We experience different kinds of stress every day. Sometimes we manage stress with ease and take things lightly. But when stress builds up over a long period, you simply can’t bear all and you will feel like you are about to explode! The good news is you can actually manage stress in healthy ways and avoid losing your temper when stressful situations happen.
Why do you need to keep your cool?
Although stress is a normal feeling, you can avoid being pressured by finding ways to control and manage stress.
Learning how to handle stressful situations in your workplace or at home will prevent you from blowing up and uttering words you will regret after. Remember that words can hurt another person’s spirit more than physical harm can do to one’s body. At the same time, your reputation will also be marred when people see how you lost your temper in public.
How can you positively manage stress?
When stress happens, the normal physiological reaction is the fight or flight response. Researchers found out that men behaved less positively than women when in stressful situations.
Men cope with stress in three ways: social withdrawal, substance abuse and aggression. Women, on the other hand are better at coping with problems. This difference also accounts for more mortality rate among men.
Take up a hobby
The reason why people under stress are easily angered or provoked is because they do not have any form of release for all the emotions building up within them. One way to handle stress in a healthy way is to have a hobby.
Do you have any form of relaxation? What do you enjoy doing after work that takes away your mind temporarily from any stressful issue at work or in the family?
When stressful situations confront you, step back a bit to clear your mind of negative feelings and impulsive plan of actions. See the problem from different perspectives.
Find a hobby that you most enjoy. It can be your fascination for cars, regular exercise, sports or handiwork. If you love working on cars, doing yoga or aerobics, hiking and trekking, running, playing basketball, gardening or simply knitting or sewing at home, then surely you can clear your mind of anything that is bothering you while doing something productive.
While working on your hobby, your mind can also think of solutions to the problems in your work or home. It’s like a “time out” from the real game while you get a better view of the whole situation and think of a game plan to tackle the problems when you encounter them again.
Do not over-react
Keep calm. Do not over-react. Do not analyze. Relax. Sometimes the magic is in keeping silent. Learn some relaxation techniques to help reduce stress.
Over-reacting to a stressful situation at work or at home can worsen the problem. So instead of screaming at your employees, keep your composure and handle the situation in a positive manner.
Know what the problem is, who are involved, what are the options and who are directly concerned or affected. It will help address the problem in a very professional way. A close door meeting will also be a good move.
Or instead of telling your teenager that he’s grounded for a month because he came home late and drunk, just let him go to sleep and maybe talk about it the next day when he’s sober.
Confront the issues
Don’t run away from the issue. Face the problem.
One effective way to handle stress is to confront the problem especially if it deals with people within your circle of influence. For example, if your child is having problem in school, then sit down and talk with your kid.
If you are doing a new project but seem to be having difficulty doing it alone then you can ask for help or delegate some simple tasks so you can focus on the more important tasks.
If you have problems with relationship, then make the first move to rebuild the connection and make amends. Oftentimes, it is an irony that we carry the burden on our shoulders when things can simply be ironed out. The key is communication.
Although at times you may not have complete control on everything, confronting your problem will be best than just wishing it will go away. In psychology, running away from a problem is a maladaptive defense mechanism. The problem will not go away so it is better to confront them head on than letting it stress you and consuming your whole being.
You can definitely manage stress and various emotions when you know how to deal positively with the problems in your life. Manage your stress before it affects your health.