In our day and age, we have to cope with huge amounts of stress on a daily basis. Oxford dictionary is telling us that stress is a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances.
The reason why we are stressed are various and differ from person to person. It might be about money, health, work, kids and so on and so forth. Everything can cause stress for us. And we need to know how to deal with it.
Although I am under a lot of stress, I’ve been told that I rarely look like I would be. One of the reasons why I look like I’m not stressed about anything, it’s because I have my own ways to deal it stressful situations. I choose to deal with the problems and not stress about them.
When I encounter a stressful situation, regardless of what it is, I first take a deep breath and try to detach myself from the situation. After that big breath, I try to see things from another perspective. We always stress about some kind problem, and I always remind myself that all problems have at least one solution.
Another thing that I like to do, is to write down all the things that might help me deal with the situation. Let’s take an example from today, when I felt under pressure because time was running out and I was afraid that I wouldn’t finish some tasks on time.
I wrote down all the tasks that I wanted to finish today. I made a list of around 7-8 items. I picked the top 3 that I had to finish today and started to work on them. If I managed to finish all of them by the end of today, I would start to work on the others. In the end, I didn’t manage to finish all the 7 items on my list, but what good it would have to stress all they that I don’t have enough time. This way I managed to finish a good part of my work and I could go home peacefully.
While these two advices could work on the little things that appear day by day, what about “the big picture thing”? Like relationship, money issues, climate change, health, and all these things that fill your head every day. My advice with all of these is to choose carefully on what to give a fuck about. I wrote a few days ago about a little book called “The subtle art of not giving a fuck“. I highly recommend to go and read it.
In general, life, it’s beautiful. We, with our crazed minds, are making it complicated and stressful. Stop worrying about all the little things, stop making a mountain out of a molehill. This way you will have a better and stress free life.
How do you handle your stressful situations?