Lowering Stress is Critical for Your Health

Having high levels of stress can be a massive detriment to your health. Life is a stressor in and of itself. People think they cannot manage their levels of stress. However, finding ways to control your emotions certainly helps. It’s important to identify coping strategies that work for you and then implement them in your daily life as stress comes up.

Taking Responsibility For Your Part In The Stress

To start a stress management plan, you first need to address the main cause of the stress you feel. Major life events such as death, illness, and even divorce are big indicators. However, sometimes the obvious is not the real problem. For example, if you are a procrastinator, procrastination could be a direct reason you are stressed out.

What you think and what you feel are very powerful regarding stress levels. Checking in on how you’re doing emotionally and how well you are managing your stress. Using a journal could help show when you stress the most and what initiated it. Then it will be easier to take the necessary response about what you need to change, whether it be learning better time management skills or taking time to relax.

Using The Four A’s

When you sense a stressor getting the best of you, utilize the four A’s in stress management, which are: avoid, alter, adapt, and accept.

Avoid

This means not taking on too much. Having an overflowing amount of tasks puts major stress on you. Try to reschedule or move things around accordingly when it becomes too much. It may even involve you telling people no more often than you usually do.

Alter

Don’t hold in strong emotions. Eventually, you will burst, and your stress will be through the roof before you do. Be willing to change and ask for things that you want to change.

Adapt

It’s hard to handle stress coming from several directions. Reflecting on things that you have accomplished or are happy to have in your life will bring you back to a sense of reality, giving you gratitude that will lift the negative stress.

Accept

No matter how much you plan, things will get messed up or wrong. That’s a part of life. Accepting what you can and cannot do relieves the stress of what-ifs.

Effective stress management is an important part of a healthy life. If you’ve noticed that stress is taking a toll, it’s time to learn techniques that will help you work through stress and live a more balanced life.