Stress is felt to be under abnormal pressure that can come from different aspects of daily life. Such pressures are a transitional period, increased workload, an argument with your family, or new and existing financial concerns. These situations can cause a wide variety of symptoms such as a change in your behaviour, and lead you to experience more intense emotions. You may feel threatened or upset and your body may create a stress response during these situations.

Signs of stress:

Everyone experiences stress and it affects their health and well-being. The following are the common sign of stress:

1. Difficulty in concentrating
2. Difficulty in relaxing
3. Changes in sleeping habits
4. Feelings of  dizziness
5. Continuous changes in  mood
6. Feelings of being overwhelmed
7. Feelings of constant worry 
8. Having a short temper or irritability
9. Changes in eating habits

Stress management helps you break the stress that holds on your life, to make you happier, healthier, and more productive. The ultimate goal is a balanced life, time for work, relationships, relaxation, and fun, and the flexibility to hold on to pressure and face challenges.

Why is it so important to manage stress?

If you are living with a high level of stress, then you are risking your overall well being. Plus, brings problems to your emotional balance as well as your physical health. It enhances your ability to think clearly, act effectively, and enjoy life. Effective stress management is very important because it helps to handle feelings and thoughts. But stress management is not a one-size-fits-all. This is why it is important to do this experiment and find out what works best for you.

10 Tips to Manage Stress

1. Exercise

Exercise also helps to improve the mood because it stimulates the body to release hormones like endorphins and endocannabinoid that help to improve sleep, reduce pain, and stimulate. Exercising people feel less anxious and more positive about themselves because when your body feels good, your mind often follows. You can do these exercises for stress-relief:

1. Swimming
2. Dancing
3. Cycling
4. Running

2. Eat Healthily Food

The benefits of eating healthy food extend from your waist to your mental health. A healthy diet can lower your blood pressure, build your immune system, reduce the effects of stress, levels your mood. Your food should be full of fruits, whole grains, vegetables, and lean protein for energy. This is good for you because it can put you in a good mood, which can actually reduce your stress.

Recommended read: How food affects Mood?

3. Deep Breathing

You should take a deep breath because it helps to take the stress off. You should follow the following steps:

1. Sit in a comfortable position with your hands on your lap and your feet on the floor.
2. Close your eyes
3. Imagine yourself in a relaxing place. 
4. Take a deep breath in and out slowly.
5. Do this for 5 to 10 minutes at a time.

4. Relax your muscles

When you are stressed, your muscles become tense. You can do the following things to reduce your stress:

1. Enjoying a massage
2. Taking a hot bath or shower
3. Getting a good night’s sleep
4. Stretching

5. Make Time for Hobbies

You should take out some time for relaxing hobbies that can make you feel good and help to relieve your stress. These hobbies can be:

1. Watching a movie
2. Playing cards and board games
3. Reading
4. Knitting
5. Doing an art project
6. Doing puzzles

6. Talk about your problems

If anything is bothering you, then talking about them can help reduce your stress. You can talk about this to your friends, family members, a trusted pastor, your physician, or a doctor. Otherwise, you can also talk to yourself which is called self-talk and we all do this. But you need to make sure that self-talk should be only positive, not negative. 

You should give yourself a positive message instead of a negative message that will help to reduce stress.

7. Eliminate Your Triggers

You should find out what are the biggest causes of stress in your life. It can be your job, your commute, or your schoolwork. If you are able to identify the main causes of your stress, then you should eliminate them from your life, or at least try to minimize them.

You should find ways to eliminate and minimize these stresses that make you the most anxious.

8. Spend time with friends and family

You should spend time with your family and friends because they give you support that can help you to get through stressful times. The feeling of being part of a friend network gives you a sense of belonging and self-worth, which can help you in difficult times.

Recommended read: Spending Quality Time with the Family on Weekends or Holidays

9. Get good sleep

You should get a good sleep because it is fundamental to recharge and deal with stressful situations in the best possible way. Approximately 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep is recommended, although it varies from person to person,  depending on the exact amount of sleep required.

Recommended read - Improving Sleep Wake Cycle

Practice the 4 A's of Stress management:

Here I am going to discuss the 4 A's of stress management that can help you to control the stress levels.

1. Avoid:

While it is not possible to avoid every stressful situation because some are part of life and some are needed to boost your performance. But you can avoid causing the stress by reducing the time you spend with the person who is a continuous source of stress. Also, you can avoid environmental factors that make you more stressed like watching the news, being late to the office, etc.

2. Alter:

If it is not possible for you to avoid a stressful situation, the next best option is that you should alter it. This may require you to change the way you operate or communicate things in your daily life. You should change your schedule in such a way that some family time is adjusted because working all the time can be quite boring.

3. Adapt:

If there is a stressor that cannot be avoided or altered, then the next possible strategy is that you should adapt it. You should try to reframe the whole situation more positively which will help to bring back your sense of control over stress.

4. Accept:

Some stressors are unavoidable, unalterable, or unadaptable then the only way is to accept the situation and move ahead. For example, the death of a loved one is a situation that is uncontrollable, so the best way is to accept the situation and resolve to move on.

Finally, I can say that stress can arise in the workplace as well as in personal life. Exercise, healthy food, good sleep, etc. are the tips that can help to improve overall work-life balance. There may be some experiments in figuring out the best stress relief strategies and some strategies may also take practice too. Managing stress is very important for your overall well-being. But you should try to find the tool that is best for you to manage ups and downs in a healthy way.