If there’s one thing we can’t avoid in life, it’s stress. The two things seem to be permanently intertwined. Everywhere we go and every time we move, stressful situations are bound to follow. And I believe that it’s stress’s omnipresence that makes it so difficult to cope with.
During highly stressful times, it can be challenging to find ways to relax. In my experience, stress makes it almost impossible to relax. Every time you think you can spare a few moments for yourself, a dozen different things pop up in your way. Your to-do list seems to go on for miles and you don’t know when you’ll have the chance to take a break.
When I think about these sort of situations, I immediately realize how easy it is to allow stress to get the best of you. It isn’t hard to get caught up in problems, especially when they seem to outweigh their solutions. But if there’s one thing that stress has taught me, it’s that letting yourself get worked up about something won’t make it any easier to deal with. If anything, the incessant worry makes it more difficult to handle stress-filled scenarios. If we’re constantly preoccupied with our troubles, I think it clouds our judgments and prevents us from thinking effectively. So, in a sense, I believe that de-stressing is just as important to coping with stress as actually solving the issue.
We also have to remember that not every problem can be solved instantaneously. I definitely have a hard time with this, as I’m someone who prefers to get things done as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. I think it’s critical to keep in mind that not every issue will be as simple as the last. And even though we may want to worry about something until it’s completely done, it’s only going to cause us more stress in the long-run. We need to remember to de-stress every then and again, because it isn’t healthy to fixate on one thing for a prolonged period of time.
Anyways, while we can’t avoid stress completely, I feel like it’s important to gain control over it. Letting stress control us ultimately won’t make us happy, so we should focus on learning to take charge of it. If we can control our stress, we can prevent it from overwhelming us.
How do you cope with stress?
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“We also have to remember that not every problem can be solved instantaneously.” – I struggle with this as well. I like focusing on things completely until they are done, so I don’t appreciate waiting! In fact, I’m in the middle of a stressful medical situation and waiting on test results – SO hard to wait!! 😛
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I know exactly what you mean! I don’t ever want to stop worrying about something until it’s completely finished. I hope everything works out for you!
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I have to put thoughts out that cause me stress like worrying about things I haven,t done.
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I love this, great advice! We definitely can’t stop stress from happening, but dealing with it healthily is so important. I nominated you for the sunshine blogger award if you’d like to check that out! https://dontgiveajam.com/2017/04/28/sunshine-award-1-2-3-4-5/
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Thank you so much! 🙂
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Go further back into the physiology of stress…it all starts when your brain perceives something as a threat….and then the pituitary gland sends out a cortisol alert to your adrenals glands, and they release more hormones….and suddenly your heart races, and your breathing gets shallow, and your liver dumps glucose into the blood stream. Short term stress is good, but not long term. And we tend to get so stressed out by little things these days. I always stop, take a deep breathe, and think about the worst case scenario (which usually isn’t all that tragic), and then think about what I can do to mitigate it. Sometimes it’s better to put it in the back of your mind and mull it over for a while. So remember…stress all starts with Perception, what you think is wrong or going to happen!
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That’s so true! A lot of the things I get myself really stressed out about are unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Thinking about the worst case scenario and realizing it really isn’t that horrific definitely helps to put things in perspective and makes it easier to de-stress!
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Paige, thank you for this great post. I have to always keep myself reminded stress can be well managed.
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Thank you so much! I’m the same way
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