We face stress every day. Of course, the feeling can be of varied level, but at the same time there is no doubt that stressful situations somehow have an influence on us. We cannot deny that a large amount of stress is destructive to our behavior and mood
We face stress every day. Of course, the feeling can be of varied level, but at the same time there is no doubt that stressful situations somehow have an influence on us. We cannot deny that a large amount of stress is destructive to our behavior and mood. Unfortunately, we cannot free ourselves from stress when we leave our workplace because the very source of this negative feeling can have its roots in our private sphere of life. Fortunately, there are many ways to minimize stress caused by our career and family life. How to cope with stress? We will try to give you at least a few hints that will help you reduce the amount of stress in everyday life.
Understanding stress
If we begin to understand that we cannot avoid stress, we make a step towards coping with it. First of all, we have to gain control over stress and eliminate its negative effects. We cannot allow this feeling to overwhelm us. In most cases, stress has a very negative impact on our mental state. However, there are people who claim that stress can have positive, mobilizing and motivating effects that stimulate us to be more effective in our actions. Nevertheless, nearly in every case, stress renders us unable to act and evokes in us the feeling that there is really nothing we can do to remedy our situation.
Stress is a reaction of the human body to various stimuli, such as dangers, difficulties and the inability to achieve established aims. The symptoms of stress, in medical terms, are: increased blood pressure, hyperactivity, nervousness, accelerated heart rate, the feeling of dry lips, accelerated breathing and the so-called goose bumps. Such symptoms appear because stressful situations cause the human body to produce hormones, such as adrenaline. If we successfully eliminate stress, there comes a phase of tranquility, relaxation and regeneration.
Every human being reacts individually to stressful stimuli. In some people, a situation in which a child once again spills milk on the floor causes significant stress, while in other people this event doesn’t evoke any significant negative feelings. It is our personality and individual resistance to stress that decide how we react to a particular stressful stimulus in a given moment. Generally speaking, people vulnerable to stress are often nervous; they lose their composure quickly, often behave aggressively and live in haste and under constant pressure. They want to achieve their goals by all means necessary. In contrast, people who are patient and who positively approach the world and other people have the ability to cooperate with others and far less often have to struggle with significant amounts of stress.
Long-lasting stress can seriously damage our health. Gradually, but effectively, stress leads to problems with our circulatory and nervous systems. It causes such problems as cardiovascular disease, myocardial infarction, cardiac arrhythmia, ischemic (or ischaemic) heart disease, hypertension, peptic ulcers, high level of cholesterol, insomnia, neurosis, low resistance to diseases and sexual and menstruation disorders. Knowing how destructive stress can be, we should learn the methods to minimize its negative influence. Such methods will help us protect our health against serious stress related diseases.
Ways of minimizing stress
First – identify your enemy
Our first and most important response to stress should be its identification. If we identify this enemy, we have fewer problems with eliminating it. The first symptoms of stress can be wrongly associated with other problems. However, if we identify the symptoms properly, we will be able to cope with stress totally on our own. Like in the case of other diseases, early diagnosis of stress is very important. If we feel that our heart beats much faster and cold sweat appears on our body, we might conclude that we are stressed. In such a case, we can resort to mild, based on herbs, natural tranquilizers. Mint or Melissa tea and such herb-based medicaments like Nerwosol can be very helpful. Moreover, such remedies do not require a doctor’s prescription. Low amounts of stress can be eliminated through a change of diet. What is interesting, products rich in magnesium can reduce stress if they are consumed in appropriate proportions. Such products include cocoa, pumpkin seeds, soybeans, buckwheat, chocolate and nuts. Not every person realizes that the shortage of magnesium makes us more vulnerable to stress. If we cannot or simply do not want to change our diet, we can decide to use vitamin B6 supplements.
Second – a gentle awakening
Mornings are sometimes the most stressful time of day and if we wake up late, we are quickly overwhelmed by stress. We move with haste around the house in search of the most basic things. We wake up our children so they can go to school; we rapidly prepare breakfast and do ten other things simultaneously. Time remains merciless, nonetheless.
Is it worth to destroy our health because we are late? Since it is already too late to get on time to school, work, kindergarten or anywhere else, why should we hurry at all? If we take care of all the household chores with calm, I guarantee that we will need less time to finish them. That approach is more effective than running around the house. We do not do anything quicker when in a hurry. We can only prolong activities like toilet and eating which normally take less time to finish.
Third – do one thing at a time
Concentrate on one thing and work on it till you finish it completely. It is disadvantageous to work on several tasks at once because we needlessly waste our energy on several levels. It is good to carefully organize our thoughts and timetables. The organization of tasks brings certain harmony to our lives. At the same time, we have to think about what is stressful to us and draw conclusions from it. The more we are aware of what is stressful to us, the better we are at minimizing stress.
Sometimes it is necessary to rest and tidy up the chaos in our heads. If we gain control over our emotions and thoughts, we are halfway through to success. When we think about our next tasks like shopping, getting kids back from school, preparing a dinner, we can write them all down on a piece of paper and decide on their order. It is good to create categories for the tasks in order to organize them. We can assign priority levels to tasks and complete them in an order based on their significance. Once we deal with a task, we can cross it out on our list. For some of you, such orderly action can sound time consuming and needless, but that is simply not true. Stress is reduced if we know what lies before us and what tasks will be of utmost importance to us during the day.
Fourth – relieve emotions
We can accumulate a lot of emotions during the week, including negative ones which are stress related. We should find time and means to effectively relieve those emotions. In order to do so, we can jog regularly in the evenings, do regular exercise or go swimming. All forms of active time spending are advised, including walking which might not seem too exhausting but helps our body lose energy and relieve stress. A hobby, so something that brings us pleasure, will draw our attention away from everyday problems and stress. We can read books, meditate, take up yoga, listen to music or gather mushrooms in a forest if the weather is good.
Fifth – laughter is the best medicine
This old truth is a great tip on how to cope with a stressful life. We should find something that makes us laugh. This can be a favorite group of comedians. If we feel stressed, we should turn on our DVD and watch them for a while to relax. It is all about regenerating our mental strength. Allow yourself to take a break and play with your children instead of just doing household chores. Nothing will happen if you do not clean the windows, and dirty windows cannot become the source of your stress! It is good to stay cool, relaxed and composed. We guarantee that, thanks to this advice, you will gather the strength to overcome everyday difficulties. The feeling of great stress will be eliminated.
Sixth – pay attention to the quality of your life
We do not have to do everything on our own. We should not bite more than we can chew. It is important for us to be able to organize our daily plans. We should have time for our duties, but we should also have time to have fun with our friends and loved ones. There also should be some free time just for us. Free time and relaxation are very important to reduce stress levels. If we are able to find time for everyone and everything, we will be halfway through to success. However, we cannot treat ourselves like machines. As we have a limited amount of energy, we cannot accomplish all our tasks at the same time. Sometimes we require help, but few people pay attention to this fact. Eventually, we end up doing everything on our own at the cost of our mental health.
Summary
We cannot separate ourselves from stress with a wave of a hand because life is not stress-free. However, we can successfully minimize the feeling of stress in our everyday lives if we are aware of the most appropriate methods to do so. Some habits, including those related to our diet, can have a calming effect on our nervous system. In consequence, they can help reduce stress. As every person is different, everyone is affected differently by the various methods used in coping with stress. Herb-based medicaments, relaxing breathing and physical exercises prove to be very helpful in fighting this negative feeling. The more methods of coping with stress we know, the easier it is for us to deal with the problem.
A pleasant hobby that draws our attention away from stressful thoughts is also a very good means of coping with the problem. Let us not cease in our pursuit to find the best means of minimizing stress in our private lives because if we eliminate stress, our lives will be more colorful, more interesting and far more satisfying.
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