step in to help? Recognize triggers, situations or phrases people use that influence your stress levels.
– Check your perspective. Notice the difference in your perspective of when you feel happy and optimistic, or on the contrary abused and fed up. Often the determining factor is not what happens to us, but how we feel and respond. Take control and focus on what your viable options are. Appreciate what you already have in your life.
– be kind to yourself being healthy, with good regular food, water, exercise. Take the time to read a book or even do nothing. Simply parking your car for a 15-minute break after work can really benefit your mood and stress levels by the time you get home.
– Manage stress regularly delegating, sharing and communicating what is happening. Ask for help, do not expect others to be psychics. And when you bring others along to help you, they can thrive on the added responsibility, seeing it as an opportunity to grow, improve their skills, and maybe even impress you with new ideas and better ways of doing things.
– ‘No’ may be the most positive word in your vocabulary. Teach others to respect you, to understand what you do every day and to value how much you do for them. Encourage their gratitude and appreciation.
– ‘Yes’ can be negative if it has become your constant default for everything that is asked of you. Do you agree out of fear, apprehension, guilt? Used positively ‘yes’ can take you out of your comfort zone and scare you a little every day.
– Break large tasks into bite-sized chunks so that you are the one who makes the decisions, moving and feeling proactive.
Why not manage stress by selecting 3 of these items to act on in the next 48 hours?
1. Outsource tasks that are not in your area of expertise. Hiring someone to manage your accounts, PR, and advertising could be money well spent and free you up to focus on your core business. Maybe hire someone to do your housework, your cleaning, ironing, gardening, and use that free time to do something for yourself.
2. Share as a family. Your partner often wants to be there for you. Talk about what is going on and let them support you. Even children may have chores that are their responsibility, perhaps setting the table or loading the dishwasher. Contact and ask for help.
3. Make sure you have family time sitting down and eating together, even if it’s once a week. Keep two-way communication channels open so it’s not just about you. Take an interest in what’s going on in their lives and remember what they’ve told you so you can follow up again.
4. Turn off technology at a certain time in the evening, unless there is an occasional emergency that requires your attention. Allow yourself to unwind, preferably a couple of hours before bed. By committing to specific time slots each day to connect, you’ll avoid wasting time constantly checking. You will have more free time and you will be able to devote genuine attention to your real relationships.
5. Treat sleep as something important. Stress and sleep-related problems cost UK businesses £40bn last year, or the equivalent of 200,000 days of lost productivity due to accidents, absenteeism and poor performance. Prepare for a good night’s sleep by relaxing for an hour or two before bed. Avoid that heavy late night conversation, plan for the next day by making a to-do list, maybe have your clothes ready, the kids’ lunches packed.
6. Try to maintain a regular routine, a relaxing bath or shower to wash away the worries of the day. If you have a busy physical job, try to introduce balance with mentally challenging interests like quizzes, puzzles, engaging conversations, or a mentally demanding job that can be balanced by scheduling physical activities like the gym or a walk.
7. It can be fun to go out regularly and maybe share that time with the family by going for a walk, a soccer game, playing together.
8. Reward every stage of your journey with treats, me time, and self-praise. Trying deserves recognition, even if things don’t turn out the way you hoped.
9. Commit to ongoing training, learning, development, improvement. Keep your brain active so you are engaged and stimulated.
Stress is a fact of everyday life, but by incorporating a few basic steps, you can implement effective ways to de-stress from stress.