Every day we are subjected to different situations that test our ability to respond. These situations can range from pressures and high demands of our job responsibilities, family or the way we deal with interpersonal relationships, both work and personal. In small episodes, it can be positive, such as when it helps you avoid a dangerous situation or meet a deadline. But when it lasts over time it can seriously affect your health.

So, when is stress negative? This happens when the person feels that he or she cannot face what he believes are his/her responsibilities, which affects their health.

Why do you need to give Importance to Stress Management?

Stress weakens our immune system and has various side effects on our brain and body.  Therefore, it is important to tackle the causes of stress which can lead to problems for the individual at the workplace and relationships. These problems can lead to lower self- esteem and poor concentration.

Symptoms of Stress

Not all symptoms have to be present to detect stress or even the majority. Read this list and carefully analyze if any, in particular, may be affecting you:

• Frequent headaches
• Stomach ache
• Problems sleeping
• Problems in personal relationships
• Feeling dissatisfied at work
• Frequent feelings of anger or explosiveness
• Diarrhea or constipation
• Bad memory
• Common aches and pains
• Lack of energy or concentration
• Sexual problems
• Rigid neck or jaw
• Fatigue
• Use of alcohol or drugs to relax
• Loss or gain of weight

Ways To Manage Stress Your Work Stress

1. Avoid short-term pleasure

Forget:

• Overeating / defect
• Foods with high sugar content
• Smoke
• Drink alcohol
• Sleeping too much or not getting enough sleep

2. Do one thing at a time

If you find that you are making bad decisions in response to stress, you have bad habits and you want to change these behaviors, do not try to face them all at the same time. Use the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) method, or what is the same, make it as easy as possible. Change one habit at a time and it will be much easier to achieve the objective of zero work stress.

3. Meditate

You can start by creating the habit of spending 10 minutes each day focusing on your breathing. Take deep breaths and you will immediately notice how you relax. It is a perfect exercise to control a stress situation when it comes to you. Then try to focus fully on the task you are doing at all times. We tend to be doing a task and thinking other issues, which leads us to do nothing in full awareness and lose concentration easily. What if you try to eat without putting the TV in the background? Focus only on eating, without thinking about anything. You will see how you enjoy it and it feels much better than gobbling up the races without barely chewing. Try these relaxation techniques to lower the heart rate and reduce blood pressure.

4. Change your perspective

Stop seeing the problems as such. From now on they must be challenges and the key question to find one will be: How can I solve this challenge? Any opposite situation, take it as a learning. Ask yourself: what can I learn from this experience to avoid it in the future?

5. Take care of your diet

By eating healthily you will charge your body and mind with energy. Your mind will be fresher and you will be able to face the challenges of day to day with better predisposition and more clarity of ideas.

• Never skip breakfast
• Eat something every 3-4 hours
• Drink a lot of water
• Try to have dinner about 2h before going to sleep so you can do the digestion beforehand and not wake up as if you had lead in the stomach

6. Rest well

As it happens with food, resting the necessary will wake you up to the next day’s energy. I am not in favor of “prescribing” a number of hours to sleep, because each person is different. Of course, a good habit of going to bed early (no later than 11 pm) will make you wake up at a prudent hour every morning with the best energy.

7. Do exercise

Cause when you exercise you release endorphins, which makes you feel good. Do at least half an hour of exercise each day. The sport you choose does not matter.

8. Do things that you like

When leaving work, do not spend the rest of the day at home. Take a walk to the park with the family, stay with friends, go to the movies, return to see your favorite movie, in short, do some activity that takes you out of the routine and clears your mind. You can dedicate time to the day to do something that you enjoy alone and make you clear of the rest like listening to music, reading a book, etc.

9. Create Strong Relationships and Seek support

One of the great benefits of applying networking is that when you need help, you will always have a helping hand. Do not keep all the pressure for you. If you are constantly in a state of stress and can not share it with anyone, there will come a time when you will explode and fall into chronic stress, or what has been the same, a problem solved by professionals only. Discuss the situation with your classmates, family, and friends. Openly ask for help from those who can lend it to you. You will be surprised by the predisposition that they have to help you when they know you are in a bind.

10. Establish Reasonable Objectives

Do not accept more work than you can cover. Set goals within reasonable limits that you know you can meet from your previous experience. If you do not have experience in a specific project/task, collect information about the execution times and multiply that time by two to leave your learning margin.

Realistic planning can be very useful in this case.

11. Remember, one thing at a time

Focus your effort programming a daily agenda with work for blocks of time of no more than 90 minutes and set rest times of 15 minutes minimum. Avoid the happy thieves of the time (emails, notifications, calls …) and do not accept extra requests, however small they may divert your attention and cause the delay in your work. Do not use rest periods to answer calls, notifications, manage your email … Rest is rest. Dedicate a specific block of time to address these issues.

12. Work with music

If you can do it, I recommend it 100%. Whenever I can, I usually work with special music to concentrate and I assure you that my targeting capacity is much greater. Do you remember one thing at a time? Well, with music it is much easier to get it.

How To Avoid It?

To start you have to get to establish new routines. It is important that both in the field of work and in the staff, learn to manage your responsibilities and daily activities in a positive way, following specific guidelines and applying them with persistence.

• Set goals
• Plan yourself
• Communicate
• Just relax
• Rest well
• Eat healthily

Benefits Of Stress Management

1. Train the memory

The stress hormones, in addition to putting us on alert, intervene in the process of learning and memorizing information.

In a situation of stress, a small amount of cortisol is released, a hormone that in small doses increases our attention and the ability to retentive in the short term. So occasional stress can help us work more concentrates and improve memory.

2. Develop intelligence and improve cognitive abilities

A low or moderate amount of stress stimulates the production of neurotrophic, responsible for the survival of neurons and strengthen the connections between them. As a result, stress increases memory and attention; and it helps you to be more productive.

In addition, the “fight or flight” instinct releases certain chemicals that immediately increase the ability to work more concentrated. But it not only improves attention and concentration but also increases intellectual, academic and professional capacities.

3. Stimulate creativity

Stress occurs from an unpredictable situation. And unexpected situations favor the appearance of new ideas and new points of view. Well, here we find another benefit of stress. Since the brain needs to look for new solutions to solve the challenge before us, it is an exercise to develop creativity and innovation.

4. Improves Decision Making

The fact of having to face a stressful situation develops our capacity to find efficient solutions to the problem that has been presented to us. When it comes to managing the situation, the brain searches among the stored information that which serves to succeed. What if he does not find anything useful? Then he will try something new. That is if we learn to manage stress, not only will we improve self-control, but over time we will become more decisive and efficient when it comes to solving problems and making decisions.

5. Strengthens the immune system

When the body responds to stress, it prepares us for a possible attack or infection. One way to do this is by increasing the production of interleukin, which is responsible for stimulating the immune system. So when we feel stress, they increase our defenses and our resistance to possible infections  (such as colds). As you see, nothing like stress and a diet based on superfoods to have defenses and energy to the fullest.

6. Develops the ability to adapt

Learning to deal with stressful situations helps us to respond more efficiently and effectively the next time we experience them, which improves our ability to adapt.

7. Increase in concentration

The “good stress” helps us to enter a state of “flow”, so it is easier for us to concentrate on a task, to abstract from the environment and immerse ourselves deeply in what we are doing. And since one of the benefits of stress is that it allows you to work more concentrated … you can improve productivity!

The next time you think “I’m getting stressed,” remember this post and make stress work in your favor.

8. Help to be a better version of yourself

When we stop perceiving anxiety situations as a threat and adopt a positive learning posture, we can take advantage of the benefits of stress and turn it into a window of new opportunities. Stress appears when we face situations in which we have little knowledge or experience. So in reality, when we get stressed, we have before us the opportunity to learn, acquire new knowledge and enrich ourselves. So stress, well managed, help us to be a better version of ourselves.

Keep in mind that stress can be an experience that comes face and life we only have one. Surely this one will be fuller if, instead of living it stressed, we enjoy it from tranquillity, happiness, and well-being with oneself.