Managing Stress

Kekich Credo #35 - Stress kills. No matter how painful in the short-term, remove all chronically stressful situations, environments and people from your life.

Stress kills.  Stress is a state of mental or emotional tension as a result of adverse or very demanding circumstances. Stress is typically caused by an external trigger. People under stress experience mental and physical symptoms. These can include irritability, anger, fatigue, muscle pain, digestive troubles and difficulty sleeping.

There are psychological and emotional signs that can indicate that you are stressed out.  These may include depression or anxiety, anger, irritability or restlessness.  You may be feeling overwhelmed, unmotivated, or unfocused.  You may have trouble sleeping or sleeping too much.  You may have racing thoughts or constant worry or have problems with your memory or concentration.  You may be making bad decisions.

Stress is a normal part of everyone’s life.  Managing stress can help you lead a more balanced, healthier life.  Stress is an automatic physical, mental and emotional response to a challenging event.  Psychologist Albert Ellis came up with a math equation for stress.  A+B =C. The ABC’s of stress are A - the Activating event, B - your belief about the event, and C - the consequences or results. 

So how can we manage the stress in our life?  The first step is to determine the current stressors in your life.  Identify ways to reduce those stressors or Activating events.  This credo statement says to remove all chronically stressful situations, environments and people from your life.  Sometimes that is not possible.  Start by accepting the things we cannot control and make changes in your life that you can control. 

Exercise is the most important part of a plan to manage stress.  When you are stressed, your body is saying, ‘Run!’. So do it. To control stress and build a strong healthy body, exercise every day. Often we think we don’t have time to exercise when we are most stressed, but that is exactly when we need it the most.

Your feel-good endorphins and other natural neural chemicals that enhance your sense of well-being can be pumped up by doing some physical activity.  Exercise can also help refocus your mind on your body’s movements, which can improve your mood and help the stressful irritations of the day fade away. 

Here is a list of suggestions to get you active. Walking, jogging, gardening, housecleaning, biking, swimming, weightlifting, or anything else that gets you physically moving.  Which one gets you moving?  My favourite on this list is swimming.  Our pool will be reopened soon!

# living life abundantly     # published author