What stresses you out?

Stress has quietly become one of the most common words in the English language. Anyone who has ever faced a deadline, dealt with a difficult decision or struggled to pay the bills or save money for retirement knows exactly why. The long-term effects of stress are still being widely studied, but it doesn’t take a scientific study to know that too much stress is detrimental to your health.

What is not widely known yet however, is that not everyone experiences stress the same way. And what researchers have begun to discover, is that your reaction to stress depends largely on your attitude towards it. If you take stress too seriously, it becomes worse. You stress about stress. But if you don’t pay attention to it, it lingers in you and eventually comes out. As always, the sweet spot is in the middle.

Think of stress as a useful signal from your body. Pay attention to it, understand it, and then deconstruct it by being aware of what is the source. If you can control the source, then take action; if you cannot control it, then just monitor it until you can. Actively managing stress is the only way to control it.

Start by making a list of all the things that commonly stress you out. Use this list to remind yourself of what triggers your stress levels, and you’ll notice your reaction to stress will begin to change from something you passively experience to something you actively manage.

#stressmanagement #health