Stress Counseling Tips On How To Manage Stress Better
Stress. It is something we all can relate to, something we all have felt, but what is stress and how can stress counseling tips help?
Stress is defined as a state of emotional or mental strain resulting from demanding circumstances.
The first step in overcoming or managing stress is to pin point it's causes. Stress can develop due to school, work, relationships, finances, etc. Once you recognize the origination of the stress, try to further understand your stress.
- What happens when you are put under stress?
- What are your negative outcomes of stress?
- What are your positive outcomes of stress?
Look at your current coping mechanisms for stress, what works for you and what doesn't. Implement the strategies that help alleviate those warning signs and symptoms of stress. Stress counseling is also a helpful resource for finding areas of stress that you might be overlooking.
What Does Stress Feel Like?
If you're unfamiliar with symptoms of stress, they can range from stomachache to nausea, difficulty sleeping to anxiety, panic attacks to heart arrythmias’, depending on the level of stress and overall health. Stress is a leading cause of heart disease and diabetes. Stress counseling with a professional can help you understand and work on your stress levels. This is very important for both your mental and physical health.
Tips On How To Manage Stress Better
Don't have coping strategies? Here are some stress counseling tips that have been found beneficial by those dealing with over-bearing stressors:
- Meditation or Guided Meditation if you have a busy mind.
- Yoga exercises or classes.
- Quiet places, lower sounds.
- Bettering your diet.
- Sleep in healthy regulation.
- Journaling or writing.
- Planner for scheduling balance.
- Self-Care techniques.
- Positive self-talk and thinking.
- Aromatherapy.
- Drinking tea.
- Social support.
- Nature, taking walks.
- Breathing exercises.
- Physical exercises like EFT (Tapping) and Biofeedback.
- Sometimes take a hiatus or break from the specific stressor.
While these coping strategies help some people, they may not fit you. Coping and managing stress is a trial and error process that takes time. Be patient with yourself and your own individual path of overcoming. If you need to talk to a stress counselor, they can help you find techniques that will work best for you.
Positive VS Negative Stress
Not all stress is completely negative. There are stressors that have a positive influence on your functioning, which is called eustress. The opposite reaction of negative stress and anxiety is called distress.
Eustress manifests like any other stressors, however it improves your performance on certain tasks, focuses our energy on what we are currently doing, is short-term and almost feels exciting. Whereas distress can range from short to the long-term, decreases our overall performance and abilities, and feels unpleasant physically, emotionally and mentally. Understanding good and bad stress can help define coping strategies and inhibit future distress.
Stress Is Normal
A key thing to remember with stress is that everyone feels it. You are not abnormal in any way if you are undergoing stress. You can be more prone to stress when taking on new life roles, significant life changes, the beginning or end of a new relationship or job. Stress is just a feeling of your boundaries and coping not being balanced. Take these feelings and perceptions into account and question why you feel this way. Understanding these feelings and how you talk yourself or work yourself through them is key in your process of managing and developing a resilience to future stressors.
Stress Counseling Help
Pay attention to yourself, your health, your self-care and your stressors and their negative effects will decrease.
If you're having difficulties understanding your stressors, finding coping strategies or would like to talk through balancing your life roles and tasks, contact Orlando Thrive Therapy today at 407-592-8997, or contact the author of this article directly at malloryhawkes@gmail.com.
