Many health and religious gurus refer to stress as the “disease of our time.” This is not unusual. Many people succumb to the pressures of stress created by issues in the workplace and at home.
Indeed, stress has become a recognized health problem among the workforce. The cost of stress-related illness is rising by the day. Although there is little the individual can do about situations that cause stress, it is possible to handle these in a proactive way on both a mental and physical level.
Mental Strategies to Manage Stress
When faced with a stressful situation, the mind can be either a vicious enemy or a vital ally. The problem is that most people tend to react to stressful situations without consciously trying to control their thinking. The tendency is to immediately focus on the negative situation itself. This is not constructive. It escalates negativity.
A good mental strategy to combat stress is visualization. For example, find an image that creates peace in the mind and heart. When faced with a stressful situation, take a mental retreat from the problem and the anxiety it creates, and visualize something peaceful instead. This calms the mind, promotes clear thinking, and helps to manage the situation objectively.
Creating a peaceful mind in this way also helps to engage in positive and proactive rather than negative and reactive thinking. Without denying the reality of the situation, the clarity of a calm mind searches for solutions rather than additional problems. A positive attitude can for example be reflected in thoughts such as:
- "This is a problem, but I have an amazing team to help me solve it."
- "Everyone is stressed out, so maybe we should do something to calm the atmosphere."
Physical Strategies to Manage Stress
Often the mental response to stress is the direct effect of its physical effects. Like anger, stress can also be managed by controlling the physical sensations it creates. Breathing deeply and regularly is for example a good way to combat the feelings created by stress. Deep breathing creates a calmer feeling within the body and a clearer feeling in the mind. Making a habit of breathing deeply creates a much better ability to handle stress.
Laughter is also an excellent way to dispel stress. When facing stress in a social or workplace situation, try to have a joke ready to defuse the volatile emotion. Like breathing, laughter creates a calmer and happier feeling on both the physical and mental level. Laughter has the function of immediately creating a lighter atmosphere in which people are able to understand that they may have overreacted.
Distraction is perhaps not an optimal way to handle stress, but it can give some perspective. When faced with a difficult and stressful situation, remove yourself mentally or even physically. Do something completely different and unrelated to the stress issue. Trust your mind to find a solution to your problem and to handle the stress effectively.
The Habit of Stress Reduction
Everybody experiences stress. Stress comes from many sources: work, life, money, friends and family. Each person will have a different strategy that works best to manage stress effectively. The trick is to find which works best and make a habit of it. Forming a habit involves repeating an action several times, until it becomes a routine response.
Make laughter a habit, for example. Or practice visualizing a calming image every day, regardless of whether stress is a factor or not. Once these actions are habits, they will help to dispel the negative effects of stress, and also promote clear thinking.
Resources:
- Mind Tools (2008). Imagery – Mental Stress Management. Retrieved from Mindtools.com
- Belmonte, Joelle (2008). Stress Management: How to reduce, prevent, and cope with stress. Retrieved from Helpguide.org
- Wein, Harrison. (2000, Oct). Stress and Disease: New Perspectives. Retrieved from Nih.gov.
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