How do you decrease stress or your own reaction to stress?
I recently finished a very stressful activity at work. I had days when I was overwhelmed by my reactions to the stress of this 3-week-long activity, but I made it through. I used a variety of actions to help myself. I exercised. I meditated. I used deep breathing techniques. I used some mindfulness techniques, and I used traditional therapy. All of it helped, but there were still days that were painful.
What techniques to you use to either combat stress, reduce stress, or lessen your own reaction to stress? Concrete techniques are appreciated.
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I practice mindfulness as well. Also, lots of sleep, drink oodles of water, and time alone listening to music or podcasts I like.
Yes, sleep is very important. I try to get a good night’s sleep every night. I overlooked it in the details above.
I don’t give a fuck. I know that is probably unique to my situation. But so much shit has been tossed my way I no longer care. Nothing has killed me yet.
I don’t try. I came across some research not too long ago that studied the negative effects of stress, and the findings suggested that it wasn’t stress per se that caused harm; stress only adversely affected those who believed that stress is harmful.
We’ve all had it drummed into us that stress causes all kinds of health problems, so stress becomes this thing stealing away our health and shortening our lives. That’s such an accepted view that it doesn’t sound the least bit hyperbolic. But what if it isn’t true unless the belief makes it so?
The alternative is to see stress as the way your body and mind prepare you for action, helping you rise to challenges. It then becomes your ally instead of your disease. Taking it out of the “problem” box and seeing it this way detoxifies it.
I never seem to deal with stress, I recover from it. I look on it as a temporary, albeit rather uncomfortable, circumstance, and it has never, with notable intensity, lasted long enough to throw me. I experience ongoing low-level stress for extended periods, but I am so used to it that I no longer worry about it.
I’ve learned how to talk myself down. A lifetime of exercising terrible judgement while streesed out was a great (but tough) teacher.
@cookieman ooh, water! I second this suggestion. I can always make myself feel a little bit better just by having a glass of water. I’m going to go have a glass now.
@thorninmud Thank you. That fits with the second part of my title question.
Stress indeed will shorten your life but genetics plays a role on how much. There is no possible way sustained stress is good for you or benign. Sort-term sure but not long-term. I’ll deal with it for several months but ultimately I will separate myself from it if I can. I have been in some pretty stressful situations and would not wish it on anyone.
I had a lot of anxiety after my Ex left and had to take on billions of new jobs – or so it seemed. One skill that I’m slowly developing is when something is not working right jumping very quickly to a Plan B scenario so I don’t muddle too long. Can’t do that in relationship issues yet but it’s good for the practical things.
Find the joke. There is always a joke. I’ve alluded to that in my LinkedIn profile
Summary:
Hanging on for dear life. With one hand tied behind my back. (I’m aiming for Master’s level, where I can hang on by my teeth, but I need some dental work to be completed first.)
Current Experience:
I’m very experienced at jumping over, circumventing, blowing up, rationalizing, avoiding, working around or simply ridiculing and ignoring the various obstacles implemented by HR, IT and management in general. “Yes, we can fix that. No, you can’t do it according to policy.”
I put out fires, mainly, which is somewhat ironic, considering that our business is about starting and maintaining them.
I ask myself why I am so stressed over it, and I try to talk myself out of it.
“What are you anxious about?” Then I’ll think about it and try to be honest with myself about it. Then I’ll think of mitigating factors, why it’s not so stressful.
When I am stressed I come here. It’s true. And it works for me.
I occasionally get so wrapped up and buried in picoseconds, nanovolts, dbs and due date I want to pull the covers up over my head.
Then I come here in the middle of the night and I can relax. There are no demands. No due dates, no long term targets… I just answer and help where I can. It feels good and I can fall back to sleep thinking of something else besides my issue.
When you see me here, answering in the middle of the night, it is a safe bet I have something due shortly and I don’t quite know how to do it. 30 minutes or so of Fluther calms me down.
Number one for me is that I no longer put myself into a position to receive stress when I can help it. I was an anxious overachiever in school and my stress levels were my fault for always insisting upon taking the hardest classes available to me. Once I learned to control my obsession with perfection I allowed myself to choose happiness over achievement.
Of course not all stress can be avoided. Nowadays when I get stressed at work I give myself the evening to be as lazy as I desire. Usually I feel best about myself if I spend most of my free time being creative but after a stressful day I’ll allow myself to have that evening to surf the internet, have a bath, drink some wine.
@Mariah Me too. After things have been busy, hectic or stressful, I give myself permission to have a day or an evening of goofing off.
I have found that physical activity, especially cycling, is a very good way of relieving stress. There is nothing worse for me than being inactive when feeling very stressed. I also make sure I get a good night’s sleep if possible. When I am in a stressful situation I try to have confidence that I am doing the right thing. As long as I have this confidence I feel the stress is controllable and will pass.
While I appreciate the idea @thorninmud interjected into this thread, I think it’s important to also state that stress causes the body to secrete many chemicals. Some can be quite harmful.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stress_(biology)#Neurochemistry
I’m sorry to have to write out the link like that, but Wikipedia articles don’t always link properly using the Fluther style.
There are a number of chemicals that are secreted by the nervous system in response to stress that can mimic mental illness. It’s quite serious. Stress can be devastating.
@thorninmud The link is to a whole site and not one article.
@Hawaii_Jake Apparently it redirects you from the article to the site’s home page. The link is correct, and searching “stress may 2015” pulls up a search result at the top of the second page, but it won’t go from there either. So either the article is no longer online and has an odd way of handling 404 errors, or Stanford’s site is just screwed up.
I really like @johnpowell‘s answer. It reminds me of a nurse who once told me, “don’t sweat the small stuff, and remember everything is small stuff.”
I worry way more than I should. I’m getting better at thinking of the worst that can happen and moving quickly into acceptance that if the worst happens I can live with it. That’s how I’ve been dealing with stress lately. I don’t know if it’s good or not, but that’s what I’ve been doing. I relent to the situation. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it feels like I’m letting myself get run over. Mixed bag.
Recently I have tried looking at things from a different angle. Life is all about perception, perception can start all of those good or bad physiological processes in the body. I also try to see the positive in most situations, there is always something.
I also eat every three hours, to keep my blood sugar level.
I become absorbed in a task I enjoy. I go for a walk, I sometimes throw a tantrum! I talk it through, I realize that I don’t have to be perfect always and I watch a funny program on TV.
…We have the keys to the kingdom within ourselves
the very ability to resurrect
the Christ Consciousness within ourselves
yet we hold onto the illusion. We hold onto the “Separate”
instead of the oneness of life.
...We have been doing this for many lifetimes
so we are attached to holding onto
a consciousness of separation.
...so to break the attachment from
the illusory aspect of life
we want to shift our awareness to the light within
to an awareness of oneness,
so that when stress happens it just disappears
as fast as it appears…
...so enlightenment is the stress buster. Simple…
live in a conscious world of oneness,
so that when stress happens we see it as,
in reality, non existent, so it just disappears.
...or in different words…
When the mind is still and no thoughts running through it,...there is no stress.
...or in different words
be the master of yourself…it’s just something you are creating
surrender it to the Cosmic consciousness and let it go…
peace
…i talk too much huh?
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