How to Relieve Stress and Anxiety?
The most highly recommended technique was: analyse the stress producing situations and decide what aspects are worth worrying about and which ones are not. An attempt should be made to forget the “unimportant” problems. In other words, react only after thinking things through.
The second most popular technique was: spread the load. Do not be a loner; seek help, information, or corner-cutting aid from fellow employees. There are exceptions, but usually your fellow employees are experiencing the same stress and would welcome the opportunity to help and be helped.
The third recommended approach was to set priorities for each month, week and day. Each day perform tasks in their order of importance. This technique should prevent the occurrence of any high-stress, day’s end panic because the most important task of the day has not been completed. Other listed techniques were: have regular sleep and good health habits, keep work and non-work life separate, withdraw physically from a stressful situation, and maintain an exercise program.
Nine Positive ways to Manage Stress:
- Be aware of stress. Attempt to know what types of stress affect you. Many individuals deny they are under stress or refuse to recognize it as significant.
- Be objective not emotional. It is important for you to separate facts from feelings and think objectively.
- Have a general plan. Stress increases when you feel helpless and do not know how to react. A plan gives you direction. Plan for the unexpected and include alternate plans.
- Collect facts and information. It is necessary to collect as much information as possible to support your plan. Knowledge produces confidence and objectivity. You will not fear the stress.
- Be organized. Organize your plan and your facts so that dealing with stress becomes routine. Organization helps to make events predictable and enables you to gain and maintain control. To manage stress, you must be in control.
- Develop a variety of stress-reduction techniques. Relaxation techniques and physical exercise are excellent ways to reduce the effects of stress.
- Be assertive. This does not mean “tell someone off!’ Rather, it means, make your feelings clear without being cruel or destructive. Foster an exchange of feeling between you and the other individuals involved. Your anxiety only increases when you wait for something to happen. You must make things happen. Your plan, facts, and organization should give you confidence to assert yourself. By being assertive you work off energy and act rather than react.
- Use mental techniques. Make visualization, imagery, and/or mental rehearsal a part of your plan. During a time of relaxation, imagine stressful occasions. Imagine yourself remaining in control rather than reacting with tension. In addition, analyse the stressful event into components and practice your response for each part separately, step-by-step, and then link them together. Finally, imagine your reward for coping with the event. The more you mentally practice the event, the more it will become automatic.
- Get feedback. Try to discover your strengths and weaknesses and what you might do to improve. Observe others; ask them how they cope with stress.
Two additional techniques for the management of stress should be considered.
- Always work to strengthen your self-image. You are more likely to handle successfully and benefit from stressful experiences if you like yourself.
- Learn to say “no” when asked to perform too much. The feeling of having too much to do in too little time is often a self-created problem. Feeling that “nobody can get this done except me” ambitious individuals too often accept, create, or volunteer for extra responsibilities. To make matters worse, they then set up or accept unrealistic deadlines. You must know how to say “no”
Relaxation Techniques for Stress Relief
Relaxation is a conscious release of muscular tension. To perform a relaxation technique, you must be aware of the presence of tension. Many people are not aware of how often they tense muscle groups, such as the face, neck, shoulders, and back; they then have difficulty in relaxing the muscles if they do become aware of the tension. But if you can achieve relaxation of tense muscles, your chances of relaxing your mind are good.
Various relaxation techniques have been reported to be successful in the release of tension. Herbert Benson, a cardiologist, proposed the following technique:
- Sit quietly in a comfortable position with the eyes closed.
- Beginning at the feet and progressing to the head, relax all the muscles.
- Breathe through the nose. Each time you breathe out, silently say the word one, or some other one syllable word. Breathe easily and naturally.
- Continue for 10 to 20 minutes. You may occasionally check the time (avoid this if possible), but do not use an alarm. Upon finishing, sit quietly for several minutes.
- Maintain a positive attitude and allow relaxation to occur at its own pace. When distracting thoughts intrude, try to ignore them by not dwelling upon them, and continue to repeat the word one.
- Practice this technique once or twice daily, but not within two hours after any meal. The digestive system seems to interfere with the success of this technique.
The Benefits of Relaxation Techniques
Other techniques promote relaxation by intentionally increasing and decreasing tension in muscle groups. Either sitting or lying in a quiet, comfortable setting, contract and release various muscles in this sequence: toes, feet, lower legs, upper legs, buttocks, stomach, chest, hands, lower arms, upper arms, shoulders, neck, face, and scalp.
Various forms of meditation also can be used to help you relax. Most of these techniques involve sitting quietly for 15 to 20 minutes once or twice a day while concentrating on a word or image and breathing slowly and rhythmically. This is similar to Benson’s technique. As your mind concentrates on the word, image, or breathing, it frees itself from worries and problems. As your mind relaxes, the muscles relax.
It is not necessary for you to invest a large sum of money to develop a relaxation technique. With practice, you can be successful in one or more of the above techniques, or you may instead wish to develop your own technique.
