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What is stress?
Stress is not an invention of modern age but our body’s natural and physiological response to adapt to changes in the environment. It puts the body in a state of alert and prepares it for maximum effort. But the current pace of life usually requires more mental than physical effort, which can turn this survival mechanism into a health problem causing even physical and psychological disorders.
Kinds of stress
The clinic distinction is acute stress, episodic acute stress and chronic stress. The article The different kinds of stress by the American Psychological Association explains them in detail, but basically acute stress is due to a demandful occasional incident, episodic acute stress is caused by more frequent incidents and chronic stress is owed to a constant and damaging condition.
On the other hand, stress can be differentiated according to its characteristics:
Positive stress or Eustress
This is an acute type of stress which makes us feel vital, enthusiastic, motivated, optimistic and creative.
Negative stress
Negative stress can lead to states of fatigue, irritability, pessimism and even depression.
One may differentiate between distress which can be acute or episodic acute and is caused by alterations in the routine; hyperstress is due to overexertion of what one can handle; and hypostress can be caused by boredom and demotivation.
The post Four Types of Stress and How to Recognize them explains them more in detail.
How to recognise negative stress symptoms
Emotional symptoms
Can be a feeling of anxiety, irritability, fatigue, confusion and even pessimism or depression.
Mental symptoms
You feel mental block, have a hard time focussing, forget things, have repetitive thoughts, worry excessively about the future and turn overly self-critical.
Behavioural symptoms
You are short-tempered and abrupt when interacting with other people. Maybe you feel they drive you mad easily. Or you tend to mood swings, nervous laughter or feel like crying. You clench your jaw. You increase consumption of sweets, alcohol, tobacco or other stimulants.
Physical symptoms
You probably notice your muscles, back, shoulders and/or neck tense and contracted. Or you may have headache, an upset stomach or fatigue. You might even notice an accelerated breathing or heart rate or palpitations.
How to reduce stress
First of all, learn to recognise the symptoms in order to find the way to manage the stress. There will be stress situations that can be avoided or reduced and others which cannot, which is why one has to learn to at least change the attitude of how to face the situation and counteract the effects.
Avoidable stress situations
Analyse the situations that stress you. Are there things you can change or avoid? There may be situations we can solve through dialogue with our boss, colleague, partner, child or friend by explaining our discomfort and searching for a way to solve the conflict.
To reduce avoidable stress situations review your responsibilities, obligations and goals Share on X
Review your responsibilities, obligations and goals.
- Are you asking too much of yourself?
- Or have you imposed certain obligations and commitments on yourself which may not add too much to your life but cause you stress?
- Maybe you have the FOMO (fear of missing out) syndrome and accept too many invitations to events, enrol into too many courses, conferences etc.? Are you afraid of missing out if you do not check Facebook, Twitter, Whatsapp or other social media all the time?
- Set realistic goals taking into account your responsibilities and time available.
- Also limit the hours and how often you check on social media. Put your smartphone on airplane mode when you need to work with focus or just want some peace and quiet.
Unavoidable stress situations
The choice of how something or somebody makes you feel is yours. Share on X
But there are other stressful situations which unfortunately we cannot avoid. In those cases, the crux of the matter is learning to better deal with them by changing our attitude. Things are not always as we would like them to be, but we can choose how to feel about them.
- First of all, prepare yourself as much as you can for potentially stressful situations. Maybe you can inform yourself somehow about the person or situation you will face? Can you rehearse? Or is it just about preparing yourself mentally for the situation and relativising its importance?
- Why not ask your bosses, colleagues, friends, family or anyone for help who may assist you by informing you better about the situation, giving you advice or tricks or helping you rehearse or practice.
- Also learn to see change as an opportunity not a threat. Life progresses and changes are unavoidable, but they will only be negative if you choose to see them that way.
- Remember: the choice of how something or somebody makes you feel is yours.
General techniques to counteract and better deal with stress
Deal better with stress situations
- Become aware of what causes you stress, stop what you are doing and control your breathing. Try to breath profoundly and slowly in order to regulate the carbon dioxide level in your bloodstream and slow down the heart rate, thus reducing anxiety.
- Take a break from what you are doing and go for a walk, if you can, in order to disconnect from your task or the situation.
- Check your situation: What causes you stress? Are you clear about your goals? Are you give the situation too much importance?
Reduce the general stress level
- Sleep enough hours. Sleep helps our body and mind recover and process the day’s events.
- Take care of your diet. If your body has all necessary nutrients and vitamins, it will be more capable of regulating the stress effects.
- Introduce a routine of physical activity into your life. Choose one or more activities you enjoy, that way it will be easier to be regular..
- Choose a fun hobby which takes you out of the routine and helps you disconnect.
- Make plans for your free time. Do not let your life be reduced to sleeping, eating, working and attending family obligations. Take time to look for fun plans for your spare time.
- Learn to meditate. Nowadays you can find a variety of Mindfulness and meditation or yoga classes. Their practice teaches you to connect body and spirit, be more present, practice patience and self-control and better manage emotions, which helps you better deal with stress.
- If you are one of those checking the smartphone or social media all the time, set yourself some hours of disconnection or limit the times per day you check them. Even try and disconnect totally during some hours or “forget” your smartphone at home. You will feel relief when you manage to detox from the FOMO syndrome.
We will talk about the causes of work-related stress and how to deal with them in other posts. Until then I hope this information has been useful.
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