Juggling the STRESS balls!

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I thought I’d talk about stress as it is so prevalent these days everywhere (and in my life too!). So how do you cope with the stress in your life?

 

I am sure that like most of us, you find that it is okay in the short-term and usually occurs when you are stepping out of your comfort zone. It can even be beneficial in that you are able to applaud yourself afterwards for how you coped with it ………..  whatever it was.

 

What is stress?

 

Quite simply, stress is a response by the body and mind to the pressure that can’t be managed. It is a psychological and physiological/behavioural reaction that you suffer when you see a lack of balance between the demands placed upon you and your ability to meet these demands. This can bring on the flight or fear reaction.

 

Juggling the balls

 

Most of us, don’t usually notice the overall effects on our body, mind and feelings as they are not so obvious one at a time. Yet, if you stopped and identified all the stressors you are carrying and saw them as balls, how long can you cope with the strain of juggling them as more and more come in? No wonder you can get depleted and are running on empty! I suggest you stop and imagine the foregoing right now and see the effect on you personally – never mind those around you! I imagine you are going to be surprised at what you’re juggling.

 

Put stressors into perspective

 

You can also put things into perspective by constructive self-talk:

I can manage

I can cope

Everything will be fine

What’s the worst thing that can happen?

And so on

These will help to dispute your cognitive distortions , eg. ‘I’ve not finished my tasks indoors or at work so I must be a useless person. Most of us find that we’ve added to our stress by blowing things up out of proportion.   I am sure you will know what I am referring to here!!

 

Something else that can happen is when you have the feeling of wanting to deal with your stress, this determination can disappear when something else happens so you simply decide not to do anything about it at all!!    It can be much easier to fret away, or tell all and sundry about the pressure you are under, can’t it?   You can be the centre of attention and your drama queen can come out!

 

Solutions

 

Here are some of my suggestions (love to hear your ones too) and these have enabled me to cope at times too –

• Take a breather by putting music on, singing, dancing, closing your eyes and breathe into yourself or get yourself outside in the fresh air.

• Any kind of exercise is good to get you out of your head and those lovely endorphins will come into play.

• Simply say out loud ‘stop’, take a deep breath and relax.

• Having a good cry or rant can take the pressure off enough to allow you to see the bigger picture.

• Choose a word to say over repeatedly for say 2-3 minutes twice a day e.g. ‘one’ and do that.

• Move your body by relaxing it from head to toe, close your eyes and ask for help.

• Write down what you see are all your stressors – people, events, work, situations, family……

• See the reality of them as you may be ‘making a mountain out of a molehill’.

• Practically see what you can cope with or resolve.

• Find out where you can get help for what’s left.

 

Choice

 

The bottom line is stress management is about Choice –knowing and seeing you have a choice.   It’s also prevention.   When you are so overwhelmed, you can forget about having a choice.

 

I wonder what you do in order to manage your juggling of the stress balls and I’d love to hear from you.

 

 

If stress is getting the better of you, get in touch by e-mail  or via my website and we can have a chat to see how I can help you reduce it.

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