Stress management helps you deal with the stress you encounter. Understand that often, stress is the gap between tasks and ability to respond to those demands. Minimizing this stress gap between tasks and completing them requires organization, attitude adjustments, and either acceptance or constructive change.
Organization
Many circumstances that cause us stress can be easily avoided if we learn to value organization. This doesn’t mean you have to be a slave to a set schedule or have a perfectly neat office desk. Organization can simply mean creating lists. Lists are a powerful tool to combat stress. Do not underestimate The List! Creating a list of tasks that must be completed is helpful especially if you feel an inability to fulfill those tasks. A lot of stressful feelings sometimes are a result false beliefs such as personal inability to complete a task. Keep this in mind. By creating a lists of tasks to fulfill for either work or home life you can prioritize, see the bigger picture, and avoid stressing out! The most important part of a list though is checking, scratching, scribbling, erasing or “x”- ing tasks out! It’s empowering!
Attitude
Stress can often be dealt with attitude adjustments. For example, you’re stuck in traffic on the way back home and have to prepare dinner. Stress can manifest outward through impatience, irritability, or in some cases anger for some folks. Stress often follows you from the cart into your home, causing negative interactions with others in the household. What is needed is an attitude adjustment. Realize that whatever negative feelings your are feeling serves you no purpose and only invites negativity. Choose to respond differently. You don’t have to adjust to happiness, just say “oh well!” and take a deep breath. Adjusting attitudes may seem hard at first because we’re so used to acting one certain way. We promise as we try in the beginning we get better and better. It’s really just about being conscious and aware of our feelings instead of being consumed by them.
Change
However, some stressful circumstances must include but go beyond attitude adjustments and instead summon the tools of either acceptance or constructive change. We all encounter stressful circumstances that challenge us to either accept or change something completely in our lives. If a beloved pet dies, we must accept the death and the stress that accompanies it. If we are in a negative relationship we must see what changes must be made in our lives to reduce the stress.
Circumstances that cause us a lot of stress can be powerful tools for personal transformation. If the bad news from the doctor causes you stress, you can make remarkable changes by eating a healthy diet. Constructive change simply means positive change instead of negative change. Overall, either acceptance and working or enacting constructive change are the tools for trickier stressful situations.
