This article will help you to understand stress management and how it can help you and your family. This skill is valuable not only during a crisis, but also during more normal times.
Some stress is not always bad. If we had no stress, we all would become lazy. It is too much stress that is dangerous to our health and effectiveness. The optimal amount of stress is different for different people. A level of stress that is too high for one person is just right for another person. Everyone should determine their optimal level of stress.
Once you determine your optimal levels of stress, you should learn to reduce your stress level when it is too high. What works as a stress reliever for one person, however, might not work as a stress reliever for another person. Each person must experiment to find what stress relievers work for them.
Stress management techniques can be pleasant and often can facilitate creativity. During stress management breaks, it is a good practice to have a miniature recorder handy to capture creative, problem-solving ideas that bubble up from unconscious mind. An example of this would be ideas that come to people while they are jogging.
Having a positive outlook is another example of a stress management technique. With a “can do” attitude, you are better able to handle formidable challenges. This is especially true when you break down these challenges into smaller problems that are easier to solve.
It also is important for you to limit the amount of change for any period of time. For example, if you have had a personal injury or illness, or if a close family member or friend has died, you should not begin any big, new projects right away.
Those are two of the dozens of changes that are listed in the Social Readjustment Rating Scale created by the psychiatrists Dr. Thomas Holmes and Dr. Richard Rahe. These two researchers demonstrated that the more changes a person undergoes in a year, the greater the chances the person will become ill.
Murphy’s Law states that if something can go wrong, it will go wrong at the worst possible moment. When things go wrong, people should have enough recovery time built into their schedules.
Stress management skills are not just a “nice to have” skills. Good stress management skills will help to keep your mind, body and family healthy.
My book has a lot of good information about how exercise helps with stress management.
Many will find comfort in Psalms 94:19 which reads, “When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought me joy.
What do you do for stress relief?
