What is Stress?
Stress is the "wear and tear" our bodies experience as we adjust to our continually changing environment; it has physical and emotional effects on us and can create positive or negative feelings. As a positive influence, stress an help compel us to action; it can result in a new awareness and an exciting new perspective. As a negative influence, it can result in feelings of distrust, rejection, anger, and depression, which in turn can lead to health problems such as headaches, upset stomach, rashes, insomnia, ulcers, high blood pressure, and etc. With the death of a loved one, the birth of a child, a new job, or a new relationship, we experience stress as we readjust our lives. In so adjusting to different circumstances, stress will help or hinder us depending on how we react to it.
How Can I Eliminate Stress for My Life?
As we have seen, positive stress adds anticipation and excitement to life, and we all thrive under a certain amount of stress. Deadlines, competitions, confrontations, and even our frustrations and sorrows add depth and enrichment to our lives. Our goal is not to eliminate stress but to learn how to manage it and how to use it to help us. Insufficient stress acts as a depressant and may leave us feeling bored or dejected; on the other hand, excessive stress may leave us feeling "tied up in knots." What we need to do is find the optimal level of stress which will individually motivate but not overwhelm each of us.
How Can I tell What is Optimal Stress for Me?
There is no single level of stress that is optimal for all people. We are all individual creatures with unique requirements. As such, what is distressing to one may be a joy to another. And even when we agree that a particular event is distressing, we are likely to different in our physiological and psychological responses to it.
It has been found that most illness is related to unrelieved stress. If you are experiencing stress symptoms, you have gone beyond your optimal stress level; you need to reduce the stress in your life and improve your ability to manage it.
It has been found that most illness is related to unrelieved stress. If you are experiencing stress symptoms, you have gone beyond your optimal stress level; you need to reduce the stress in your life and improve your ability to manage it.
How Can I Manage Stress Better?
Identifying unrelieved stress and being aware of its effect on our lives is not sufficient for reducing its harmful effects. Just as there are many sources of stress, there are many possibilities for its management. However, all require effort toward change: changing the source of stress and/or changing your reaction. How do you proceed?
1. Become aware of your stressors and your emotional and physical reactions.
-Notice your distress. Do not ignore it.
-Determine what events distress you. What are you telling yourself about the meaning of these events?
-Determine how your body responds to the stress. Do you become nervous or physically upset? If so, in what specific ways?
2. Recognize what you can change.
-Can you change your stressors by avoiding or eliminating them completely?
-Can you reduce their intensity (manage them over a period of time instead of on a daily or weekly basis)?
-Can you shorten your exposure to stress (take a break, leave the physical premises)?
3. Reduce the intensity of your emotional reactions to stress.
-The stress reaction is triggered by your perception of danger...physical danger and/or emotional danger. Are your stressors in exaggerated terms and/or taking a difficult situation and making it a disaster?
-Are you expecting to please everyone?
-Try to see the stress as something you can cope with rather something that overpowers you.
-Try to temper your excess emotions. Put the situation in perspective. Do not labor on the negative aspects and the "what if's."
4. Learn to moderate your physical reactions to stress.
-Slow, deep breathing will bring your heart rate and respiration back to normal.
-Relaxation techniques can reduce muscle tension.
5. Build your physical reserves.
-Exercise for cardiovascular fitness three or four times a week
-Eat well-balanced, nutritious meals
-Get enough sleep. Be as consistent with your sleep schedule as possible.
6. Maintain your emotional reserves.
-Develop some mutually supportive friendships/relationships.
-Pursue realistic goals which are meaningful to you.
-Expect some frustrations, failures, and sorrows.
-Always be kind and gentle with yourself-be a friend to yourself.
1. Become aware of your stressors and your emotional and physical reactions.
-Notice your distress. Do not ignore it.
-Determine what events distress you. What are you telling yourself about the meaning of these events?
-Determine how your body responds to the stress. Do you become nervous or physically upset? If so, in what specific ways?
2. Recognize what you can change.
-Can you change your stressors by avoiding or eliminating them completely?
-Can you reduce their intensity (manage them over a period of time instead of on a daily or weekly basis)?
-Can you shorten your exposure to stress (take a break, leave the physical premises)?
3. Reduce the intensity of your emotional reactions to stress.
-The stress reaction is triggered by your perception of danger...physical danger and/or emotional danger. Are your stressors in exaggerated terms and/or taking a difficult situation and making it a disaster?
-Are you expecting to please everyone?
-Try to see the stress as something you can cope with rather something that overpowers you.
-Try to temper your excess emotions. Put the situation in perspective. Do not labor on the negative aspects and the "what if's."
4. Learn to moderate your physical reactions to stress.
-Slow, deep breathing will bring your heart rate and respiration back to normal.
-Relaxation techniques can reduce muscle tension.
5. Build your physical reserves.
-Exercise for cardiovascular fitness three or four times a week
-Eat well-balanced, nutritious meals
-Get enough sleep. Be as consistent with your sleep schedule as possible.
6. Maintain your emotional reserves.
-Develop some mutually supportive friendships/relationships.
-Pursue realistic goals which are meaningful to you.
-Expect some frustrations, failures, and sorrows.
-Always be kind and gentle with yourself-be a friend to yourself.
Need Additional Help?
See the guidance office for more information or assistance in managing your stress