Stress tends to be the crutch of humanity. While most other creatures out there would most likely use stress to their advantage in order to pull through any serious life-threatening situations, we tend to take a different approach when it comes to facing off against stressful situations. We usually either freeze up, leaving us completely vulnerable against any danger whatsoever, or we end up running away with our tails between our legs.
This is the sad truth behind humanity as a whole, we don’t usually know how to deal with stress or what even causes it in the first place. For example, did you know that stress used to be like a sort of spider-sense for us, allowing us to foresee dangerous situations approaching us, telling us that we need to either fight it out or flee with our lives? Yes, that’s right, we used to be dependent on feelings such as stress and fear since they would force us to pull through inhumane conditions and increase the chances of our survival as a species. Regardless of the past though, we no longer require stress as a tool in order to fight it out for our survival.
Nowadays we are taught that our survivability is already conferred to us, and instead, we should concentrate on our passions and hobbies. Although this sounds good at first, this has caused us to become fragile, unwilling to be able to deal with emotions such as stress and fear.
So, despite the fact that stress is meant to help us pull through hard to deal with situations, nowadays stress seems to be nothing more than a bothersome anchor that’s holding us down. Sure, there are plenty of people that can still use stress to their advantage, but alas, too much stress can break anyone, regardless of how powerful they may be mentally or physically. This is why we’ve decided to create this short article for you in which we basically describe how you can prevent stress, deal with it and make sure that you manage it properly by the end of the day. So, without further ado, let’s start with the basics:
Meditation over medication
Pills can do a lot of good things, but they should never be used to deal with stress problems. This is because stress should not be considered a disease. We need to consider it as it is: A signal pointing out that we’re in over our heads. This basically means that we need to use mind-numbing techniques such as meditation in order to pull through any stressful situation.
Yoga helps a lot; just spend your time concentrating on your form and such instead of working on things that you can’t do anything about. Meditate for a good hour and a half a day and we can assure you that your mind will be way clearer than before which will cause your stress levels to lower almost instantaneously.
Smile more, cry less
This might be hard to do at first, but it’ll be worth it in the long run. Unless you’re a psychopath that’s devoid of all emotions you should be able to maintain a positive mindset on a daily basis. Sure, it might sound a bit fake at first, but that doesn’t really matter when the fact is that you will most likely improve your mental state this way over a relatively short period of time.
This is a sort of a “fake it until you make it” type of an ordeal, but if you do remind yourself to keep a positive mindset at all times then you should be able to avoid any stress build-up over the course of the day. In order to help you maintain that happiness level up and that stress level down you can also use media to your advantage. Turn off that depressing news station and instead how about you turn to some childish cartoons? Listen to happy-go-lucky music for once, try some Swing music from the 50s and relax. Life is good; there is no reason to pollute your mind with negativity and stress.
Help those around you
Your mental state is usually affected by what you see around you. If you see some homeless people begging at the side of the road and then you hear that your girlfriend/boyfriend has had to deal with a lot of stress that day then you’ll most likely become quite stressed as a result of that too. In order to avoid this from happening you need to make sure that you help those around you. The more people you help improve their lifestyles the better since you’ll also feel better as a result of that.
So, why not call your mother or father? Ask them how they are, tell them that you love them, that you miss them, tell them that you should hang out more, buy them flowers or whatever might make them happy, etc. Whatever it is, just remember to always respect those around you since mistreating those around you will cause you to look back more, which will in turn make you more stressed.
Improve don’t disapprove
Instead of complaining about how you look or how you act, you need to make sure that you’re always improving yourself with every mistake. Sure, that mistake you made probably cost you a lot more than you wanted it to, but alas, as long as you learn from it and make sure that it never happens again that is no longer categorized as a mistake anymore. It is a stone that you can use to propel yourself even higher, becoming a better version of yourself as a whole.
Stop disapproving yourself and comparing yourself to everyone around you. You have your positives and they have theirs, you have your high points and so do they, and at the end of the day we all know what being overstressed feels like and not one of us likes it. So, instead of overreacting to every issue, you come across, how about you analyze it carefully and move forward with a new strategy in order to avoid those circumstances from ever repeating in the first place.
Treat yourself the way you want to be treated
When’s the last time that you decided that you needed a break? When’s the last time that you treated yourself to some alone time, in which you enjoy your own company and treat yourself to whatever you want to get? If you’re dealing with a lot of stress then the answer to that is probably “not for a long time now”. That’s one of the reasons as to why we are so stressed most of the time. We all need a break every now and then, and that’s a fact. We are not robots, we can’t work for months and months and only see to it that those around us have everything that they need to enjoy themselves. We deserve our breaks just as much as everyone else does, which is why this is so important for our mental states.
So, how about you take a much-needed vacation somewhere this weekend? If you have the budget for it then you can always go for the classic “throw dart at a world map and see where it hits”, but if you prefer something more casual how about you instead just go to a local forest and enjoy nature for a bit? Pick up a book, take your dog out for a walk, go jogging, go to the local park, and eat an ice cream in the blazing sun.
You choose whatever makes you happy, regardless of how costly it may or may not be. You’re doing this for yourself, remember that. You’re not doing this for Jim from management, you’re not doing this for your snobby sibling or you’re the obnoxious boss. You’re the target of this experiment and you earned this, so you might as well enjoy it.
