Stress Management

Stress is part of all of our lives. It is a big part of most of our lives. No matter who you are, there is some stress somewhere. Since we all know what stress is and that it is something that we are familiar with, one would think that it would be easy to handle. Unfortunately, it is not. Stress is very difficult to deal with.
Stress is so difficult to deal with that we often don’t. We simply let stress take over and run our lives, never to be dealt with or even managed. Although common, this is a scary thought to me. Stress makes live hard for many. In fact, stress kills people. It is not an overstatement to call stress deadly.
For that reason, I find it important, not only to discuss stress, but to help people manage it. Notice that I use the word manage. I did not say that I help people “relieve” or “eliminating” stress, or give people “stress-free” lives. Stress comes into all of our lives, no matter how happy, efficient or skilled we are. It does not go away for good. You may not feel it or be worried about it for a while, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t come back.
This is where the real change is made. Many of my clients have made great strides in their lives. Stress, of course is an area that we have worked on. When we start working on this topic, there are some major barriers. There are some people that have been completely consumed by stress. While there are others who don’t feel that it exists at all. For many of these people, no matter where they are on the spectrum, there are a few important steps that take place on the road to managing stress.
It goes back to my earlier statement about managing stress versus “relieving” or “eliminating” of stress. Once you realize that you will never completely eliminate stress, you will be in a much better place mentally. Often, I see people get upset over that fact that they feel stressed. It becomes a battle that they cannot win, especially when they are upset at themselves for feeling stressed at all.
While stress management can be very complicated, it doesn’t have to be. That’s right, managing your stress does not have to be complicated. In fact, it can actually be quite simple. It all comes down to three things. These three things are what allow you to manage your stress:
1. Triggers
2. Control
3. Habits
1. Triggers
What is causing your stress? The triggers are simply the reasons or factors that cause you to feel that your stress level is elevated. By identifying these triggers, we can start to make changes to our routine. Just like any other change, the key is awareness. This awareness is the first step you must take if you want to make a change.
2. Control
What can I control? Now that we have identified the situations or factors behind our stress, we can get more specific in our gameplan. Once we are aware of the causes, we can begin to identify the areas of control. Even if a situation feels completely overwhelming, there are likely many small factors that add up to bring your stress level to its peak. Some of those small areas may be in your control. Even if we can only identify a few of those small areas and control them, that could make a significant difference in the overall stress level.
3. Habits
What do we do when we feel stressed? Habits are a way of life. We all live our lives by practicing habit after habit as we go through our routines. The problem for most people is that their habits are causing more harm than good. That may sound harsh, but it is reality. Our health and wellbeing in the US is in a state of emergency. We are not taking care of ourselves the way we should be. If we can identify the triggers, begin to control the small areas of our lives, good habits are already forming. Once we can do that, it is just a matter of practice. We will get better and better at controlling the areas we can control and doing things that help us feel less stressed.

Now, this may only be temporary, but that is the beauty of habits. The more you practice and live your life a certain way, the better you get at it. Now, this has lead many of us down the path of pain and suffering as we have gotten so good at doing things that brought us harm. Remember, a habit is a habit. There are good habits and there are bad habits, but the fact remains that they are all in the same class. Habits function the same way good or bad. Habits bring you the expected results, good or bad. It is up to you to determine how you want your life to go.

Clearly this applies to many areas of life. Stress, although a more dangerous and difficult topic, is no different. If you identify the triggers, focus on the things you can control and practice habits that help you manage stress, than you will be managing stress. When you manage your stress, you get a feeling of accomplishment and everything feels easier. When you don’t manage your stress you get…more stress!

Challenges to making changes

If we expect to see changes, we need to make changes. The actions and behaviors directly affect the results that we get. Results will remain the same unless actions are changed. In fact, the definition of insanity is repeating the same behavior but expecting a different result. So, why are we all in sane? Actually, we are not all insane, but one may wonder when you think about the things we voluntarily do to our bodies. I have broken down a few of the reasons for our challenges in this article:

Fear of change itself
Change can be a very frightening thing. Change means effort and perhaps some discomfort. Change means doing things that you are not used to doing, or at least doing things differently. Sometimes just the thought of doing something outside of the routine can be enough to make you shutter. Is this because it is so terrible? No, it is because we are not used to it and therefore, are unsure of the outcome. That leads us into the next reason we struggle with change:

Lack of confidence to change
It is difficult to even attempt a change if we are unsure that it can be accomplished. If you set out to do something, it is easier if you have done it before. It is much easier if you have done it successfully before. I often ask clients what their confidence level is to reach a certain goal. If it is too low, we will look further into that and actually change the goal in many cases. This shows the importance of setting realistic goals. Our next reason for challenges comes when your goals are unrealistic for you:

Unrealistic or general goals
If we don’t set goals for ourselves, it can be very difficult to reach them. We all know certain things about diet and exercise, but we have to be striving to reach things that we see ourselves doing. If you set out to run a marathon this year, I would hope that you had been running for a while and were comfortable increasing your distance to 26.2 miles soon. Many people simply pull goals out of a hat and say that they will accomplish them. I like the spirit, but if your not specifically motivated and equipped to reach a goal, it is the wrong goal for you. Later, I will get into more detail about goal setting and we will discuss this area further.

We’ve discussed three challenges to making changes. While they may not be the only challenges, they are significant. They are likely to affect your routine, but can be overcome with determination, planning and support. You’ve got to have the determination to change your actions. You’ve got to plan the proper routine and set realistic goals. You also need support around you to hold you accountable. Once you can put that together, you can accomplish any goal and make any change you set out to make.

Funny take on American Health

If you've been following the Olympics, you may have heard about Michael Phelps' routine. He has a schedule to keep that involves a great deal of training, but it also involves a lot of eating. In order to fuel the fire for this amazing feat, he has to consume more food than many could imagine...at least it should be hard to imagine...

"Michael Phelps 12,000 calorie-a-day diet becomes newest U.S. craze
Failure to swim 30 hours a week leads to massive heart failure in thousands of Americans following newest gold medal diet fad"

Original headline posted on The Diary of Fools blog. These guys (and gals) are truly hilarious! They are not a wellness-related blog, but it is very entertaining.