Stress is considered to be one of the main reasons for certain heart diseases and medical conditions. That being the case, medical professionals all over the world have, now and then, tried to come up with various ways on how one can effectively deal with stress. Quite a number of these ways are, fortunately, easy to practice on a regular basis.
Before you start looking at the different ways you can manage stress, the first thing that you need to do would be to determine where your stress is coming from. This means you would need to take a closer look at your activities, your habits as well as how you react to certain things. You also need to determine whether your stress is coming from the people around you, the kind of work that you do, or from certain inabilities. Once you are aware of the nature of your stress, you would need to look closely how you react to stress. There are two ways people tend to react to stress – positively and negatively. In a positive reaction, a person is typically able to either adapt to the situation or find ahealthy long-term as well as a short-term solution for it. In a negative reaction, the person typically experiences a number of problems including either the inability to have a good night’s sleep or sleeping too much, consuming too much coffee, smoking, compulsive spending, and eating too much.
So how do you handle stress?
- As cliched as it may sound, the best way to handle stress would be to avoid whatever is causing it in the first place. One way of doing this is by learning how to say “no”. It is also a good idea to avoid people who are stressing you out. If there’s a need for it, you might have to take a vacation in order to “find your balance” again. In the same line, since you are already aware of what your stressors are, take control of it by making sure that you either avoid it or lessen your interaction with it. For example, if the news easily upsets you, make sure that you keep your TV watching and newspaper reading activities to a minimum.
- If you are the type who likes to bottle things up, you might need to change your strategy. Instead of keeping quiet, you might need to talk it out. If you are bothered by something that another person said or did, let it out. If it is safe to do so, let the other person know how you feel. Keep in mind that there are times when you would need to be assertive. Keep calm and make sure you are ready for a compromise.
- Make sure that you manage your time well. Most people who become stressed out as a result of having too many things on their plate usually have a hard time managing their time. If you are able to manage your time well, you would be able to better deal with stress.
- Adjust how you see things and make sure that you set realistic standards. One of the things that stress too many people is the inability to reach certain expectations which leads them to being too hard on themselves. Some of these standards are actually too high for anyone to achieve. Maintain a positive outlook and set your standards on a staggered basis instead of aiming for the highest standard in one go. Be sure you are aware of your strengths and weaknesses so that you do not stress out over things you know you are unable to do.
- Lastly, make sure that you maintain a positive outlook in life. Although this might seem easier than done, if you constantly keep yourself from dwelling on the negative, you would be able to train yourself to first see the good in the situation.
Stress might seem like a petty issue but its not. A number of heart conditions are further made grave with the presence of stress. If you, or anyone around you, has a high risk of suffering from a heart attack or cardiac arrest brought on by stress, you would need to make sure that you have an AED unit on hand.
