Coping with Stress
Stress seems to always creep up on us whenever we think we’ve put it to rest. It holds an ever present relationship with our selves and minds. Everyone has different demands from their situations, leading to varying sources of stress. How we ultimately cope with our stress dictates our supposed levels of stress.
Coping and managing stress is a pursuit that allows us to take stock of what is in hand and to step back to reset. Depending on your personality, it’s easier to manage stress for some. Likewise, whether the source is internal or external can have a large bearing on your ability to squash its influence. Regardless of your personality or source of stress, there are ways to tackle it healthily to provide a greater sense of relief and grounded state. Before delving into some stress management techniques, let’s take a closer look at the two different types of stress - acute and chronic stress.
Acute stress is the body’s immediate response to a stressful stimulus. Think of it as your initial reaction to sudden news that leaves your body in a fight-or-flight state. For example, you just got another assignment at work, yet you are already drowning in a ton of other projects. This acute stress provides more of an alert that allows you to move away from danger or raise your energy levels depending on the situation. This type of stress, more often than not, is omnipresent and poses no direct harm to our beings, unless it occurs frequently.
Chronic stress, on the other hand, is the amalgamation of several acute stress factors that seemingly don’t go away. More often than not, this type of stress is that which is kept at bay and even, unfortunately, assimilated into our own livelihood and identity. As this type of stress builds up and festers, the effects pose greater problematic risk if left unresolved.
We all have to deal with both acute and chronic stress. It’s up to us to find ways to best tackle the consuming force. Let’s take a look at some methods to cope with stress:
Observe Indicators and Actions
Look at the inciting actions that bring on stress. I find it best to compartmentalize this process by source/relationship and environment. Often times, we can categorize the triggers as either internal/personal or external/interpersonal in nature. On top of that, the environment in which the triggers take place (e.g. in your bedroom, at work, in specific social settings, etc.) will likely provide clues to patterned behavior that can be controlled. This can, in turn, hopefully subside your stress or, at least, keep it more controlled.
Exercising
Stress often leads to a mixed bag of emotions that needs to be exerted and thrust outward. Sometimes, these emotions can be destructive in nature and lead to unfortunate circumstances. As an advocate for health and mindfulness, channeling this energy through exercise is often a great way to temporarily soothe your mind and being of the stress. Through exercise, your mind and mood are likely improved and can help lead to long term, beneficial effects in association with stress management.
Relaxation
For the most part, stress usually comes in the form of a high-paced activity. The hustle and bustle of a social interaction or racing internal thoughts are the environments that stress presents itself. Learning meditation exercises, breathing exercises, and/or mind and muscle relaxation techniques and incorporating them into your routine is a great way to provide a safe-haven space that you can always anchor yourself back to.
Daily Fun Time
Now this may not be the purest way to attack the root of stressors I must admit, but planning to have some daily time that you look forward to, no matter how small, can help provide an escape from reality. Changing up each day’s “fun-time” can provide the sense of freshness that can easily be overlooked with routine activities that, in a drastic turn of events, turn into bored outlets that can feed into stress.
Parts make the Whole
Coming from a variety of sources, stress looks more daunting when looking at the entire picture of a project or circumstances. Breaking down the context in hand into smaller pieces, albeit not necessarily solving the problem, can provide reassurance that things are easier than perceived. This comes from a shift in perspective, and we all know how vital that can be.
These methods should all hopefully aim to quell the long term, chronic stress that poses mental, psychological, and physical harm to our health and well-being. At the same time, it is a communal battle we are all fighting. Staying connected to others and relying on a strong support system can help you uncover varied perspectives to your stressors that can tremendously help. As a proponent for stories and sharing them with as many people to bring greater awareness, I strongly believe that we can find solace in learning from other’s struggles with stress.
At the same time, while I wanted to stress, no pun intended, that it’s important to find ways to cope with stress, I still want us all to understand and come to terms with a tranquil understanding of stress. Knowing that it will continue to come up from one moment to the next, we can adopt a more even kill mental framing around stress. Likened to the idea of brain noise, we also fall prone to the bad habit about stressing for upcoming stress that hasn’t even been surfaced. Simplicity and present-mindedness, knowing that we cannot predict the future (hmm, wonder why that sounds so familiar…), are the only ways to provide a grounded foundation to live off of.
Above all and to build on the tranquil, at ease relationship mentioned earlier, we can all take solace in knowing the following:
Control what you can control.
It’s simple yet profound. Sometimes that’s all we need, though. Whenever the going gets tough and the previously mentioned methods lose their shine and value, I personally find harking back on this idea to provide all the solace I need. Try mentally reminding yourself of this saying while remaining still and see if it starts dropping a more peaceful aura around you like it does for me.
“You can’t always control what goes on outside, but you can always control what goes on inside.” - Wayne Dyer
