5 Factors that Affect Stress Management

We all have a favorite expression when we’re stressed. I won’t bother listing all of them because they may vary according to the language. Anything can trigger stress; working or even relaxing can cause it. Have you ever felt stressed even when you were utterly relaxed and bored? I am sure I have.

While stress is an uncomfortable part of life, it is critical to find ways to mitigate and prevent stressful incidents and avoid negative responses. Here are a few factors to help you treat stress as a part of life’s routine, like brushing your teeth or eating breakfast, and help you handle it more positively. You can complete a few of them in a short time, but every minute counts.

Time Management

Time management skills can help you spend more time with family and friends and may even help you perform better and be more productive. It will assist you in reducing your stress.

To enhance your time management abilities:

• Save time by concentrating and focusing, delegating, and scheduling personal time.
• Maintain a diary of your activities, including work, family, and leisure time.
• Prioritize your time by assigning a value to each task based on its importance and urgency. Focus your time on activities that are meaningful and important to you.
• Maintain control of your commitments by avoiding over-or under-committing. Make no commitments that are unimportant to you.
• Utilize a day planner, break large projects into smaller ones, and establish short-term deadlines to combat procrastination.
• Examine your beliefs to identify areas of conflict between them and the reality of your life.

Coping Mechanisms

It is critical to identify your coping mechanisms. One way to do this is to keep a stress journal in which you record the stressful event, how you react, and how you cope. With this knowledge, you can replace unhealthy coping mechanisms with healthy ones—those that help you see the positive side of your life and what you can change or control.

Lifestyle

Certain behaviors and lifestyle choices affect your level of stress. They may not directly cause anxiety, but they can obstruct the mechanisms by which your body seeks relief from tension. To handle that, try the following:

• Maintain a healthy balance, personally and professionally.
• Possess a sense of direction in life.
• Get enough sleep, as this is when your body recovers from the day’s stresses.
• Consume a balanced diet to provide nutritional protection against stress.
• Maintain a weekly routine of moderate exercise.
• Limit your alcohol consumption and abstain from smoking.

Social Support

Social support, which refers to the positive reinforcement you receive from family, friends, and community members, plays a significant role in coping with stress. The knowledge that you are loved, admired, and valued makes a difference. Research demonstrates a strong link between social support and improved mental and physical health.

Mindset

When a negative thought triggers fear, insecurity, anxiety, depression, rage, guilt, and a sense of worthlessness or powerlessness, you may start to feel those same things. These emotions activate the body’s stress response in the same way that an actual threat does. Dealing with negative thoughts and perceptions can help alleviate stress. Here are a few tips:

• Interrupting the pattern assists you in putting an end to a negative thought, thereby alleviating stress.
• Disproving irrational thoughts assists you in avoiding exaggerating negative thoughts, anticipating the worst, and incorrectly interpreting an event.
• Problem-solving enables you to identify all facets of a stressful event and devise strategies for dealing with them.
• Changing your communication style enables you to communicate in a way that expresses your views without alienating, hostile, or intimidating others. It alleviates the stress caused by ineffective communication. Utilize the assertiveness ladder to help you develop a more assertive communication style.

Even though someone like me uses my hands to work, sitting for seven or eight hours is already stressful. I have my method of relieving stress. Whether you’re the mailman, the CEO, or the average working parent, stress is one unwelcome guest you’d prefer to avoid in your home, and especially in your life. Remember these five factors, and hopefully, you will manage stress better.