Stress... what it is and how we can deal with it..

We all experience stress in our daily lives. It is an inevitable and inescapable aspect of living. However, there are two kinds of stress. The first is positive, energising, and motivating. It is a force that gets us moving and galvanises us into action. The other type of stress has a negative effect on us. This is when we experience an overload of stress from a situation, producing fatigue, exhaustion, physical illness or tension.

Identifying your stressors:
You need to learn to identify which situations you find difficult so that you can beter manage the stress in your life. When we refer to someone being stressed, we perceive that she/he has too many depands placed on the person. All of the issus below may increase the level of stress in a person's life, and common reasons people give for their stress:

* Relationship is in trouble
* Financial pressure
* Family demands
* Ill health or cronic pains
* Deadlines or work overload
* Too many tasks to do in too little time
* Feeling out of control
* Feeling insecure about future plans
* Not enough personal time
* Frustration at work
* Boredome, monotony or lack of stimulation


People react to stress in different ways - often negative causing the overall behaviour to differ from the norm.

How do we manage this stress?
First of all, for something to be stressful we have to perceive it as a cause for stress. Sometimes we exaggerate a situation's potential effect so hat it becomes stressfull. Secondly, we often undermine our ability to manage problems. By expecting a situation to be difficult we perceive it as stressful. If you don't expect to cope, you probably won't. Conversely, with positive expectations, you have the power to diminish the level of stress. So choosing your attitude can be the key to the amount of stress you suffer.

How can we avoid excessive stress in our lives?
If you can identify the causes of stress in your life, you can then learn to deal with stress in a constructive way:

* Plan your time, and write down everything that you have to do each day
* Make sure you have enough time for yourself each week, for the things you enjoy doing
* Spend time with friends - social contact is therapeutic
* Exercise regularly
* Make sure you have something to look forward to - holidays and treats


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Borrowed from "The Pocket Book Therapist"
by Susie Wise and Cyndi Kaplan-Freiman;
Chapter 4 : Understanding and Managing Stress (pg 52-55)