Stress is a physiological reaction that suffers a large part of the population throughout the world. In fact, you've probably had it at some point and probably feel something now.
Because of this high incidence in the world population, I have decided to write this article on How to control, manage and prevent stress .
Some surprising data from Percentages of stress In Latin American countries:
-Colombia: 38% of workers are affected by stress.
-Argentina: 60% perceive symptoms of exhaustion. 80% tiredness and exhaustion and 35% do not feel happy almost never.
-Perú: 78% of workers have suffered from stress.
-More than 30% of the population of the United States suffers stress and is increasing.
- 49% of Spaniards suffer from stress.
-In Mexico, 75% of workers have stress and 25% of heart attacks are related to it.
-In Chile, 30% of work-related casualties are caused by stress.
Be in the country you are, it may have come to the point where you believe that stress is inevitable, that you can do nothing to feel better and have a better quality of life. However, if you can act and solve this problem.
What causes stress?
Although you probably have an idea of what stress is and you define it as"nervousness"or"stress", I will clarify what it is and when you feel it because understanding it will help you to take solutions, overcome it and prevent it.
Stress is a physiological reaction of the organism and you feel it when you perceive that your demands (what you have to do, your obligations) surpass your resources (the things you have to deal with daily life).
I emphasize"perceiving". For example, before a math test a girl can feel very calm because she does not perceive it as a threat and her friend feels stressed because she thinks she will be suspended.
It is not, therefore, a fixed phenomenon that comes from external situations (an examination, a wedding, work), but depends on what you believe, and whether you think you can face the situation or not.
Stress includes:
1-Stressful situation or stimulus (objects, people, things that happen).
2-Our response or behavior to that situation or stimulus.
3-Our thoughts.
But are not there situations that cause more stress than others?
Yes, there are situations like the loss of someone, natural disasters, important life situations (weddings, exams) that cause more stress than others, although the emotions and level of stress that you feel from these situations depend on your interpretation of them.
Why are there people who, in the face of a breakup, become more stressed and others overcome it easily? For the interpretation they make; For example, some people think that they will not find another person. And others â € | how good to be single againâ €.
You may find yourself in a stressful situation that you can not change, such as having to care for a dependent person or having a demanding work schedule (and you do not have the option of leaving work). In those cases you will have to use reinterpretation strategies to the situations that we will see later.
If you suffer stress for long periods of time, you can have negative consequences for your physical and mental health, your social relationships and work: tachycardia, increased blood pressure, lack of initiative, impotence, acne, diabetes, aggressiveness , Low productivity, absenteeism and many more.
However, not all stress is negative
This can be confusing but easy to understand. If for example you are doing a report and you are overly relaxed (quite the opposite of stress), you will be less active and it will take you hours to finish it. Therefore, there are two kinds of stress:
-He negative Which causes an excess of activation of the organism to external situations, maintained in the long term. It is what is colloquially known as"stress"and in the professional / sanitary world"distés".
-He positive , Which provides energy and activation necessary to overcome the demands of situations, known as"eustres".
If you are reading this article you probably feel the first, ie negative stress or distress.
And how to reach balance?
Generally, the activation is positive to work better, however when the levels are too high the problem arises. We do not want to have excessive activation (hyperactivation) or any activation (relaxation).
Ideally, you find yourself in what is known as Optimal operating zone , A point where your skills correspond to the demands of the task.
For example, if you are new to your job, you can have three situations:
1-They ask you to make a report in two hours: you will be out of your abilities because you still do not know your new company, your functions, how to work, etc. You would probably stress yourself: situation of Hyperactivation .
These are situations that you will have to live if or if in your life, however the feeling of stress in them will depend on you and how you represent the situation. Later you will learn about it.
2-They ask you to make a report in two weeks, which if it is within your current competence. You can tackle the situation with an appropriate activation: Optimal operating zone .
3-They ask you to clean the tables. You become bored and discouraged: relaxation .
Strategies for Managing, Relieving and Preventing Stress
The strategies I am going to tell you are equally important, however I will order them to make it easier for you to understand them. They are not difficult at all, quite the contrary.
Many times people talk in the professional world of techniques that then in the real world do not work. However, I have tried these myself and I know that if they apply well they give very good results to improve the Mental Wellness Y quality of life . I struggled to learn them but it was worth it. Propose to adopt them little by little in your daily habits and you will see that you will learn to control the stress.
1- Techniques of management of the time
In many cases, stress arises because we have to do many things and we believe that we do not have time to do them, so we perceive that we do not have control of the situation. However, if You handle it well , You will have time for everything and not only will you gain time, but you will be more effective, effective and creative.
Some tips for managing time:
- Always Plans : Write a list of the tasks that you have to do in the day.
- E-mail is wasting a lot of time: Watch it Once in the morning and once in the afternoon .
- If you are working, Turn off your smartphone .
- Use the Parkinson's Law ; Put limits on completing tasks, plan less time to work quickly, do not take work home...
- Prioritize The most important and primordial to finish.
- If you can, Ask for help or delegate to other people.
2-Decreases demands and builds resources
-A demand Is everything that requires physical or mental effort and is associated with physical or psychological costs. For example the care of the children, works to finish, obligations, etc.
-A resource Is something that helps you achieve your goals and reduce the demands. There are personal resources (self-esteem, optimism and self-efficacy), social (family, friends...) and economic resources.
It will be good to control your stress:
1) Decrease demands : Not working too hard, aiming for goals with more time in advance, having more free time...
2) Build resources : Make friends, build a good relationship with family, save some money monthly...
3-Adopt positive coping strategies
Coping strategies are the behaviors we adopt to deal with demands, problems and vital events. There are many and some are more positive than others. These are the ones that I propose that you adopt to not feel so much negative stress:
- Proactive behavior : This is an active approach to behavior, as opposed to reactivity, from which you act from your own initiative.
- Self-regulation : It is the ability to be aware of your own behavior, plan it and be able to control reactions that lead to negative consequences.
- Goal orientation : Is the ability to to establish objectives And be persistent to achieve them.
- Promotional Focus : It is about putting your attention on the positive results you can get, on rewards, growth and progress.
- Focus on action : The action-oriented coping strategy is based on acting to solve the problems that cause stress. Focusing on what you have to do to resolve stress will help you solve it, as long as you act. Instead, when something is irresolvable (like the death of a person) it will be better to focus on your thoughts (avoiding negative thoughts and thinking more positively).
4-Take time off and adopt a healthy life
Being always busy and working without taking time off is not good and will also be negative for your productivity and health.
Save at least one hour a day to relax and do an activity that you feel like.
- Socialize.
- Adopt a healthy diet.
- Exercise steadily.
- Reduce sugar and caffeine.
- Avoid alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.
- Get enough sleep to feel rested.
5-Meichenbaum stress coping technique
It is a set of techniques developed Meichenbaum And is the most used today to treat stress.
The main objective of this technique is 1) to view stressful situations as problems that can be solved and 2) that do not provoke reactions that are bad for health.
To learn it, you will have to follow and learn a series of steps:
1-Identify situations
Learning techniques and what is stress is very good, but it will not do you any good if you do not know what situations in your life and what interpretations lead to stress.
If you suffer a lot of stress, you may be so busy and stressed that you can not think of where and how your stress arises. However, taking a time of rest and reflection will be necessary to observe the reason for your stress; An important examination, a personal relationship, some obligation, etc.
Identify the stressors of your life Will be the first step to organize and take action.
- Identify the situations that cause you stress and reflect on your interpretation of that situation . Ask yourself: Is it an objective situation? Does it depend on my interpretation that you feel stress? Can I think of another way I do not perceive it as stressful?
When people face a situation, they evaluate it subjectively, that is, they interpret it. For example two people can interpret a difficult project in two ways:
-Antonio:"I do not feel like doing this, it's an extra job and if I do it wrong I'll be fired."
-María:"I can finally put into practice the skills I have learned."
Depending on how you evaluate the situation (what you think about the situation, how you interpret it), you will show one behavior or another and you will have reactions or other (stress or motivation in this case).
2-Training of coping skills of stress
The goal of this phase is to train stress coping skills.
In what situations use one technique or another?
1) For situational problems
For situational problems it is fundamental that you focus on solving the problem, that is, that you do not focus on the problem, but on what you have to do to solve it.
If for example stress is caused by having little time because it does not allow you to see your family, you will have to prioritize and learn to make a more effective time management. If the problem is that your roommate smokes in the living room, you will have to talk to him and ask him not to do it any more Assertively .
You may find these situations:
In situations where you can avoid stress you will have to learn to: say no, avoid stressful issues (politics, religion), avoid conflicting or toxic people.
In situations you can change you will have to learn to: manage time, be Assertive , Express feelings.
In situations you can not change you will learn to: reinterpret problems, adjust your standards, focus on the positive side, not try to control the uncontrollable, learn to forget.
2) For problems of interpretation or thinking
On many occasions it is not the situation that produces stress, but your interpretation of it. The goal is to change how you perceive stressful situations by:
- Restructuring of thought : To perceive in a correct way the situations and the resources to face them. It is based on correcting the thoughts you have about yourself and about events and interpreters in a more appropriate and positive.
- Problem solving : Set options and take the one that suits you. Before a problem, make a list of solutions and, after reflecting on its consequences, choose the one that suits you.
- Positive Self-Verbalizations To deal with situations: it is a question of saying postivivas sentences to yourself as"I can do it","I can solve it","I have the ability to do it".
- Exposure Techniques : The objective of it is to deal with situations that you do not usually face to start thinking that if you have the ability to do so. Visit this Article To read more about it.
3) For behavior problems
-To learn Relaxation techniques .
-Exposure technique: to eliminate avoidance behaviors.
- Social skills learning . Detailed in Chapter 6.
3-To keep the situation stress-free
In order for stress coping skills to be well established in your behavior, you need to practice and reinforce them (for example, you give yourself a prize, you do something you like) consistently when you have done certain activities without stress.
6- NLP to combat stress
The NLP (Neurolinguistic programming) is based on controlling and guiding our behavior in order to achieve better results, to be more efficient, more effective, happier and to get better.
And how do we take control over our behavior? Through our state, which depends on our representation of the world, which depends on our values and beliefs.
For example, suppose we have three semi-professional tennis girls.
Mary thinks thus:
- Beliefs and values (what I get depends on me)> representation (it is possible to win the competition and to do it or not it will depend on my effort and time dedicated to training)> state (is encouraged and motivated to train because it is known that if it does A reward)> behavior (trains a lot).
Results: you will have many chances to win the competition because you will train and your stress (eustrés, as I explained at the beginning of this article) will be positive because you are aware that you can control the situation.
On the contrary, his companion Marta, thinks like this:
- Beliefs (what I get depends on luck)> representation (competition as something that does not depend on it)> state (passivity, discouragement and demotivation)> behavior (not training and losing).
Marta will not train, lose and her activation level is likely to be too low. This would be a case of hypoactivation. Remember that there is positive and negative stress and that the balance is at an average activation level.
Sandra thinks thus:
- Beliefs (I am not at the level of others)> representation (the competition is impossible to win because I am not good as a tennis player)> state (low self esteem, stress)> behavior (nerves, errors, too much activation).
The case of Sandra occurs in many workers and students who believe that they are not at the level of the others and that they do not have the capacity to control the situations. This leads them to be nervous, to make mistakes and even to avoid situations in which they could act successfully but avoid because they believe that they are not at their"height".
Do you agree with me that it is very likely that Maria would go much further in the competition and also in her career as a tennis player?
A belief system like this would help you avoid negative stress, because if you think"what you get depends on you", you will think that you can control situations and act accordingly. And precisely the stress comes to perceive that we can not control the situations and that the demands are superior to our resources to face them.
Your past does not define your future
It is possible that some events in your past have influenced how you are and in some current behavior with which you may be dissatisfied, although if you are aware of how you provoke that behavior, you can change it.
Since NLP states that if for years you have behaved in a specific way is because you have had the same beliefs and therefore the same representations. By changing those beliefs, you can change your behavior.
Work and establish new beliefs to avoid stress
From the example of the semiprofessional tennis girls you will have understood the importance of beliefs to obtain good results and improve your quality of life.
However, you may be wondering which beliefs are most suitable for being happy, avoiding stress, and helping you get what you want. Here are some of them:
- What happens in your life depends on you : You can control situations and deal with them and you have enough resources to overcome them.
- Problems can be solved Putting the focus on solutions.
- Your emotions Depend on your Representations and perception of each situation .
- A situation does not have an inherent meaning . Its meaning depends on what you perceive and how you represent it.
- Do you have Personal resources To deal with situations that create stress.
- your Value does not depend on results That you obtain in a certain task.
- Failure or failure is a simple result , From which you can learn, and one more step to reach your goals.
Although these beliefs will serve you a lot, you need to be aware of what you say to yourself in thinking and try to change those thoughts for something positive. For this I recommend you Practice mindfulness exercises .
And what other ways do you use to control stress?