Stress To Serenity: Stress Management Methods

Typically stress sneaks up on us. It can cower in the corner and spring out at any of us– men, women, children, workers, retirees and everyone in between. Stress does not discriminate. It can be your ally or your enemy. The choice is yours.

If you allow stress to be your enemy, it is likely that you will suffer physically. Doctors report that between 75 and 90 of patients they see have stress as a contributing factor to illness.

But it doesn't have to be that way. You can turn stress into serenity by following any of these three successful stress management methods: (1) Control the meaning you assign to the stressor; (2) Change the situation that produces the stress, and (3) Control the effects that stress has on your body.

Adjust Your Attitude To Change Your Perspective

If worry is a major stressor in your life or you are frustrated that others behave poorly or without your sense of morality, your stress derives mainly from how you interpret the world. In order to best address this type of stress we need to look at stress management psychology.

The components of the stress management method that best address this type of stress is to understand that it is your thoughts that are causing you stress, not necessarily the situation. Write down your stress-inducing thoughts when they happen. Relate the situation and the people involved. Understand that thoughts determine feelings. If you control your thoughts, you control feelings. You don't have to change your opinion, just change the way you think about your opinion. Once you embrace this concept, this stress management method will become second nature to you.

Change The Situation

If your present situation is at the heart of your stress and damaging your sense of control and self esteem and you know you have to make a change, then you may choose to use a different stress management method.

You need to change your situation and you do that by first defining the problem. Once you have defined the problem, and then brainstorm ideas to change it while listing the risks and rewards of each idea. If nothing clicks the first time, leave it or a day or two and come back to it. Every stress management method takes time.

Control The Effects

If the safety valve for your stress is physical, for instance, you experience a lot of colds and headaches, or experience high blood pressure or asthma, that is your body's way of saying that you've had enough. Physical stress requires a physical stress management method. Get plenty of sleep, eat nutritious foods, eliminate caffeine, alcohol, sugar and most importantly get regular aerobic exercise.

When we incorporate both the mind and the body in our stress management methods, we increase our ability to balance stress.