6 Tips for Getting Better at Stress
Experiencing stress and anxiety is a normal part of life. For most people stress feels uncomfortable and is considered to be a harmful thing to be avoided. For others, stress is seen as helpful and can help with motivation and productivity. Stress and anxiety are experienced by each person differently, and what stresses one person out may not stress another person out in the same way.
Stress:
Stress is generally a short-term response to a recognized threat. Symptoms can involve feelings of being overwhelmed, anxious thoughts, moodiness, irritability, anger, and more.
Anxiety
Anxiety is your body’s internal reaction to stress with symptoms lasting longer and being persistent. It may not have an identifiable trigger. Symptoms can be a feeling of unease or dread, nervousness, restlessness, and tenseness that often does not go away.
Both stress and anxiety can affect your mind and body with symptoms such as: excessive worry, uneasiness, tension headaches or body pain, high blood pressure, and loss of sleep.
How Stress can harm you:
Stress can be harmful when it interferes with your everyday life and functioning as well as when it causes you to avoid doing things or when it seems to be always present. Stress can lead to emotional and mental symptoms such as: anxiety, depression, panic attacks, sadness, and trauma as well as stress related disorders. It is important to talk with a professional therapist, if you are struggling to cope and/or the symptoms of your stress or anxiety are persisting.
How Stress can help you:
In her book, The Upside of Stress, Stanford University psychologist Kelly McGonigal finds that stress is harmful only when it is believed to be harmful. She promotes the idea that how a person thinks about something, or a mindset, can transform its effect on them. She states, “the effect you expect is the effect you get.” She encourages others to develop and cultivate a stress mindset that will help them to thrive amidst the stresses of life. McGonigal affirms that there are some harmful effects from stress, but there are also benefits that are often not recognized such as discovering personal inner strength, courage, and compassion. She encourages rethinking beliefs that support stress as bad (something to be avoided or managed) and instead by embracing stress, people get better at experiencing it while cultivating one's own capacity for being able to handle normal challenges in life.
6 Tips for getting better at Stress:
Talk with a professional therapist if the symptoms of your stress or anxiety are persisting and impacting your functioning. They can help you identify your stress triggers, the causes and reasons for your stress, if the stressors are harmful or helpful, as well as help you develop positive coping skills to address them. Consider discussing stress mindsets and your own personal core beliefs and ideas about whether stress is harmful or helpful to you.
Keep a stress journal. Reflect and note triggers to your stress to become more aware of where your stress comes from.
Prioritize your self-care by getting adequate sleep, turning off electronics (Turn off your cell phone at night, don’t check or respond to work email after work hours), and by reducing your alcohol intake.
Set healthy boundaries with your time and commitments. Try balancing your time to reduce stress and incorporate practical ideas such as planning, scheduling, and allowing for travel time.
Use and incorporate tools to help manage stress such as noise reducing headphones if noise and stimulation adds to your stress level, listening to music on public transport, using a weighted blanket, playing with fiddle toys, posting affirmations, and using phone Apps to set reminders and alarms to remind you of important things.
Express the stress through yoga, walking, running, dancing, yelling into a pillow, writing, drawing, painting or talking.
Roubicek & Thacker Counseling is Fresno’s premier provider of individual, couples, family, and group therapy. We offer in-person and online remote therapy sessions. Contact us today to change the way you feel.