Learning how to deal with stress...

[Sillygoose3116]

Hello everyone! I was wondering if some of you might have some suggestions for stress management. I used to consider myself pretty good at handling stress until recently. I find myself with high stress levels and I am beginning to feel that they are affecting my life in a negative way. I was wondering if you guys could help me and give me some ideas as to how you guys cope with stress.

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, as I feel I am at my wits end quite frankly. I need help and I don't know what to do.

[Ginna]

I know what you mean. I didn't know what stress was until collage... What works:

1) Go for a run (you forget everything else in the world)

2) Plan ahead

3) Listen to punk (or whatever music you like)

4) Go for a run with punk in your headphones

[JeckyllNHyde]

It depends what the stress is from. Work? School? Family? All? Relationship?

 

A few tips:

1) Breathe! Deep breaths as you count to 30. When you get stress you tense up and breathing sort of helps relax you (short term).

2) Excersize. Or like Ginna said, go for a jog/run. If you can outdoors or at the park it may be better.

3) Schedule "me time" or time to do things you enjoy at least once a week, preferably once a day. Whether it's cooking, the beach, reading before bed, a nice warm bubble bath, watching a comedy, meeting friends, sports, etc.

4) Lavender candles and a clutter free environment. Lavender is supposed to be soothing. Your bedroom should also be a great place for you to kick back and relax.

5) Keeping things in perspective. Again it all depends what's causing most of the stress. But alot of times our own thoughts stress us out when it's not even necessary.

[thejigsup]

The world is full of stress and if you don't deal with it in a healthy way, you will start dealing with it in an unhealthy way (bad). I always try to do something fun at least two or three times per week. Go to an amusement park or the beach. Visit a good friend and laugh together. Get a pet (my cats are my major de-stressors). Exercise is always good. Go for a hike in the mountains or wherever you can get to nature where you live. Visit a museum or go see a movie. There are plenty of ways to deal with stress, the only limit is your imagination!

[Liraele]

For me, being able to "empty" my mind at the end of each day helps a bit. Meditation is one way to do this, and it helps keep your mind a little bit more uncluttered most of the time.

 

Also, when I'm feeling stressed or anxious, I just give myself a 5 minute "time out" and go sit someplace quiet and be still.

[Batya33]

Hello everyone! I was wondering if some of you might have some suggestions for stress management. I used to consider myself pretty good at handling stress until recently. I find myself with high stress levels and I am beginning to feel that they are affecting my life in a negative way. I was wondering if you guys could help me and give me some ideas as to how you guys cope with stress.

 

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, as I feel I am at my wits end quite frankly. I need help and I don't know what to do.

 

I get plenty of exercise, limit caffeine and grab perspective whenever I can - even if it's as simple as listing in my head the things I am grateful for.

[itsallgrand]

Managing stress used to be a huge issue for me. It was like I had to learn the ABCs of it later in life. What works for me:

 

Guarding and making room for down time. The point is to be able to simply sit still sometimes and get back in touch with myself. That is usually when I hear most clearly what I really need.

 

Listening to and meeting your own needs. Stress piling on stress has this way of crowding out the obvious, and our true feelings can get buried. It's important to know yourself and pay attention to that.

 

For me, talking. For years I kept things bottled up, and tried to deal with things strictly to myself. This was very bad for me, especially as I'm a very verbal person. It's hilarious on reflection that it took so long for me to put two and two together. I need to talk with people. Not doing so after a while, it stresses me out.

 

Having fun regularly. Very important. Not what other people may think of as fun, but fun to you. That's all that counts. And taking advantage of laughs whenever you can. It's addictive. I find myself nowadays trying to lighten other people and put a smile on their face too. Never used to do that so much; it was if it happened, it happened.

 

Being around people you enjoy. For me, it's some of my family, my friends, some of the people who are involved in some of the activities I enjoy, children of all sorts. Animals - though they aren't people, I enjoy them.

 

Perspective. For me, you could also call this one: Acceptance. I have accepted myself for who I am. So whatever is going on, it's okay, whatever my reaction, it's okay. Acceptance lets me get the perspective to either solve the problem or decide to ride it out. The stress of say, getting a root canal, is a lot different than the stress of having someone you love disappoint you when you need them. But both need acceptance and a sense of worth. With that, you know what you can handle and what not. Sometimes it is ok to say "I can not handle this particular situation alone right now". Real result for me: whereas usually I would have charged into the dentist office alone and tried to be Ms. Trooper, this time I asked for someone to come with me. Stress, way down.

 

Exercise and eating. This is one of the easiest, most concrete ones. You can make sure you eat something good for you. You can drink a bunch of water. Have a nice herbal tea. Cut back on your caffeine, sugar, salt. You can go for a walk or stretch. If you are a woman, you can look at maybe is this your period coming on? Maybe you need a nap?

 

I am the type of person who likes knowing - when I don't, I tend to stress. So for me finding a solution often lies in finding something that may be the cause (and even if that isn't the real reason, it helps me feeling back in control of my own self again). Back to, it's important to know how you tick so you can manage yourself. !

 

I agree with the gratitude one. I do that a lot more often these days. It helps, and it makes life easier somehow.

[Sillygoose3116]

Thank you all for your responses I appreciate them. My stress is coming from a couple of places: My relationship with my mom, my lack of exercise lately, and I have another issue which I will make a new thread about.

[Sillygoose3116]

You sound a lot like me. I grew up dealing with things myself, and I believe this to be very hard since I am very much verbal like yourself. Yes, I had my family but quite frankly I have never felt that they have been a sense of emotional support for me. Sure, when something needs to be done they are there but when it comes to human emotion I feel they are stunted. Yeah, we can talk but we can't. When I say this I mean we can discuss an issue but what I need is never taken into consideration. The conversation always turns to how somehow I am wrong for feeling what I do. So, I learned not to say anything anymore.

 

I used to write and it used to help but lately and for some time it has not been doing anything for me.

 

I am a woman, but I am not near my cycle and quite frankly I don't get any symptoms related to that. I am pretty standard no mood swings, cravings, emotional outburst or anything. I had considered that but I just had my period like a week ago and I felt the same.

[WhenWillILove]

Do something that you're really good at, whatever it is. I used to love putting make-up on because I learned how to be good at putting it on. It sounds silly but it made me feel so much better doing it.

Another thing that works for me and I'm 'good at' is weight lifting, especially since I'm a female, I feel real tough doing it in the gym. The wrist wraps make me look even tougher, haha.

And accepting things. Stress is a part of life. I am pretty sure there is no human on this earth without stress in his or her life. Accept your stressful situation. Accept that at times you can't cope with it. I think acceptance is the way to go in the long run.

[Sillygoose3116]

Do something that you're really good at, whatever it is. I used to love putting make-up on because I learned how to be good at putting it on. It sounds silly but it made me feel so much better doing it.

Another thing that works for me and I'm 'good at' is weight lifting, especially since I'm a female, I feel real tough doing it in the gym. The wrist wraps make me look even tougher, haha.

And accepting things. Stress is a part of life. I am pretty sure there is no human on this earth without stress in his or her life. Accept your stressful situation. Accept that at times you can't cope with it. I think acceptance is the way to go in the long run.

 

 

Thanks. I do accept the fact that there are things that can't be fixed right away. I accept that and embrace it. I know that things will in one way or another sort themselves. What I need some help with is figuring out a way to deal with the current stress I am feeling.