How To Manage Stress In Our Day To Day Lives And Reduce Risk Hypertension

By Author: Ramesh Vittal
Total Articles: 26
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All of us have undergone stress in our lives at one time or the other. However, what we have never been to understand is the reason why we are unable to cope with stress and why we let ourselves get into a stressful situation in the first place. It is either too many bills to pay or not enough hours in the day to complete the assigned tasks and run the errands. The career and family responsibilities always seem to be demanding more from us.

The truth however, is that we actually have a lot more control over things than we imagine. Once we realize that we are in control of our lives, half the battle is won, as that is the foundation of stress management. It’s actually all about taking charge. To be more elaborate, we need to be taking charge of our thoughts which will in turn ensure that we will be able to take charge of our emotions and our actions. This would logically lead to taking charge of our schedules and the way we approach a problem and ultimate how we deal with it. The goal is to understand that there is only this much time available and there is no way of increasing that! The sensible thing to do then would ...
... be to allocate time for work, relationships, relaxation and - of course, some fun, combine this with a steely determination to put up with a bit of pressure and be prepared for the challenges that lie ahead.

Does it make sense when we start off by identifying the causes and more specifically the sources of stress in our lives? Sure it does, however the difficult part is to understand that the causes for our misery lie within us and is never created by a third person. For instance, we could be constantly worried about our deadlines at work. However, the actual reason may be because of putting away today’s work for either tomorrow or another day, and not because the job itself is demanding. How many times have we told ourselves, “I can always do this later, there is enough time”? Well, the crux of the issue itself could be our lethargic attitude.

It is a normal practice to conveniently shift the blame on events or people or anything conveniently available at hand rather than accept responsibility. As long as this attitude persists, the stress level will remain outside our control. One good remedy for this would be to maintain a stress journal and jot down stressful incidents which could help identity the regular stressors in our daily lives. It would pay to write down what caused the stress, how badly it affected us, what kind of a reaction it created, what subsequent action gave a sense of relief (other than yelling at and taking it out on someone)

How we have been managing the stress (or think we have) till now is very important. It is better not to resort to unproductive and unhealthy strategies like excessive smoking, drinking, being withdrawn, going on spending sprees, sleeping too much, avoiding tasks and trying to postpone them, taking it out on others, etc as all these are really counterproductive and add to the stress levels.

It is better to change our reaction to a particular situation rather than trying to change the situation itself. The former is well within our control while the latter is dependent on many factors. It is time we learned to say “no” – gently yet firmly. Never attempt taking on more than you can handle. It is not considered a weakness when you refuse added responsibilities. Keeping away from people who stress us would help. If crowded places make us nervous, let us keep away from such places. If too much noise is bothering us, let us try to find a quieter locality. With a bit of give and take and being assertive where necessary should help us fight stress better. More such interesting topics are found on the Internet which you can access through Charter Cable.

Randy Collins is a freelance author who is concerned at the hectic pace of life being led by most people and likes to keep himself updated by reading and writing about stress management techniques. He loves to browse on the Internet through the services of Charter Cable