Four Steps to Manage Stress

    Once I heard a story about someone explaining stress management to an audience. He raised a glass of water and asked the group, "How heavy is this glass of water?" Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g. The lecturer said, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. What matters is how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not too hard. If I hold it for an hour, my arm is going to ache. Now, if I hold it for a day, you'll probably have to call an ambulance. Why is that?"

    Before the group could answer, he said, "In each case, the weight of the water in this glass is the same, but the longer I hold on to it, the heavier it becomes. That's how it is with managing your stress. If you continue carrying your burdens all the time, guess what? Sooner or later, the burden becomes increasingly heavy. You're gradually unable to carry on with the load."

    Putting the glass of water on the table nearby, the lecturer continued, "Your stress load has to be put down for a while. Get away from it and rest before holding it again. When you're refreshed, you can carry on with the burden."

    When you're done with a day's work, don't drag it home. Put it away. Put it down. You always have tomorrow to pick it up again. Whatever burdens you're carrying right now, set them down for a moment if you can. Don't pick them up until you're rested. Life is short. Enjoy it!

    I know you've heard to relax, but these days all those "little" stresses add up (i.e., losing your job, divorce or separation, major illness, difficulty with children –whatever their ages). Those nagging, mundane stresses that wear us down day after day add can add up to serious health issues down the road. Stress is cumulative and erodes our well-being like ocean waves lapping against a craggy coastline.

    In the 1930s, stress and health were first linked together. Those were stressful times too: A severe financial crash worldwide, people losing jobs left and right, and dictators raising up their heads ready to do battle with anyone not in compliance with their whims. Sound familiar today?

    The scientist who put a name to the struggle of all forms of life people had to deal with during that time was Hans Seyle. Seyle found the hormone cortisol, which is closely linked to the adrenal glands that are activated by "fight or flight" responses, wears on digestion, reproduction, the immune system and even physical growth. Long-term presence of high levels of cortisol has an incredibly negative effect on those functions that it can shut them down. So sustained stress causes a very real deterioration throughout your body, exposing you to everything from a cold to a cancer. Even hair loss can be due to a stress factor that's hung around too long in your life. Stress is further deadly because of the impact it has on your heart. Depression is also stressful to bear under.

So What Can You Do About Stress In Your Life?

1. Vent – Don't keep things bottled up inside because that only adds to the cumulative stress load you're already carrying. This doesn't mean you scream at everybody all the time, but when you can't handle anymore stuff, don't just nod quietly and accept the way things are going. Talk to your spouse if they've upset you. Discuss matters with an annoying co-worker and help them do their job better with reasonable suggestions so it will make your job go better. By asserting yourself and your opinion while maintaining control you vent your stress.
   
2. Shift your focus – Get a hobby or work on one you already have. Schedule time for your hobbies and interests because if you don't, they won't happen. Learn to concentrate your mind on whatever brings you the most joy—stamp collecting, exercise, dancing, photography, writing. Anything that helps you shed the stress and give your mind and body the time to recover in the process of doing something. This stops stress build-up.
   
3. Manage your time – Deadlines are stressors and loom worse over you when the time gets closer to finish whatever project you're slaving over. So learn to manage your time by breaking the project down into bite-size pieces and deal with them one at a time. Instead of your schedule managing you, you need to manage it so you can avoid being overworked which is one of the most common causes of stress you can live without.
   
4. Emote – Laugh or cry about whatever is building up inside you so you can vent it out and away. Often a great rush of good feeling (with a laugh) or a sense of relief( with a cry) follow and the stress melts and puddles at your feet. Use your emotions instead of storing them by bottling them inside which leads to more stress. Chill out…
   

Robert Frost once said that the only way out is through. So get through your stress, face your obstacles, and learn from the experience. Take each day as it comes with anticipation because "the future is uncertain…but this uncertainty is the very heart of human creativity" (Ilya Prigogine, Nobel chemist).