Stress causes a host of medical problems including high blood pressure, heart palpitations, anxiety and depression. Learn about some stress management tips to help you identify stress, cope with stress and prevent stress in your life.

Identifying Stress

Chronic Stress The first step in managing stress is learning to identify the things that cause you to stress. People tend to overlook the obvious and blame such things as work, home life or outside events. One of the best ways to help you figure out what is stressing you out is to begin a stress journal. Keeping a daily log of all of your activities, emotions and responses can help you begin to notice certain patterns or themes. Write a journal each day.

Step 1 – Write down what you believe caused your stress to increase (If you are unsure of the cause, make a guess and write it down.).

Step 2 – Write down a description of you how felt emotionally and physically at the beginning of the day, the middle of the day, and the end of the day.

Step 3 – Write out any responses you took to the stressful situation. For example, did you have an emotional outburst or did you remain silent and stew on the problem.

Step 4 – Write down anything you did to make yourself feel better. Did you eat, take a nap or enjoy a hobby? Did you participate in any unhealthy habits? Smoking, overeating, withdrawing, procrastinating, lashing out or drinking too much are all forms of unhealthy coping mechanisms that should be avoided.

Learn to Cope with Stress

Learning how to cope with the stresses in life is vital to a healthy, happy and productive life. Stress management involves learning new coping mechanisms. When it comes to coping with stress, you can either change the stressful situation or change how you react to a stressful situation.

Coping skills may include activities you enjoy, such as enjoying an afternoon out with a friend, creative activities, attending church or participating in your favorite hobbies. Other options may include talking about your stress with a close family member or friend, meditation, yoga and counseling.

Learn to Prevent Stress

Life in general is stressful, but there are things you can do to limit stress. Learning how to say no can help alleviate stress. By paring down your Mood Disorders responsibilities and schedule, you can help eliminate stress.

If there are certain people who cause excess stress or certain things that stress you, remove them from your life. For example, if you have a friend who is always negative, spend less time with them to help you enjoy life more.

Try to find the bright side to any situation. For instance, instead of stressing out about going grocery shopping, be thankful that you have a family to feed and money to buy food. By adjusting your thought process, you can turn almost any negative situation into a positive one.

By learning the aforementioned stress management tips, you can feel great and eliminate anxiety from your life. The aforementioned stress management techniques can help ensure you get sound sleep that will rejuvenate you and keep you happy and healthy.