Stress Management 101

It’s 6:30 AM and your alarm clock goes off. You grumpily open your eyes and drag yourself out of bed. You do your morning routine and, while making breakfast, spill hot coffee all over yourself… and your spouse. The day begins. You hastily make the kids breakfast in hope that they won’t be late for school today. Dang it! You forgot about that early 8:00 meeting in the office. You practically kick the kids off to school, and rush to the car, tripping on the way over your Golden Retriever who’s always at the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s 7:50, and you’re finally in the car with fifteen minutes to get to work during rush hour. Fast forward the torture of rush hour drive from the suburbs to the downtown, and you’re in your office, late to the meeting, as always.

After a long day of inter-office politics, annoying colleagues, and uncompromising management you’re finally done for the day after three hours of overtime and arrive home with a migraine. Finally, you can space out in front of the TV…right after you’re done with that stack of bills. Hours of meaningless errands go by and you’re off to bed at 12:30; angry, tired, and stressed. It’s 6:30 AM and your alarm clock goes off…well you get the drill.

The details of the story above might not completely describe your situation, of course. You might not work at an office, or have kids, or you might not have to rush everyday to the downtown core. Yet, if you’re reading this article, chances are that you can probably relate to the basic feeling that it conveys. There is one word that describes it – stress, and most of us are all too familiar with it. The triggers of stress vary from person to person, but they all have the same effect; they make us feel uneasy, anxious, nervous, and in one word - stressed. For many of us, stress is a familiar companion in our every day lives, and it is brought on by different situations, whether it be at work, home, school, or anywhere else.

In reality, stress is not the actual culprit here as much as our ability to deal with it. It is our response to stress that defines whether we live our life unaffected by stress or whether we give in to it and live in living hell.

Reducing stress and achieving a state of relaxation is more about knowing how to deal with stress rather than eliminating it altogether. This is because no matter what we do, there will always be stressful situations to challenge us. It is our attitude and perception of these stressful events that determine whether we will suffer, remain unaffected, or even benefit from them.

The first step in achieving a state of relaxation and releasing yourself from stress is to realize and accept the fact that most stress is unavoidable. Although it is possible to avoid specific stressful situations, it is much more difficult, if not impossible for most of us, to avoid stress altogether. Nonetheless, it is completely possible to live your life in a state of relaxation, happiness, and enjoyment, even though it is full of the very same events that used to make you stressed.

When you accept stress as a reality of everyday life and learn how to properly manage it, you stop suffering from its negative effects. In the upcoming articles, we are going to explore just that - various ways of how to control the stress in your life, reduce or end its harmful effects, and achieve relaxation.

Next Article: Breathing Exercises for Stress Relief