How to COMBAT STRESS?

Stress is part of most people's lives. Sometimes it is the high workload that causes stress, other times it is being late somewhere, other times financial problems... Due to this, these same problems increase, since there are many problems at the level of relationships, efficiency is lost and efficiency in the work environment and in other activities on a day-to-day basis and can even lead to major problems at the level of Health. Sometimes, one does not know how to solve this level of stress, and this lack of control over it produces even more stress. In the end, we find ourselves in a situation in which our life is dominated by this emotion.

In this Psychology-Online article we will talk about how to fight stress. We will explain not only different techniques to control stress, but we will also expose what are the different types of stress and we will clarify if it is something useful and necessary in our life or not.

Index

1. Eustress and distress and other types of stress
2. So how do I cope with stress?
3. Practice mindfulness
4. Have healthy habits
5. The importance of free time
6. Modify the thoughts that generate stress

Most people are not aware that stress is necessary in our day to day life. This does not mean that any type of stress is beneficial, but that there is a “good stress” and a “bad stress”. The first is what is known as eustress, and is the one who helps us to be more productive. Thanks to him, people study for an exam, review a presentation in a job, among many other aspects, that is, this stress mobilizes us.

However, it is common for a situation to go from being stressful at a controllable, healthy and useful level, to a level of stress that causes unproductiveness, anxiety, irritability problems. This stress would be known as distress and it is the one that must be tried to combat.

In turn, stress can be acute or chronic. The first occurs sporadically in anticipation of a stressful event (a wedding, a busy day ...) and can appear in the form of pain head, back, accelerated heart rate… For its part, chronic stress is a less intense type of stress but constant over time. It is a stress that wears you day by day and that it is more dangerous than acute. It is the reason for many family breakdowns, work problems, personal relationships... People end up getting used to that stress, that is, to assume that it will be there, however, that accumulation of stress can lead to violence, suicide or diseases of the cardiac. In this article we develop in depth the types of stress.

Work stress and burnout syndrome

In recent years, much emphasis has been placed on work-related stress. This stress not only affects the person on a personal, emotional level, in his family and in his day-to-day life, it also creates various problems at an organizational level.

After a high period of work stress, people can develop burnout. Here we explain in detail the Burnout syndrome. This is made up of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization in dealing with clients, and difficulties in achieving personal goals or with work-related tasks. This emotional state is generated slowly so, on many occasions, it is very difficult to identify it and it tends to refuse.

When it comes to coping with stress, there are several coping strategies having two main types:

• Those that focus on proposing the different solutions to the problem that stress generates us, for example, reducing the number of daily activities, since we carry out an excessive number of themselves.
• Those that focus on the emotional part, that is, on reducing the negative emotions without modifying the stressful situation as it is unchangeable. An example of this is learning to have a healthy emotional outlet.

Eliminating stress or eliminating stress completely is not possible, but we can fight stress. Below we will look at relaxation techniques for stress, exercises to control stress levels, activities to reduce stress, and strategies for handling stressful situations.

Mindfulness is one of the main ways to combat stress. Since stress is a form of anticipation or excessive thinking, mindfulness helps our attention and thoughts to be directed to the present moment. These types of exercises range from relaxations in which we focus on our own breathing to focusing on the taste of the food when we eat, or focusing attention on what you see around you when you walk, so that worries are left to a side. In this article we explain what is mindfulness and how to start practicing it.

As you may well know, healthy habits are essential to have low levels of stress. An example of this is the regular exercise, since it facilitates the regulation of stress since it allows to discharge that tension that arises as a result of stress in addition to regulate hormones by reducing the activity of those involved in stress and increasing those involved in happiness.

On the other hand, some good sleeping habits (regular hours and with enough hours of sleep), good nutrition, reduce stimulating foods such as coffee and replacing them with other more relaxing ones such as infusions, make it much easier to reduce daily stress.

To reduce stress, it is also important to dedicate time each day to activities that we like and relax us. In addition, you should try to share some of these activities with family and friends so that the social environment is relaxed. Therefore, a good time management it is essential to manage stress. Limiting work time, organizing household chores and giving us time to relax and enjoy is the basis of living with a lower level of stress.

The cognitive restructuring it is a useful technique for managing stress. This psychological technique helps us to modify those irrational thoughts that make us believe useless or ineffective when facing problems. To do this, you can write a list of those thoughts you have in the moments that you are stressed and by your side write another that is more rational, for example, instead of thinking "I'm worthless", we would modify it for another that outside "There are things that I am good at and others that I am bad at, like everyone else, and nothing happens for that". It is important to repeat these thoughts many times until they finally integrate into our mind and occur automatically.

In sum, although there are different situations that we cannot change and that a certain level of stress is adequate, we have different strategies at our fingertips that can help us when a situation becomes excessively difficult, whether we can do it or not change.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to How to fight stress, we recommend that you enter our category of Clinical psychology.

• Labrador, F. J. (1995). Stress. New techniques for its control. Madrid: Today's topics.
• Moscoso, M. S. (2018). Mindfulness, emotional self-regulation and stress reduction: science or fiction?. Mexican Journal of Research in Psychology, 10(2), 101-121.
• Salvatierra De la Cruz, N., & Yance Soto, E. (2017). Factors associated with the Burnout Syndrome of obstetric gynecological staff. Huanta support hospital. October December. 2016.
• Vindel, A. C. (2010). Anxiety, stress, negative emotions and health. Caught up in stress.