Uncovering the Right Ways to Manage Stress & Stressful Situations

Whether it’s at home or at work, stressful situations can arise at any time, and you don’t often get much warning. So, you need to think about the right and wrong ways to manage stress in your life. If you take the wrong steps when you’re confronted by stressful situations, you could make things far worse than they really need to be. Why make a bad situation even worse than it already is? That certainly doesn’t help you.

Of course, most of the reactions you have when stressed are instinctual and not necessarily thought through. So, the first thing you need to get better at is staying in control of the situation you find yourself in. If you allow yourself to be sucked into the stressful situation, you might not be able to control your reaction to the situation.

Once you’ve mastered the art of staying in control of the situation you find yourself in, you need to know what the right things and wrong things to do are. So I’ve outlined things that you should avoid doing, as well as the things that you should try to do when you’re stressed out.

The Wrong Ways

First of all, we’re going to look at the wrong ways to manage stress in life. So, no matter what you do, make sure you don’t respond to stress by doing any of these things.

Only See the Bad

It’s easy to be negative when you feel massive stress on top of you. However, if you allow your mentality to become too negative and dour, you will only make the outlook seem even worse than it really is. It can be much healthier for you if you try to look at the brighter side and see the positive. Of course, that’s something that is often easier said than done. It is something you can work on, though, and you definitely should. If you can, you will stop feeling quite so down when you’re under pressure and feeling stress.

Lashing Out at Those Who Aren’t to Blame

Unfortunately, it’s all too common for people to lash out at the people around them when they’re feeling stressed. And it’s often those closest to you that you end affected. This is an example of how stresses at work can carry over into your personal life. But it makes no sense to lash out at the people around you when they’re not to blame for the causes of your stress. Don’t be the person that destroys your personal relationships because of stress. This happens all the time, so don’t assume that it can’t happen to you as well. Find a way to control your anger when you’re stressed and lean on people for support – don’t lash out at them!

Ignoring the Problems

The same way you shouldn’t lash out when you’re feeling stressed, you should also avoid burying your head in the sand and ignoring your problems. The bottling it up approach is a tried and tested method, but it doesn’t produce long-term positive results for you. In the end, it could simply end up delaying your problem and maybe even making them worse. That’s not what you want, so you should never think that you can escape your problems by simply pretending they’re not there at all. Your problems and stresses will catch up with you in the end.

Turning to Cigarettes, Drink or Drugs

So many people reach for a crutch when they are forced to deal with stressful situations. For me, that used to be smoking. Luckily I recently started vaping which has helped me quit cigarettes all together, but still gives me my nicotine fix to keep the edge off. You can find out more about vaping over at Vape Shop. And if you’re ever tempted by drugs or find yourself drinking in response to stress, make sure you seek the right kind of help.

Comfort Eating

Another thing that we can sometimes be guilty of when stressed is comfort eating! Food is something people can easily reach for when they’re stressed. Food might not seem as obviously bad as cigarettes or alcohol. However, if you persistently overeat when you get stressed, you could soon put massive pressure on your body. Things like heart disease and diabetes are all too common, and you’re more likely to be affected by things like that when you eat too much of foods that are bad for you. Whatever the answer to your problem is, it’s certainly not food, so don’t use comfort eating as your crutch.

Shutting Yourself Off

Shutting down and retreating into your shell is never helpful when you find yourself in a stressful situation. It might be tempting to take this course of action when it seems like the world is closing in on you and everything is conspiring against you. However, there isn’t a conspiracy against you. So shutting yourself off from everything is not the right way to deal with the situation. It will only make things harder for you in the long-run because your problems and the causes of your stress will still be there later.

The Right Ways

So what about are the right ways to manage stress and stressful situations? Be sure to note these ideas down and make the most of them when the time arises.

Find Relaxing Outlets

One good way to respond to stress is to find a relaxing thing you can do to get back on an even keel. This will differ for different people. You might like to take a long bath when you’re feeling stressed out. Alternatively, you might prefer to read a book or listen to certain kinds of music. There is no right or wrong way to do this. Keeping a diary or journal is also helpful. If you like to keep a bullet journal you can also use a page for a mood tracker. If you have a relaxing outlet that works for you and helps you to feel more relaxed, then it doesn’t particularly matter what it is. The outcomes are all that matter when it comes to combatting stress.

Seek Help When You Need It

If you are having problems with stress, it could be linked to other mental health problems. If you are starting to feel like everything is getting on top of you and you don’t know where to turn, seek help from the professionals. There is nothing to be ashamed of in seeking help when you need it. It’s not a case of admitting defeat or showing weakness. Anyone can be affected by stress, and there is always help for you out there, even when the situation itself seems pretty helpless to you. So, make the most of it.

Get Some Alone Time

Sometimes, the best thing you can do when you’re feeling stressed is grabbing some alone time. Being surrounded by other people when you feel stressed, be they colleagues or family members, can make you feel even worse about your situation. That’s not what you need, and it can actually compound your stress and make you feel even worse. By getting some time alone, you will have time to think things through and process them in a calm and concentrated way. That can help you find the right solutions too.

Talk Openly With Someone Close

If you have someone close to you who you feel like you can confide in, you should turn to them whenever you feel like stressful situations are mounting up. Having that support and knowing you can rely on it whenever you need to can make a real difference. We all need other people we can rely on. And that’s even truer when you’re going through situations and experiences that are stressful for you. Simply talking things through can have a huge impact on how you feel.

Do Something Active

For many people, the best way of relieving stress is to do something active. If you haven’t tried this before, you should probably give it a go. Whether it’s running through the countryside or cycling on roads, getting active can help you to work through stress and have you feeling more positive by the time you’re done. It could be just the kind of outlet you need. And there is no such thing as too much exercise, so it will do your body good too.

Tackle Issues Head-On When Possible

If something is causing you stress, it doesn’t make sense to just ignore it and carry on. Instead, you need to try to tackle it head-on and find a solution to the problem. If you can do that, your entire life will be a lot less stressful going forward, and that has to be a good thing. Have the confidence to approach topics and issues with other people if they are causing you to feel under pressure and stressed out. It will probably be easier for you to find solutions than you imagine.

Stress is one of those things that we all have to deal with at one time or other. What matters most of all is how you try to manage stress. Will you let it beat you? Or will you take the right steps in order to get things back on track? Ultimately, that’s up to you.

Have you ever suffered from stress? Got your own tips to share for overcoming stressful situations? Let me know in the comments below…