Stress

Stress is the emotional and bodily changes that we experience in response to difficult situations. Often stress tends to occur when we are feeling thatthe current demands exceed our ability to cope. The changes that we experience as a result of stress (called the stress response)is also known as the fight orflightresponse. While this is a perfectly normal bodily response, having too much of it can reduce our cognitive ability to problem solve the challenges we are experiencing.We need the right amount of stress to feel challenged to improve and grow while not so much thatitimpairs our current ability to solve the problems we have.

Resources

The resources below include articles, videos and practical suggestions, to find a format that works best for you:

Read:

Watch:

Fight or Flight explained

How to make stress your friend

Do/Practice

TAO – Stress

Strategies for Stress

Addressing the Situation (Environment)

There are times when the environment or situation is causing increased stress for us and we modify it to alleviate the stress. This might come in the form of:

Scheduling and Time management
Setting up specific and manageable goals
Asserting boundaries to people who are negatively impacting you

Addressing Our Response

The second way to manage stress involves how we respond to the stress. If we can activate certain strategies to alleviate our body’s reaction to stress, then we can reduce symptoms of stress as well. These include:

Increase Resistance to Stress

Engaging in these practices and habits generally improve our ‘immunity’ to stress. Just like if we are more physically healthy, we are less likely to get sick, if we are mentally well through these practices, we are less likely to feel the effects of stress:

Be physically active at least 2.5 hours per week
Sleep 7-9 hours daily
Maintain a well-balanced diet
Limit caffeine intake
Avoid excessive use of drugs and other substances
Regularly connecting with others
Engage in fun!