A lot of people experience stress, but only a few are able to manage it and even fewer manage it well. While we tend to brush aside stress as part and parcel of life, it cannot be left to resolve on its own. Stress has the capability to affect your health and overall wellbeing, down to your daily life. To this end, it is essential to know what stress is and learn effective stress management tips and techniques.

What is stress?
Stress is the body’s reaction to an external stimulus, which can be a mentally or physically demanding situation. This tension can be caused due to different events related to work, personal, or professional situations and can cause an individual to feel angry and worked up. It can also lead to anxiety and nervousness. There are two kinds of stress, namely acute and chronic stress.

Experiencing short bursts of stress can have a positive outcome. For example, if someone is in a dangerous situation, the body goes into the fight or flight mode due to stress, and this stress can help them avoid danger. That being said, if stress is long-lasting and based on situations like work or money, it takes a toll on health.

How does stress affect our body, and why is stress management important?
When the body experiences stress, it releases a bunch of stress hormones, which alert the brain, tense the muscles, and elevate blood pressure, among other effects. In the short term, these are beneficial as it helps an individual focus on and achieve their goals.

When this happens in the long term, however, the body is in a constant state of hyperactivity, which puts pressure on the physiological and psychological aspects of the body. It hinders how the body and brain function by affecting the thought processes. Over time, stress begins to take over a person’s life and begins to manifest in physical forms like the following:

• Increased forgetfulness
• Stomach troubles like indigestion, diarrhea, and constipation
• Fatigue
• An inability to focus
• Trouble sleeping
• Alcohol and substance abuse
• An inability to relax

In the long term, these side effects of stress can lead to severe health troubles, including:

• Increased blood pressure levels
• Heart diseases
• Menstrual troubles
• Acne
• Obesity

While many think they have the ability to handle the pressure that accompanies the problems life throws at them, this is often untrue. People usually fail to recognize the early signs of stress and soon find themselves in the soup. This is why it is important to lead a well-balanced life, where one can be happy while being resilient enough to handle the troubles and sorrow they might encounter. This makes effective stress management essential, as it helps reduce the physical effects and health issues and also helps maintain psychological equilibrium.

Tips for stress management
Stress management is no piece of cake, but it can be done successfully if you know how. Here are some important tips that can help you deal with stress.

Always begin by identifying the source of stress
It may be difficult to solve a problem without identifying the cause of the trouble. When it comes to stress management, it is important to pinpoint what is causing high levels of stress. It does sound easy and straight-forward, but finding the source of stress is often a tedious process, especially in the case of chronic stress. This is because chronic stress builds up over a period and could have easily been pushed aside without you realizing it.

For example, your job might not be the stressor, but the stress could be a result of the work environment or the stringent rules that come with it. To identify the source of stress, you need to ask some important questions, like:

• Is the stress actually temporary, or are you brushing it aside as such?
• Is the stress caused by an internal or external factor?
• Do you consider stress to be a part of your life or personality?

Answering questions like these will help you identify whether the stress is being created or maintained by you. In both cases, you need to step back and accept the role you are playing before you can move on to managing it. Another way to do this is to maintain a stress journal to jot down the various observations and possible triggers that can help you identify the source.

Indulge in exercise
Stress causes the muscles to tense and leads to a buildup of energy in the body. It can also lead to fatigue and tiredness, along with a lack of motivation. But guess what? The best way to relieve stress is to release the pent-up energy, and what better way to do that to exercise?
An individual with high levels of stress can find solace by exercising, as physical activity causes the brain to release feel-good endorphins like dopamine. Not to mention, exercising is a great way to step away from the stresses of life by releasing the built-up energy in a healthy manner.
Starting with something small is the best way to go, especially if you’re just beginning. For example, choose to walk to the grocery store instead of taking the car, or use the stairs instead of the elevator on your way home. You can also try activities like playing ping-pong or go for a walk in the fresh air.

Once the practice of exercise has set in, you can start indulging in mindful exercises like dancing, cycling, or swimming. Such mindful routines train the mind to pay attention to the body and its sensations, leading to lower levels of stress and effective stress management.

Talk to others
One of the best ways to get the mind off worrying and calm it is to talk to others. Not to mention, talking to someone you love and trust about your worries can help you feel safe and understood, eliminating depression and anxiety. Talking to others also triggers a response that is the opposite of the “fight and flight” mode.

In this process, it is important to remember that talking, by itself, does not eliminate stress but helps provide relief through expression. The best way to curb stress is to eliminate the source, but you can always find support in your close ones who instill the confidence in you to overcome your troubles.

That being said, it is unrealistic to rely on a single individual in times of trouble, which is why it is important to build a network of friends you can approach freely for support during such times.

Fun and stress management go hand-in-hand
Talking to someone and exercising are not the only ways to tackle stress. One of the best ways to combat stress is to step out and have some fun, in whatever way suits you. Yes, we know this isn’t the easiest thing to do with a lack of motivation and anxiety and depressive symptoms kicking in. But with stress management on the agenda, it helps when you push yourself to go out and loosen up.

While we said that you should step out, having fun does not necessarily mean you have to indulge in outdoor activities. It encapsulates everything that comes with pampering yourself. This can be a day at the spa, attending the theater, grabbing a movie, or just indulging in soothing activities like coloring, pottery, or any of your hobbies that help you unwind.

A part of having fun is learning to laugh. It’s no news that laughing releases endorphins and is one of the best ways to keep stress at bay, so learn to laugh a little, be it by cracking jokes when spending time with your friends or just for its therapeutic effects.

Live in the moment
One of the major mistakes that lead to a buildup of stress over time is brushing aside the stressor and the resultant stress rather than dealing with it at the moment.

When you feel stressed, all you need to do is take a deep breath and perform an activity that has been known to release stress. For some, this may involve picturing their happy place, while for others, squishing a spongy ball may help. Yet others may find relief by chewing gum or listening to their favorite music. These stress management techniques not only help release tension but also help manage it in a healthy manner, rather than hoarding it, which can lead to chronic stress.

At the same time, one method may not work for everyone, so experiment and understand what works for you and what does not.

Time management helps stress management
One of the major reasons for stress is poor time management. Feeling constantly on edge, trying to meet deadlines, and running behind schedule can cause anxiety and lead you to avoid basic essential tasks like sleep and social contact.
At such times, you must step back and take a break to help yourself relax and unwind. Along with that, you can sort out the task at hand by prioritizing and preventing over-committing that can add to your stress. It can also help to break major tasks into smaller and doable projects and delegate them to avoid feeling weighed down.

Healthy lifestyles help manage stress
Other than exercising and ensuring time management, chronic stress management requires following a healthy lifestyle. Lack of proper sleep, lack of social communication, and making poor dietary choices can all elevate stress. The following are a few tips to follow to ensure that your lifestyle aids stress management:

• Eat clean: Eating on time and eating healthy are critical for managing stress effectively. Eating nutritious meals can also help you manage stress and keep your mind clear.
• Lower the intake of caffeine: Many who experience stress indulge in the temporary highs offered by caffeine intake. While moderate amounts of caffeine can be beneficial, it leads to a temporary increase in brain function but can lead to poor mood and low energy levels in the long term.
• Avoid alcohol consumption: People who feel stressed often try to escape reality and their worries by consuming alcohol, but alcohol intake and substance abuse do more harm than good. It does not help manage stress but worsens it. For effective stress management, it is best to avoid harmful habits like alcohol consumption and smoking.

Learn to use the four As of stress management
These are ways to effectively manage stress and prevent it from affecting your health in the long term:

• Avoid: Avoiding unnecessary stressors involves limiting or eliminating exposure to certain stressful situations. This includes saying no to avoid taking on too many responsibilities, avoiding people who cause stress, and taking control of the environment.
• Alter: Many a time, you may be unable to avoid a situation that causes stress. In such cases, you should look to altering the situation by expressing your feelings instead of bottling them up. A compromise is a good way to alter the situation and find a middle ground in the case of social relationships, and creating a balanced schedule with both work and fun can also help.
• Adapt: At times, some situations cannot even be altered, so you need to adapt to them. In such cases, you can start by reframing situations to look at the bright side and thinking of the big picture. Adjusting your standards to set up more realistic ones can help prevent stress due to high expectations, and practicing gratitude for all the good things in your life is a great way to train your mind to look at the positives.
• Accept: There are several things that do not adhere to any of the above As, and the only way to manage stress due to such triggers is to accept situations that are out of your control. Find the few pros in a sea full of cons and learn to forgive if someone makes a mistake to help you move on.

Each of these As might be difficult to follow, but they make up the backbone of stress management.