Take Control of Stress With These Stress Management Tips

Is being stressed out a common occurrence for you? While a little stress can be good for you – it can motivate you and push you to your potential, many of us are dealing with too much stress.

Unrelenting stress, whether it is concerns about finances, job stress or the over-committed responsibilities can occur on a daily basis, can mean that the fight or flight response can be activated most of the time.

This chronic stress can be harmful to your health and well being. This makes dealing with stress a priority for you.

One of the first steps to managing stress to know what is causing your stress.

The old adage that "You can’t fix a problem until you can recognize the causes" is true of stress management as well!

Whether it is the long commute to work, the irate boss complaining about deadlines or concerns about how you are going to pay the next bill, it is important to identify those causes of stress in your life.

By identifying your stressors, even if they are daily hassles and how you react to them, can give you the objective information to deal with stress.

In essence once you know your causes of stress, the things that trigger that stress and how you react to them – you are in a better place to manage your stress in an appropriate manner.

In my practice I find that different people like different stress management techniques, and that some of these are more useful in certain situations than others.

For example, identifying financial stress as a cause of stress allows you to put in place budget strategy and debt consolidation to manage your finances. Whereas if you get stressed about the long commute to work then this may represent an opportunity to practice your breathing exercises.

However, like any skill, whether it is learning to play tennis or to drive a car – stress management techniques take practice. But the good news is that you can develop a suite of techniques to cope with stress that you can use at just about anytime.

I have taught these stress management techniques to elite athletes to use just before a major race, barristers in the middle of their presentations, and airline pilots and surgeons who have complex decisions to make in limited amounts of time.

The point is that stress management techniques can be used just about anywhere by anybody to reduce stress.

Some of these techniques include:

Relaxation exercises. At the physiological level relaxation exercises counter the stress response. By activating the parasympathetic nervous system, relaxation exercises such as various breathing exercises, autogenic training, progressive muscle relaxation and meditation can clear the mind and relax the body.

Guided imagery. Imagery involves re-creating a relaxing scene (if relaxation is what you want?) with all your body’s senses. For me a relaxing scene usually involves a beach, where I can smell the salt air, feel the sand between my toes, the sun on my face and can hear the waves lapping the shore.

Having a scene that you can go to, that is familiar and serene, can be a very useful tool to manage stress or facilitate performance.

Time management skills. If you have a to-do list as long as your arm and you are feeling pressured by a lack of time then you are not alone. Planning and prioritizing may be a way to deal with this increasingly common cause of stress.

One of the simplest and most effective strategies is to draw up a to-do list the night before for next day’s activities and start with your most important activity first.

Exercise. Exercise has been shown to reduce stress, anxiety and the incidence of depression. But exercise also promotes good health and well being. In terms of stress, one of the benefits of exercise is that it relaxes the muscles and rids your body of the excess stress products that can accumulate. Exercise is basically making use of the fight or flight response that is activated during stress.

These are just some of the many strategies that you can use to take control of stress.

Kell is a registered psychologist who works with elite athletes, students and business professionals in the area of stress management for peak performance.

Stress is becoming a significant problem that affects all areas of life – in fact the World Health Organization called stress a "global epidemic".

The following relaxation techniques can help you to take control of stress and relax your mind and body.

Don’t be passive to the effects of stress. Choose to take control of stress today by using these stress management tips in your life.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=K_Tremayn
http://EzineArticles.com/?Take-Control-of-Stress-With-These-Stress-Management-Tips&id=3816737