Stress Management
Stress Management and the Vicious Cycle
Stress management came be such a vicious cycle. Most of us may deal with a typical scenario like this:
5:00 am – Time to wake up and get the kids ready for school
7:30 am – Hit the road and sit in brutal traffic for an hour and a half….try to handle some phone calls, emails while you are on the way
9:00 am – Your first appointment hits you and then you realize it’s going to overlap another appointment which in turn overlaps another. Then you realize you have two projects due by 1 pm so you frantically reschedule some appointments to you can make your deadline. This process continues for 8 hours.
5:00 pm – You make the brutal commute home, try and answer some calls emails if possible
6:30 pm – Make dinner, help the kids with homework, get them to bed, put in another couple of hours of work while trying to see how your significant other is doing and how their day went.
11:00 pm – You crash, get some ZZZ’s only to start the cycle all over again in 6 hours
Does this sound familiar? I am sure for many of us it does. This kind of cycle is brutal on the body and is a leading contributor to the amount of stress we have in our lives. Stress management takes discipline and it takes decisions. We cannot simply just allow an out of control pace to continue. There are times when this cannot be helped but this should be an exception and not a rule.
Tips For Stress Management
Here are five tips for stress management that will make a difference right away.
1. Make sure you exercise on a regular basis and eat properly. Sounds simple but it is one of the most major items people decide not to focus on and really it is one of the simplest.
2. Analyze your lifestyle and hone in on the key items that are causing stress. Are there ways to eliminate these items or effectively manage them? Make sure you write them down. Writing them down has a much more solid effect as to how quickly you will deal with them.
3. At the end of the day turn the devices OFF! Using digital devices prior to going to sleep affects proper REM sleep. Make sure you take some time to zone out and relax before going to bed.
4. Time management is critical to stress management. Don’t overbook yourself and do not procrastinate. Be focused and be deliberate. Make sure you have a solid routine for the day and do all that you can to stick to the plan.
5. Use your environment wisely. Is there music you can listen to that helps keep you calm? Are there fragrances that make you happy? Ask yourself these kinds of questions and see if implementing them can have a positive effect.
The most popular and time tested way to manage stress is to simply laugh and smile. Most of the time we stress over items that are completely out of our control. Break the cycle and have some solid “me” time to recharge those mental batteries.
Written by Jonathan Saar
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