Give Me An "A!"
It’s National Stress Awareness Month - and with stress and poor mental health as one of the biggest public health challenges that we are currently facing, what better time than now to open up the conversation to learn about how to help prevent and manage it.
Whether it’s positive stress like planning a birthday for a loved one, or negative stress such as being laid off; everyone has felt the effects of stress at some point or other in their lives. And while stress is an automatic response from your nervous system, when deciding how best to handle the stressful scenario you’re being faced with, it’s helpful to think of the four A’s - avoid, alter, adapt or accept.
Avoid:
Sometimes easier said than done, but one of the most effective ways to manage stress is to avoid it in the first place. This means being able to identify potential stressors before being able to take the necessary steps to minimise or completely eliminate them.
If the evening news is constantly leaving you feeling down, turn off the TV. If going to the gym makes you feel anxious, download a workout app (like one of the many options we have at Sudor ;)) and workout from home instead. Whatever it is, until you learn where your stress is coming from, and how you could potentially avoid it, it will always remain outside of your control.
Alter:
Having said that, we know that avoiding stress isn’t always an option, and it;s in these instances that alteration can be your magic wand - essentially finding ways to change the situation to make it less stressful. While in the short-term this might require some compromise - like possibly saying no to a night of partying cause you know it will impact your productivity at work the next day - we promise it will be of benefit and result in reducing your overall stress in the long-run!
Adapt:
If you can’t change the stressor, change the way you think about it. Instead of focusing on the disadvantages of your stressful situation, try viewing it from a more positive perspective, focusing on how your experience could rather be treated as an opportunity for growth or development.
Ask yourself; how important will this really be in the bigger scheme of things? Will it matter in a year, or even a month, or a day? If the answer is no, it’s probably time to look for something more important to expend your precious time and energy on.
Accept:
Because let’s face it - some things are just out of our control, and sometimes the best way to deal with our stress is just to accept it as it is. Shift your focus to all the things you can control and you’ll find yourself in a much better position to cope with the ones you might feel you can’t.
Team Sudor