Ways to Relieve Stress

 

There are many different ways to relieve stress.

In this series of articles on stress, we will look at a variety of ways that people acknowledge stress in their lives - how it affects them and the various ways they handle it.

This interesting article comes from Rajni Sharma who lives in Delhi. Rajni has written a website about stress and relaxation. In this article she looks at both the positive and negative effects of stress and ways to relieve stress.

How Stress Affects You – And How To Effectively Deal With It

Positive and Negative Stress

Stress is caused when a person's capabilities are challenged. The intensity of stress is related to the degree of control that one thinks one has and the availability of resources to deal with it.

What is stressful for one may be 'thrilling' for another. You can change your reactions to a great extent by developing new skills. If you feel that you have the capability to deal with a situation, you will get energized and work at your peak level. When you feel that what the situation demands is beyond the reach of your skills and capabilities, you will become tense, anxious, and depressed.

The stress, as we have seen above, can be both positive and negative. Apart from your resources the affect of stress depends upon your perception about the situation.

Try to remember some event when the stress prompted you to even greater effort, and motivated you to even greater achievement.

I remember my childhood: the impending school examinations always caused some tension and anxiety in my mind. But then, after initial worrying and fretting I always sat down, prepared a plan, and put myself head on into preparing for the papers. That stress now was converted to energy that caused me to study with greater focus and concentration. This is called positive stress.

It is also a matter of attitude

Stress, in itself is not good or bad, it is how we react to it. Imagine a life without stress- will it not be bland, and boring? Without any motivation there will not be any excitement.

Many people watch scary movies for the thrills, but some others can't withstand them, as it scares the hell out of them. Well, you have to see your capabilities and judge how much stress you can handle.

Stress increases your efficiency up to a degree. When that degree is crossed, stress becomes negative and affects your efficiency negatively. Just prior to the point where the stress reaches its peak level, is 'comfort zone' – it is here that you work with maximum efficiency.

Self esteem is an important factor that determines the general stress levels in a person's life. A person with high self esteem handles stress in a more balanced way.

Largely, your stress levels depend upon you. The way you handle your initial reactions and the way you make use of the time still available to you, can reduce your stress levels to a large extent. While commuting to your workplace in the morning you can work yourself up to a frenzy thinking of all the jostling you have to go through and worrying about getting late. Or, you can put a stop to all the hurrying thoughts in your mind and take it as a break: listen to music or some inspiring tape.

Instead of concentrating on what the stress is doing to you, if you try to think what it is that you can do, you can transform much of the negative stress to a positive one.

---

Rajni Sharma writes on stress and how to manage it on her website Stress-and-relaxation.com Subscribe to her FREE Newsletter which delivers useful and practical information on living a low stress, relaxed, happy and productive life.

---

Discover the strength of quotes about stress ~ Stress Quotes From Ways to Relieve Stress to Homepage