What To Do To Relieve Stress
When you know what to do to relieve stress, you can approach stressful situations with more confidence. We experience stress when we are faced with anxiety or fear ? this can be as a result of physical danger or a situation which worries us on an emotional level.
Worrying never improved any situation. We either need to take action of some kind or accept the situation without having negative feelings about it.
Stress can prevent us from taking action at the very times when it is most important that we do so. Stress and anxiety have a tendency to make us indecisive and take up more time thinking about potential consequences than doing something about a situation.
A lot of us will do this over thinking of problems while under stress, believing that it is helpful to them. Most of the time, this is not the case at all. People will think of exactly how they can proceed and fail to take action, or be so committed to a plan that they will be inflexible in the face of changing circumstances with predictable results.
The best thing to do in most stressful situations is to act, to take one step from a position of confidence, without fear, and see what happens. Then take another step towards your desired outcome, taking into account any reactions that you aroused.
In order to do this, most people need some training. This is where assertiveness and conflict resolution techniques are very helpful, especially where the stress is caused by the demands or expectations of others, or problems such as harassment or arguments.
It is also important to have a clear sense of what is important and what is not, so that we don’t sweat the small stuff. This means having some perspective on our lives and it is often achieved by taking up a new hobby or sport, some useful activity that you can be enthusiastic about. This will stop your whole life revolving around your work, your relationship, your health or whatever it is that is causing the stress.
When you have a moment of acute stress and you need something to calm you, a slow form of exercise such as Tai Chi or yoga can be very helpful. Meditation can also relieve stress if practiced regularly. Simply slowing down your breathing will often help.
Autogenic training is a form of relaxation training that was designed specifically for stress relief. It involves 15 minute visualization sessions that you practice three times a day if possible. You can buy a CD that will teach you how to do this.
Another possibility is listening to music, although it must be chosen carefully. It needs to be relaxing. Most classical music is fine, and modern chill out music can be great too. You will not want anything with a heavy beat, loud instruments or lyrics that will engage your emotions. If there is singing it is best if it is in a language that you do not understand.
Even with our hectic, overscheduled lives, you can avoid stress. There are ways to cope with stressful situations and you can even think of it as a challenge.
