In the previous article, we drew the line between positive and negative stress, and also talked about symptoms that may indicate it. Today we’ll talk about how to restore strength and energy during stressful periods of life.
Stress and its causes
Stress
It is customary to call a state of mental stress that appears in a person due to long-term difficulties in a certain area.
In the modern world, it is impossible not to encounter this phenomenon, at least in “small doses”: traffic jams, torn tights, lack of sleep and other phenomena.
Common causes of stress:
- Conflict at work and in the family
. Most people are trying to cope with stress caused by work problems and misunderstandings with loved ones. - Heavy or insufficient workload
. A person is entrusted with many tasks, and due to the inability to complete them on time, he experiences anxiety. Insufficient workload leads to idleness, boredom, and depression.
- Uncertainty
. The lack of a complete idea of what to expect next leads to a stressful state.
- Uninteresting field of activity
. People who do jobs they don't like often think about how to cope with stress. They are more susceptible to illness, bad mood, and apathy.
Sometimes negative emotions arise spontaneously, they are difficult to predict, sudden events are not uncommon (the death of a loved one, an unexpected illness, a phone breakdown, etc.).
Stress is also provoked by situations caused by the need to make a serious decision (moving, divorce, dismissal).
Ask colleagues for help
If you feel like you're stuck at work, ask your colleagues for help. It's funny, but it's women who usually neglect the help of their colleagues, not men. Men are generally less likely to suffer from stress at work, because they often skillfully shift it onto the shoulders of other people, for example, the same women who simply cannot refuse a male colleague who has given them a compliment.
But for women it is more difficult to ask for help. Therefore, if you are a woman and want help in difficult times, try to help your colleagues yourself at a time when you are relatively free. Just come up and offer help. Then you will have every moral right to ask for a favor in return.
How to learn to cope with stress on your own
Want to quickly cope with stress?
What you can do to distract yourself:
- A funny video
. Laughter is a wonderful way to relieve stress and lift your mood. A video with funny situations (funny cats, oddities) can quickly set the mood for a positive wave. - Deep breathing
. When stressed, the body produces adrenaline, which increases panic. Reduce your adrenaline level and slow your breathing. Take deep breaths and exhales - in a minute you will feel better. - Take up coloring
. Coloring books are not only children's entertainment. Anti-stress coloring books for adults are gaining popularity, helping to calm down, get distracted, “reboot” and return to business with new thoughts. - Call a loved one
. A conversation with someone who loves and supports you gives you confidence, calms you down, and puts you in a positive mood. - Light exercise, stretching
. Even a little physical activity allows the body to produce endorphins, which help relieve stress. Without leaving your workplace, you can do basic stretching, while vividly imagining how your muscles are stretching. Do this regularly.
Set your alarm as early as possible and get up immediately
This recommendation may seem, on the contrary, to increase stress rather than to relieve it. But that's not true.
The longer you can’t get up in the morning, setting the alarm clock for 5 minutes, 3 minutes, 1 minute... the more stress takes you into its clutches from the very morning. This intermittent immersion in and out of sleep does not bring health and peace. As well as the subsequent rushing around the apartment in the format of emergency collections.
To reduce morning stress, you need to get up long before the moment you need to leave the house. And calmly pamper yourself with any coffee or tea in the morning.
Effective techniques to combat stress
What to pay attention to for people who want to cope with stress or prevent it.
Dream
A person sleeps about a third of his life. Sleep is a vital need of the body, helping to return to normal, restoring physical activity and psychological balance. During sleep, the body produces hormones that are responsible for restoring body functions. With a lack of sleep, the nervous system experiences enormous stress. The big danger lies in a serious problem: stress provokes insomnia, which aggravates stress.
Music
A person in a stressful situation will feel better listening to his favorite music. Appropriate melodies will help you throw out strong emotions and calm down.
Nutrition
Many products can improve your mood thanks to important components. “Proper food” relieves stress and increases vitality. Example: paprika, spinach, lettuce, beets. Bananas, containing serotonin, provide the body with vigor and lightness. Chocolate has a stimulating effect on the nervous system, which is useful for apathy, although it requires adherence to moderation.
Emotions
In modern society, it is common to hide your negative emotions. Accumulating anger, resentment and disappointment lay a heavy burden on the nervous system, gradually sinking into the subconscious, continuing its destructive effect. Look for ways to “release” negative emotions through sports, dancing, etc.
Nature
With the onset of vacation, people subconsciously strive to escape to the sea, to the mountains, forest, park, or for a picnic. To places where the eye enjoys the open spaces rather than focusing on endless concrete buildings. Your mood improves where you can breathe fresh and clean air and listen to the sounds of nature. Even a short weekend in a picturesque place will provide the necessary additional energy.
How to be stress-resistant?
If it is not possible to eliminate an irritant at work, you need to try to change your attitude towards it. The following will help increase stress resistance:
- Compliance with the regime . Waking up and going to bed at the same time (no later than midnight) and continuous sleep for 6-8 hours ensures stable functioning of the nervous system. Thanks to this, the body is completely restored both physically and emotionally, which means it can withstand stressful situations more steadfastly.
- Complete nutrition . Saturating the body with valuable substances (especially magnesium) allows it to adapt to stress conditions much more easily without compromising health.
- Physical activity .
Thanks to regular exercise, the body begins to produce hormones that are released into the blood during stressful situations. As a result, “getting used to” them and a kind of hardening occurs, allowing you to experience stress much calmer and easier. An alternative to the gym is brisk walking, swimming or cycling. - Pleasures . Doing what you love for at least half an hour a day allows you to relax and recuperate. It can be anything: crafting, reading a book, watching a movie or chatting with friends.
What can help you cope with severe stress at work?
At work, it is more difficult to cope with stress - by the end of the day you can feel overexertion. If you ignore this day after day, you may end up with depression or chronic anxiety. Constant work loads provoke cardiovascular and other diseases. There is no way to refuse work - look for ways to soften the blow as much as possible.
Some options
:
- Don't get distracted from the task at hand
. Don't lose your attention and don't waste extra energy browsing social networks, reading newspapers, eating extra snacks and chatting with colleagues and friends. By the end of the day, you will realize that your time has been wasted. Take necessary breaks, pre-determined times for them, but do not overuse them. - Follow through
. Don't interrupt your work on an important task by switching to something easier and more interesting. Returning to your previous job will be even more difficult. - Don't put it off until later
. Do you realize that you need to start working on a major project, but are hesitant, instead spending hours watching news on the Internet and convincing yourself that there is still time? Such delaying of the inevitable will not bring any benefit: tasks accumulate, anxiety increases. - Decide on real possibilities
. You can’t redo everything – an important reminder for perfectionists. Sacrifice at work will result in deterioration in well-being, loss of strength, and emotional burnout. - To avoid having to look for ways to cope with stress, seek help in time
. Share your difficulties with your loved ones, ask for support where you can get it, do not pretend to be an all-powerful titan. - Be clear about your responsibilities
. - Plan your time, focus on your responsibilities
, without wasting your energy on things that are not part of your responsibilities.
How to overcome anxiety when changing jobs?
Psychologists have found that 85% of people experience stress when changing jobs.
Painstaking work on yourself will help reduce its manifestations:
- First of all, you need to calm down and perceive your new place of work as the next step in your development.
- Getting enough sleep , following a work schedule and proper time management will help you avoid overwork.
- You can adapt to a new environment by coming and leaving 10-15 minutes earlier than the scheduled time. This will allow you to delve into current affairs and tasks without haste and fuss .
- A comfortable workplace is the key to effective work. You can decorate it with the help of beautiful stationery, as well as sweet little things and photos brought from home (if this is allowed by the authorities).
- Be sure to take breaks and not neglect a full lunch .
If you wish, you can join new colleagues to get to know each other better and establish contact. Also, don’t give up going to corporate events. - There is no need to be afraid to clarify the assigned tasks and be interested in the nuances necessary to complete them.
How to survive stressful conditions - advice from a psychologist
How can you cope with stress according to psychologists?
Several effective methods:
Relaxation
An effective way to combat stress and bad mood, taking little time. Taking a bath, lying on the couch in complete silence, walking in the park - choose your method. Properly done relaxation gives an impressive surge of strength. 15-20 minutes a day may be enough. Achieve complete relaxation, disconnect from external problems and disturbing thoughts.
Rest
Remember the last time you truly rested. Get rid of the burden of worries, take your mind off current problems - relax in a pleasant and relaxing environment.
Physical exercise
Light physical exercise provides a surge of energy and a relaxing effect. The body becomes more resistant to stress. The level of hormones that provoke a good mood increases.
Support from others
According to numerous studies, support from loved ones improves well-being. Some people are hesitant to ask for help, but there comes a time for everyone when it is impossible to solve a problem on their own - ask for help, your stress level will decrease.
Changing the mood
Pessimists regularly become hostage to stressful situations. Remind yourself periodically: no matter what problems you are going through, you have overcome difficulties before and will overcome obstacles now.
Take a broader view of the situation
Realize that most stresses that come into life do not have a radical impact on it - they are just negative experiences. No matter how the waves rage on the surface of the sea, calm will certainly come.
Conversation
All you have to do is speak out to someone, and 20-30, or even more percent of the stress goes away on its own. You can choose a relative, friend, or fellow traveler as your interlocutor.
If there are no people nearby, there is an option to speak to the animal, which may even look at you closely.
After all, according to the old Russian tradition, you can even cling to a birch tree and cry out to it all that hurts.
But it is preferable to use the tree in paper form, writing down your entire history in order to carefully look at it “outside your head.”
This recording option is somewhat similar to dissociation and is very good at reducing emotional intensity.
Daily walk
At least once during the working day, but you definitely need to go outside and reunite with nature there. If there is no nature nearby, then there is still at least one tree. You can approach him, stand next to him, put your hands on him.
A walk perfectly relieves nervous tension. Moreover, both purely physical, caused by being in a sitting position for a long time, and mental.
More fat
The phobia of animal fats, which gripped humanity several decades ago and still continues to rage among those who like to lead a healthy lifestyle, with little understanding of what it is, has led to the fact that the human brain is deprived of the fats it needs. And as a result, I began to work with great stress. And I completely lost the ability to deal with stress.
Therefore, more butter, cream, lard and oily fish. For those with a phobia, plenty of avocado and coconut oil.
