Relieving and Coping With the Stress and Pressures of Life
Everyday we are faced with pressures in life that can cause stress. The pressure can be just about anything. The most common sources are, work, family, friends, ourselves, and those uncontrollable things that happen in life. Each of us deal with the pressures in our own unique ways. Usually, the source of the stress is how one will choose to deal with it. It is generally best to use methods that are healthy to deal with whats eating at you, but sometimes it is worked out in unhealthy ways that, in the long run, serve to make the situation worse. As well, our innate idiosyncrasies, any predisposition to mental disorders, or medical problems can effect how we face our stress. Regardless of these things though, we can learn healthy ways to tackle everyday pressures and stress.
As a life coach, I advocate the use of healthy and life sustaining methods for dealing with everyday pressures and stress. Some of these are not difficult to implement into your life, while others take a little more effort and/or time. Regardless, when you find what is helpful for you, they all will work if given due diligence and patience. Let’s take a look at a few.
Journaling
Going beyond just keeping a log of what’s happening in your life, use journaling as a way to express your feelings in detail like you would do with a therapist. Not only can journaling be used as a stress management tool, it can be uses as a way to self explore. You can then go back to previous entries to reflect on your progress, and to gain insight on solving current/new issues.
As well, journaling is visual helping you to “see” the issue(s) from a different perspective. Once you write things down, they are now “outside” of you, thus allowing you to step back from the situation so that you can begin to have an objective view of what’s going on.
Meditation
Our bodies have three physiological response to stressors: freeze, flight, or fight. As well we begin to experience a rush of hormones, like adrenaline and cortisol, that naturally aid in what or body believes to be a situation in which in needs to protect its self in order to survive. This is a good thing, but as we all know, too much of a good thing can be detrimental to our health. Meditation does the opposite. It calms us down and helps our body to repair the damage of a prolonged state of agitation.
When practiced often meditation can help to avoid additional physical, emotional, and mental breakdown to our body. Now, since it is a “practice”, for some people it may take them some time to get it down. But with patience and, if needed, guidance from someone who is experienced you can begin to realize the many positive benefits of making meditation regular part of your life.
Exercise
Whether is it walking, running, biking, hiking or some other from of physical movement, exercise is another good way to relieve stress. As well there are the added benefits of becoming more healthy, losing weight, and getting in better physical shape. Mental benefits, such as the reduction of anxiety and depression have been associated with exercise too. All of those things can help to provide confidence, self-esteem, and an overall feeling of well being.
Changing Your Perspective
If a source of stress for you is another person or other people, changing your perspective in regard to them can help to reduce stress. You can show them some empathy by attempting to understand what is causing them to act or respond in a negative way. This can help you to see ways to respectfully compromise with, or find a way to make the situation or circumstances a “win-win” for, all involved.
Be Assertive
This is not to be confused with being aggressive. Assertiveness helps you to uphold your rights and communicate your feelings, while appreciating the rights and feelings of others. For some being assertive comes naturally, but for others it is a skill that has to be learned. Understanding how you respond to criticism, your ability to say “no” when you should, how you communicate with others, and your ability to accept a differing opinion than that of your own, are good ways to begin to learn how to become assertive.
There are many more healthy and positive ways to learn how to cope with the pressures and stressors of life. Some of them, with out going it to detail, are developing a spiritual practice, listening to music, laughing, learning time management, eating healthily, taking naps, and getting an amount of sleep that is good for you. You can even to a combination of all of these things. The most important thing is to do what works for you, and do it as often as needed.
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Al Flemming is a certified life coach who creatively teaches people how to better themselves and to pursue their passions and goals. While Al does work with anyone, his main focus is coaching gay, bisexual, and open-minded men.
Take a step toward a fulling life by contacting me and setting up an appointment to receive a free initial coaching session today! http://alflemming.com/contact