How you deal with stress matters. Unless you were born with a special gift for managing stress intelligently and effectively, this is one of the skills worth your time to develop. Your response to stress can predict the level of success you enjoy in your life and your relationships. How you deal with stress also affects your health.

 

One thing is for sure, if you avoid all stressful situations, your life will be stagnant. Growth requires dealing with stress.

 

See how your ability to deal with stress matters more than you think:

 

Are you an escape artist, distractor, or a solver? Most people respond to stress in one of three ways.

• The escape artist does anything he can to remove himself from the situation. Any solution that removes the stress in the short-term is a good option in his mind. The long-term consequences are of little concern. Hate your job? Quit, even if you don’t have another. Relationship stress? Leave them. You get the picture.
• The distractor attempts to distract himself from the issue that’s causing the stress. This distraction often takes the form of watching TV, shopping, doing chores, surfing the internet, or eating unhealthy foods.
• The solver focuses on finding solutions to the cause of the stress. If there isn’t a solution to the stress, the solver does his best to relax and avoid worrying about anything beyond his control.

 

Negative effects of poor responses. Poor responses to stress can negatively impact your physical and emotional health, as they tend to internalize the stress or cause worse results than the original issue.

• Learning to respond to stress effectively is good for you in many ways!

A huge part of being successful depends on how you handle stress. Most successful people learn positive ways to manage their stress.

 

It’s clear that stress is a part of life that must be managed effectively to maximize success, health, and happiness.

 

Use these tips to deal with stress intelligently and get the most out of your life:

 

Focus on finding a solution. There really isn’t any other option that makes sense. If you’re going to expend time and energy, expend them wisely. Rather than worrying, focus on finding a way out of the situation causing your stress. If there’s nothing you can do, do your best to avoid worrying about it.

 

Keep your head down and implement your solution. Once you’ve found a solution, put your effort into implementing it. This is the best use of your time at this point.

• Consider how different your life would be if you committed all of the energy you spent worrying and put it toward finding solutions and putting them into action. 

Avoid jumping at options that simply relieve your pain in the short-term. A natural tendency when faced with stress is to focus on a short-term solution. While this may relieve you of your stress in the near future, it will also likely cause you even greater pain down the road.

• Avoid using stress relief as a primary objective in your decision-making process. Maintain a long-term focus. 

Everyone deals with stress in their own unique way. We might mimic our parents or still be using habits we developed in childhood. Most of us wish we were better at managing stress. Make time for examining this important part of your life. How you respond to stress matters.

 

If you are struggling to deal with stress or feel you could use some new coping skills or help implementing these skills, I can help. Reach out and set up a time to talk.

https://calendly.com/loridavis013/30-minute-call

 

Lori Ann Davis, MA, CRS