Career Development Centre (CDC) > Discussion on Creative Problem Solving

stress management

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shibli:
Dear Raju bhai

Can you please write something on how to manage stress in our day-to-day stressful life?

regards

raju:
Dear Shibli Bhai and all,

Now a day success not just comes from the knowledge and skills but also behavior which can create distance between success and failure. Stress and behavior is very much interconnected. Everyone copes differently with stress. This is important because how we handle stress impacts the toll stress takes on our minds and bodies that involve medical cost eventually.
Stress: How it Cost!
Stress damage focus, concentration and productivity. It limits employees’ ability to communicate in an open and honest way. It can damage relationships with customers and clients as well as with co-workers, creating an unhealthy work environment and undermining company’s competitive position.
Stress increases your costs in yet another way. Under normal conditions human bodies work constantly to identify worn out cells and tissues, break them down, get rid of the waste and then rebuild new cells and tissues in their place. We get entirely new skin roughly every seven weeks ... new bones every ten years or so. This process is one of the differences between the living and the dead. But stress hormones shut these vital body-refreshing processes down. This is visible when someone goes through a time of extreme emotional trauma. It's possible to age decades in just a few months if serious stress is left unchecked. This is also why high levels of stress are associated not only with lowered productivity at work, but also a higher rate of injuries.

Mind Mapping Exercise: How it deals with stress?

In today’s social climate stress is something that we just tend to accept as a part of our home and work environment. Normally we are taught that one must learn to relax and take charge of one’s reactions to external events, people and factors. In this way one will find peace and remain in proactive control over the emotions that tend to get the best of us throughout our day.

However, dealing with stress in an effective and efficient manner has more to do than just learning to relax; it rather has to do with what you eat, how you think, the manner you treat your body, what actions you take on a consistent basis, how you deal with social interactions and what you tend to avoid doing. These 6 key factors of stress management are the building blocks that will help you to build harmony with yourself, others and your immediate environment. Cultivate them and apply them into your daily routine, and you will find bliss where others only find havoc and mayhem.

To find how 6 keys to effective stress management study matrix/mind map can help you to improve workplace and lifetime performance. 6 key area of mind mapping can be part of your life including:

1.   Stress-less Nutrition
2.   Stress-less Mindset   
3.   Stress-less Body
4.   Stress-less Actions
5.   Stress-less Social Interactions
6.   Avoiding Stress Inducing Activities

shibli:
Stress management strategy #1: Avoid unnecessary stress

Not all stress can be avoided, and it’s not healthy to avoid a situation that needs to be addressed. You may be surprised, however, by the number of stressors in your life that you can eliminate.

Learn how to say “no” – Know your limits and stick to them. Whether in your personal or professional life, refuse to accept added responsibilities when you’re close to reaching them. Taking on more than you can handle is a surefire recipe for stress.

Avoid people who stress you out – If someone consistently causes stress in your life and you can’t turn the relationship around, limit the amount of time you spend with that person or end the relationship entirely. 

Take control of your environment – If the evening news makes you anxious, turn the TV off. If traffic’s got you tense, take a longer but less-traveled route. If going to the market is an unpleasant chore, do your grocery shopping online.

Avoid hot-button topics – If you get upset over religion or politics, cross them off your conversation list. If you repeatedly argue about the same subject with the same people, stop bringing it up or excuse yourself when it’s the topic of discussion.

Pare down your to-do list – Analyze your schedule, responsibilities, and daily tasks. If you’ve got too much on your plate, distinguish between the “shoulds” and the “musts.” Drop tasks that aren’t truly necessary to the bottom of the list or eliminate them entirely.

shibli:
Start a stress journal

A stress journal can help you identify the regular stressors in your life and the way you deal with them. Each time you feel stressed, keep track of it in your journal. As you keep a daily log, you will begin to see patterns and common themes. Write down:
What caused your stress (make a guess if you’re unsure).
How you felt, both physically and emotionally.
How you acted in response.
What you did to make yourself feel better.

shibli:
Think about the ways you currently manage and cope with stress in your life. Your stress journal can help you identify them. Are your coping strategies healthy or unhealthy, helpful or unproductive? Unfortunately, many people cope with stress in ways that compound the problem.
Unhealthy ways of coping with stress

These coping strategies may temporarily reduce stress, but they cause more damage in the long run:

Smoking
Drinking
Overeating or undereating
Zoning out for hours in front of the TV or computer
Withdrawing from friends, family, and activities
Using pills or drugs to relax       
Sleeping too much
Procrastinating
Filling up every minute of the day to avoid facing problems
Taking out your stress on others (lashing out, angry outbursts, physical violence)

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