Introduction to Stress Management Tips
Stress is a situation that has an adverse and unpleasant impact on the body. It is external or internally generated. In either way body experiences unpleasantness, hormones are released into the system and body and mind seems to be on edge.
It is the reaction of your mind and body to a potentially dangerous situation, followed by the release of hormones like adrenalin and cortisol. A person feeling stress finds his/her muscles tensing, heartbeats increase and breathing increases rapidly.
It can affect everyone from a student to a working professional, no one is immune from stress in today’s day and age. Though it seems inevitable one can learn to manage stress in his life and that he can lead a healthy life.
Types of Stress
Stress can be complicated and confusing, let us look at some of the types of stress.
1. Routine Stress: This is the most basic type of stress that almost everyone goes through daily and is related to daily office work, family life and other routine tasks that a person performs.
2. Sudden Stress: This type of stress is brought on by sudden events like fear of job loss, death in the family, accident, unpaid debt and so on.
3. Traumatic Stress: This occurs when the person faces with life and death situation and is in the danger of being seriously hurt or even killed, like assault, major accident or going for a war. Soldiers returning from war often face post-traumatic stress disorder, it takes a lot of time to heal them psychologically and should be done by a psychiatrist.
Categories of Stress
Stress can also be divided into categories based on how severe or chronic it is:
1. Acute Stress: This is the most common form of stress. It arises from the memory of any past unpleasant experience. Or even worry about the future, like how will one get out of a problem, how he will earn his livelihood, fear of losing loved ones and so on. This type of stress leads to emotional disturbances, physical ailments like pain in head and body and can lead to even bigger diseases.
2. Episodic Acute Stress: A person suffering from acute stress can have episodic acute stress. Such a person is irritable, short-tempered, anxious and tense.
3. Chronic Stress: This type of stress persists for a very long time and gradually wears a person down. It can come from unrelenting demands and pressures, and can also stem from traumatic, early childhood experiences. Because physical and mental resources are depleted through long-term attrition, the symptoms of chronic stress are difficult to treat and may require extended medical.
Tips for Stress Management
However in order to live a healthy and fruitful life one needs to take control of stress rather than having stress control their lives. Below are some helpful tips that one can use to manage the level of stress in their life.
1. Tackling the Problem
Before finding solutions to stress management, a person needs to identify the root cause of his stress. Is it a person, place or thing that is the constant source of his stress.
Also, a person needs to understand is the problem real or just an imaginary one. If the problem cannot do any physical harm it is most likely in the person’s head and can be dealt with adjusting their thought process.
Let us move to the next Stress Management Tips.
2. Avoid Stress
This is easier said than done if a person knows that something is a constant source of stress in their life they should avoid it. Like a stressful job or a person. A person should also avoid places where he is more likely to get into trouble. And overall keep a distance from things that upset him.
3. Exercise
Exercise is very important in managing stress, exercising every day helps control the level of stress and maintain a healthy mind and body. People don’t feel like exercising when they are stressed, when in fact that is exactly what they need, so make a habit of exercising regularly.
4. Meditation and Relaxation
Yoga helps in managing stress a lot. Meditation by deep breathing brings the body in a relaxed state, the mind does not think about the problem but focuses on the breath. Yoga teaches various breathing techniques that instantly make you feel better and relaxed. A person should have a mix of yoga and gym exercise in their schedule as this will greatly help the mind and body.
5. Eat Well
A person’s diet also plays a very important role in managing stress. If a person eats oily and fatty food in the morning, the body undergoes a lot of stress to digest such foods. And when the body is stressed emotionally a person feels stressed too. Eating a light meal that has vegetables and having fruits helps keep the body light. Junk food should be avoided as much as possible.
Let us move to the next Stress Management Tips.
6. Sleep Well
Today jobs have become very stressful, people are spending close to 12-12 hours a day in their office, this does not leave them time to exercise, meditate and even get sufficient amount of sleep. Sleep disorders are the most dangerous sources of stress.
Some tips to sleep well are –
- Try sleeping at the same time every day.
- Exercise 3-4 hours before bedtime, this will give body ample time to cool down. Once the body is cooled person finds to easy to sleep.
- Avoid watching television, writing emails or browsing on the phone before bedtime.
7. Vacation
A lot of time changing the surrounding and place helps in managing stress, try to go on a vacation to calm and quiet place. A relaxing environment will instantly put the body in a relaxing state.
8. Hobby
A person should pursue his hobby, whatever it may be. Doing what you like puts you in a good mood. A positive frame of mind helps a person deal with unwanted and stressful thoughts.
Thus I would like to conclude this article by stating stress is a silent killer, if not kept in check over long periods of time it can do a lot of damage to your body, mind and overall well being.
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This has been a guide to Stress Management Tips. Here we discussed the types and categories based on how severe or chronic it is. You can also go through our other suggested articles to learn more –
