Dealing with Stress

Whether your in first grade, finishing your doctoral degree, have forty year of experience in your field, or your anywhere in between you deal with STRESS! Stress is a part of everyone's everyday life and that isn't a bad thing. In fact, stress helps motivate you to get the things important to you done. You wouldn't be stressed about a test if you didn't care about your grade. Even though it's good, sometimes are stress can get to be a little too much for us. If you need some help controlling stress here are some tips for you!

1. Talk with someone about what your stressing about:
           Talking with a teacher, a parent, a psychologist, or a friend can be really helpful. They can help you work through your stress so you can think more clearly and work more efficiently. Even if they can't give you any advice you'll probably find that getting everything off your chest will help.

2. Engage in physical exercise:
            Exercising can be a great way to take a break from a project and relax. You don't need to go out and go for a five mile run, but maybe just go outside for a nice walk and get some fresh air. It will allow your brain to take a break and relax. Try not to think about your stressor and just let go.

3. Change your outlook on the problem:
           Sometimes we stress over the smallest things and they really aren't that big of a deal. If your worrying about something try taking a step back and looking at it a different way. For example, if you're stressing about a big problem try breaking up into smaller projects and give yourself a reward every time you finish a part.


4. Pray, meditate or enhance your spiritual life:
            Take sometime to think about yourself and your spiritual life. You'll find that taking time off to focus on a different part of your life can be really helpful to clear your mind and become a little more content before going back to whatever you were stressing about.


5. Find a great relaxation technique:
            It could be a breathing exercise, yoga, or certain stretches. Relaxation techniques can be found online and can be done in a lot of different places. Check out this video of my favorite technique and look for your own.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoM57Z8dRUY

Now that I've shared some way to get rid of stress I think it's important to point out some of the not so helpful methods.

Try not to:

1. Ignore your own needs and work herder and fast
2. Ignore the problem and hope it goes away
3. Over or under eat
4. Smoke, drink, or do drugs to relieve stress
5. Over or under sleep
6. Go shopping and overspend to make yourself feel good
7. Get irritable and take it out on others

I know not all of these things are avoidable ( I can get really grumpy when stressed), but try to recognize when your doing them and work to change it.

     Good luck to everyone on your stress management. Remember a bit of stress is good, but you need to keep it in check. Find the stress management technique that works best for you. If you have any good stress management tips feel free to share them in the comments!