Stress is the number one source of health problems in the 21st century. People are no longer secure in their future perspectives. The job and housing markets are fluctuating. In an instance, an entire family may lose its main source of income and its home. Even youths are under pressure to perform well in school in order to be eligible to study at a top university.
And once they graduate, most of them are burdened by student loans. There is no wonder that stress appears to be written in our DNA since the start of the millennium. Left unattended, stress leads to serious health issues, such as:
- Insomnia
- Low energy levels
- Lack of ability to negotiate difficult situations
- Mental breakdown.
How Can You Keep Stress under Control?
Stress management may not appear easy, but there is nothing worse than giving in to stress and allowing it to rule your life. The ideal stress management tip is to avoid stress. But, honestly, that is extremely difficult.
Thus, you should try and form a routine that helps you mitigate your response to stressful situations. Therefore, here are a few helpful stress management tips for you:
- Do Not Stress Over Situations beyond Your Control
If you are running late with a project at work due to a computer malfunction, you can mitigate this by saving your work in a cloud storage account and then finding a backup computer. This is a situation under your control.
But if your report depends on information that someone else is supposed to give you and they fail to provide it on time, this situation is beyond your control. The best you can do is document the correspondence with that person and inform your superiors in due time of this issue. So, you should not stress about this situation. You cannot control it, and nothing you can do will influence the outcome.
- Assert Your Feelings without Becoming Aggressive
When you are tired, upset or otherwise in a bad mood, let other people know that you are not at your best for socializing or other activities. Make your feelings known and then walk away from the situation. This is step that needs to be put in place when going through family counseling near me with your family.
Trying to be a people pleaser at all costs will cause you to become aggressive whenever you are faced with a situation you are not prepared to deal with. This will only compound the overall stress you suffer from.
- Start Meditating
Meditation is simple and costs nothing. All you have to do is find a quiet and pleasant corner in your house, find a relaxing position (the lotus position is recommended by experts) and start letting go of thoughts until your mind is clear.
- Make Time for Your Hobbies
Things that you love doing are extremely relaxing and help you mitigate stress. Whether you are passionate about gardening, collecting stamps, going to the matches of your favorite sports team – make time for them and prioritize them in your spare time.
- Do Not Rely on Stimulants
Alcohol, tobacco and drugs are not your friends. They may appear to help you unwind for the moment, but they come with so many negative long term effects on your health that they are really not an option. Plus, once the initial “high” wears off, you will be left more stressed and depressed than you were before you took these substances.