8 Guidelines To Help You Overcome Stress
Stress is a natural response of our body that has allowed our ancestors to survive, advance and face the different challenges that were presented to them, which for a long time were mainly: eating and not being eaten. Our organisms are prepared to face a short-term physical emergency, a temporary crisis, after which either we have not been eaten and we have eaten or the opposite, and little else can be done.
Our reality is no longer what it was and most human beings no longer have to worry about being eaten, although we have changed those stressors for more sophisticated ones. However, our brain seems to care that our problems are more complex and difficult to solve at the moment and activates the same physiological responses to an immediate problem as to concerns that are not present or tangible, but that affect us in the same way and they can be prolonged indefinitely in time.
Our body is prepared to face those physiological changes that any mammal experiences in the face of danger and that allow it to survive, but when these responses are activated repeatedly or are not deactivated in an adequate way, they can become very harmful to our health. It does not mean that chronic and repeated stressors make us sick, but rather that they increase the risk of us contracting certain diseases (which are the ones that make us sick) or, if we already have one, they increase the risk that our defenses are overcome. for her.
We cannot change this increasingly stressful society, we cannot eliminate traffic jams, or convince our boss to be more patient, or prevent the loss of someone we love, or that we have to deal with the mortgage every month, but we do we can (and must if we want to maintain our health) change our attitude towards what causes us stress and anxiety. It is not an easy path, but it is very beneficial.
The key is that not everyone is affected by very similar stressful situations in the same way. If we did a small study in a traffic jam, we would see that in the same situation, not all drivers who have been held back react the same. There are those who despair, tirelessly honk the horn, even knowing that it will be useless, even shout and insult the driver who has had the misfortune to have them behind. However, in the same traffic jam we will also find drivers who, faced with the same situation, and even worse, simply turn up the music, relax and wait for the traffic jam to end. Who do you think will live the longest? Who is happier? Who do you want to be?
8 guidelines to overcome stress
1. Don’t forget to enjoy life. Sometimes we take our goals so seriously that we lose our way. If by doing all those pending tasks that we have set ourselves, and that will never end, we miss the good times, what is the point of all this?
2. Try to live in the here and now, sometimes we worry so much about what is to come that we are not able to enjoy the present. Many times we live tormented by the “what ifs …” and in most cases they are situations that never happen.
3. There is no use worrying about what cannot be changed. Faced with certain unsolvable problems, such as death, it is better to try to modify our attitude. Engaging in fighting ghosts takes away the energy that we can use to solve more immediate and tangible problems that can greatly improve our lives.
4. Although there are things in our environment that we cannot transform, there are others over which we can exercise some control. It is useful to learn to better organize our time, establish priorities, make realistic schedules, avoid certain situations as much as possible, and also certain people who cause us stress, know how to say no, delegate responsibilities, etc.
5. Try to think positive : people who see the bottle half full instead of half empty tend to suffer less stress. It is necessary to transform our inner dialogue and instead of telling ourselves how badly we do everything and how bad things are going to turn out, try to encourage ourselves and support ourselves with encouraging and positive phrases.
6. Strengthen your personal relationships and let yourself be helped. It is important to learn to ask for help. We are social and emotional beings and we need others, as they need us. Maintaining a strong attitude in all situations can cause us a lot of stress. Sometimes we need to cry on someone else’s shoulder, vent and lean on the people around us.
7. There are many different relaxation techniques that can help you a lot such as diaphragmatic breathing, yoga, physical exercise, recreational activities …
8. Try to experience changes as challenges and challenges, not as threats. You need to be a little more flexible and tolerate novelty better. We live in a world that is constantly changing and we continually have to adapt and face new challenges, and although many times reality is not as we imagined it, as the great Woody Allen says: “In the end, life is all that goes for us. happening while we made other plans. “
