Practical Stress Management

Stress is unfortunately a very pervasive affliction in the American society, and all of us will encounter in on a fairly regular basis. And just to be clear, I’m talking about the type of stress that you feel in your mind not physical stress from things like exercising. Probably everyone who reads this blog has felt “stressed out” at one time or another in their lives,…and more than likely it’s happened many more times than just once! An let me let you in on a little tidbit of information you might not like but that is true nonetheless – unless you decide to become a buddhist monk or something similar, you’re going to keep having things happen to you that cause stress for the rest of your life. So you better learn how to deal with it constructively if you hope to have a happy life. Here are some practical, effective, easy ways to do that:

• Write
• Listen to music
• Exercise
• Talk to someone
• Work on one of your hobbies
• Do something to start resolving whatever is causing you stress.

These are things that everyone can do, and they all work! Now granted, some of these work better for certain people than others do, but I can pretty much guarantee that at last a couple of these will work for everyone. Next time you are feeling stressed, try one and see how it works. If it doesn’t work well, try a different one next time. I challenge you to try each one of them and I bet you’ll find at least two that work well for you. Once you do, you’ll know a couple of good ways to handle stress; and knowing is half the battle. After that, all you have to do is do it and you’re home free!

Let me be a little more specific about some of these things and why they work. Writing is simply that, open up a journal or even a spiral notebook or something and start writing. You can write about the things you are stressed about; what it is, what led up to it, why it’s stressful, and whatever else you want to write about it. Sometimes just getting it out on paper helps you relax and unwind. This is the same concept behind talking to someone. If you’re more of an introvert then writing is probably the way to go, but if you’re more of an extrovert then talking is probably going to be your best bet. However, you need to make sure you have someone that you can talk to who is is a good listener and will not try to give you advice (unless you ask for it), but simply listen and empathize with you instead.
Or if you want, you can write a poem, a story, a comic strip, or draw a picture. I know drawing a picture doesn’t really qualify as writing but it’s the same idea because these types of writing wander into the realm of working on a hobby which is another good way to handle your stress.