Stress is a deeply rooted problem; far too many people experience it in today’s world. When asked, over half of Americans claimed that they had been stressed for “a lot of the day” beforehand. Individuals worldwide — and especially in the United States — are struggling with how they react to the stress surrounding them. In this article, we’re going to introduce you to a few self-care ideas for stress that just plain work.
Self Care Ideas For Stress
Fortunately, if you take some time to identify your stress triggers, it can go a long way in facilitating how you react to stress in your own life. Here are a few steps to help you do so.
Start By Understanding Stress
It’s essential to begin by remembering that stress, on its own, isn’t a bad thing. Merely speaking, stress is how you feel about external, unmanageable pressures created by your circumstances.
When you’re playing soccer, and you need to shoot, there is natural stress created as you attempt to take a shot with a defender on your back. It’s that simple.
The problem isn’t the stress itself, but rather how you react to it. The world naturally puts many demands on each individual.
It’s your response to those demands that will define how stressed you are. Start by considering what kind of stress you have. Stress breaks down into one of two different categories:
- Acute stress: This is the stress you feel in the moment, such as right before a difficult conversation or when you get caught doing something wrong.
- Chronic stress: This is the stress that comes from persistent, recurring pressure that isn’t necessarily incidental.
Acute stress is a normal, healthy part of life. It’s the “fight or flight” reflex that is a survival instinct. If you’re dealing with chronic stress, though, you’re going to want to do something about it.
Next, Investigate Your Stress
It’s difficult to address your stress if you don’t understand what is causing it. This is the same reason it’s difficult to calm down when you’re angry if you don’t know what is fueling your rage.
You can start your destressing efforts by investigating your stress to see what is triggering it. A few suggestions for ways to do this include:
Self Care Ideas for Stress #1: Creating a journal
A journal is a great way to flesh out and understand your feelings. For instance, if you’re a college student who feels stressed, a journal can help you pin that stress to grades, a lack of sleep, or financial concerns. In the same way, anyone will find it helpful to delve deeper into their stress source by journaling.
Self Care Ideas for Stress #2: Talking To Your Support Network
Family, friends, and even your employer are regularly able to observe your habits. They may be able to enlighten you by helping you identify what is stressing you out.
Self Care Ideas for Stress #3: Conduct Some Research
Sometimes, the quickest way to identify your triggers is by looking up what tends to stress other people. For example, if you’re dealing with anxiety, it may be associated with common triggers such as school, money, health, or even caffeine or alcohol.
By digging into the causes behind your stress, you lay the groundwork to eventually deal with it.
Finally, Address Your Triggers
Once you’ve identified your triggers, you can take steps to address them with some necessary self-care activities. Sometimes these can be proactive, such as looking for ways to lighten an overburdened school schedule or cleaning up a cluttered space.
At other times you can be more reactive in your stress management.
Getting a massage or asking your boss for a mental health day could allow you to unplug, detox, and release some of that pent-up stress and anxiety.
Eliminating Stress Caused by Your Triggers
Stress can be difficult to live with, especially when it isn’t managed correctly. If you want to address rampant stress in your life, you must take the time to identify what it is that is triggering that stress in the first place.
Once you’ve done that, you’ll be able to follow these self-care ideas for stress to mitigate your anxiety in an effective manner that produces results.
