Stress Management

                           Stress is the biggest problem of today. Nowadays each and every person is busy in earning money people only wants to make money so they work till night. There is no time for rest and then it becomes the problem of stress. Researches show that stress is very important issue of fight between husband and wife today. To remove stress there is a small and effective tip to remove stress from your lives that is for every one hour of work, take a five minute break and stretch, walk, or meditate.

                          With just a few minutes of relaxation (or doing something other than work), you’ll increase your physical activity as well as productivity and feel better throughout the day. Adopting a healthy lifestyle means that you can concentrate better and are more energetic in what you do. This is particularly important when you are in challenging or stressful situations. These tips are very important for your stress-less happy life.

                            Stress management is the amelioration of stress and especially chronic stress often for the purpose of improving everyday functioning.

                          Stress produces numerous symptoms which vary according to persons, situations, and severity. These can include physical health decline as well as depression.

Areas of Life- -And Responses- -That Lead To Stress
                      There are many events in life that can cause stress. This section explores the main culprits, as well as habitual thought patterns that can help or hurt, to give you a clearer picture of where the stress is coming from so you can more easily cope.

   1. Job Stress
   2. School Stress
   3. Financial Stress
   4. Relationship Stress
   5. Traits and Attitudes That Increase Stress 

   
1. Job Stress

                    Long hours, difficult co-workers, and lack of appreciation are just a few factors that contribute to job stress. Here are resources for understanding and handling the factors that can make work stressful.

   1. In The Wrong Job?
   2. Co-Worker Conflicts
   3. Need for Balance
   4. Burnout Causes and Symptoms
   5. Job Stress and Health  

   



2. School Stress

                 Students face many pressures from school, which can amount to a significant amount of stress. Learn about the different causes of school stress, and find resources for overcoming it, including study tips and stress relievers specifically designed for students.

   1. Test Anxiety
   2. Common Causes of School Anxiety
   3. Causes of the Freshman 15 (College Weight Gain)
   4. Reduce School Stress and Excel In School
   5. Reduce the Stress of Finals
   6. College Stress Causes
                                                         7. Reducing Stress in College Life

    
3. Financial Stress

                    Money problems can be a major source of stress and conflict. Learn more about financial stress and how to protect yourself.
 

   1. How Financial Stress Can Affect You
  2. Stress and Tax Season
  3. Reduce Your Money Stress
  4. How to Handle a Financial Crisis

    



4. Relationship Stress

                         The people in our lives can be our greatest source of comfort--and sometimes a significant cause of stress. Learn more about what can be stressful in your social life, and why, so you can cut down on the stress in your relationships and increase the support.

   1. The Toll of Conflict
   2. Assess Your Social Stress
   3. Handling Difficult People
   4. Stress and Parenthood
   5. Unresolved Family Conflict
   6. Loneliness
   7. When To Let Go
    

5. Traits and Attitudes That Increase Stress
                      Your responses to the stressors in your life can have a palpable impact on your experience of stress. The following traits and ways of seeing the world have an especially significant impact. Find out more about how you can create or release stress with your mind.

   1. Perfectionism
   2. Type A Personality
   3. Pessimism
   4. External Locus of Control
   5. Poor Communication
   6. Addictive or Unhealthy Behaviors
   7. Anger
   8. Rumination and Obsessing
   9. Distorted Thinking

Techniques of stress management

                  There are several ways of coping with stress. Some techniques of time management may help a person to control stress. In the face of high demands, effective stress management involves learning to set limits and to refuse some demands that others make. The following techniques have been recently dubbed “Destressitizers” by The Journal of the Canadian Medical Association. A destressitizer is any process by which an individual can relieve stress. 

              Techniques of stress management will vary according to the theoretical paradigm adhered to, but may include some of the following:


    * Autogenic training
    * Cognitive therapy
    * Conflict resolution
    * Exercise
    * Getting a hobby
    * Meditation
    * Deep breathing
    * Yoga Nidra
    * Nootropics
    * Relaxation techniques
    * Artistic Expression
    * Fractional relaxation
    * Progressive relaxation
    * Spas
    * Somatic training
    * Spending time in nature
    * Stress balls
    * Natural medicine
    * Clinically validated alternative treatments
    * Time management

    * Listening to certain types of relaxing music, particularly:

•           New Age music
•           Classical music
•           Psychedelic music
•           Sleep Music 

Physical, Emotional and Lifestyle Effects of Stress

                Stress can affect you in many ways. People often notice the emotional effects of stress, but aren't always aware of all of the ways stress can have a physical impact. Learn more about the effects of stress, and how to safeguard your health and happiness.

     1. Your Stress Response
     2. How Stress Affects Your Body
     3. Mental and Emotional Effects of Stress
     4. Stress and Your Lifestyle
     5. Stress By Demographic



 
    1. Your Stress Response

                When you experience stress, there's a cascade of physical changes that occur to prepare you to deal with it. Here's what happens in your body--and what can happen when your stress response is triggered too often.

    * Understanding Your Stress Response
    * How Much Stress Is Too Much?
    * Stress Symptoms
 
    2.  How Stress Affects Your Body

              Stress can affect your body in many different ways. Learn more about the effects of stress on your physical and emotional health.

    * Heart Disease
    * Blood Pressure and Stroke
    * Metabolic Syndrome
    * Weight Gain
    * Stress and Immunity
    * Psychosomatic Illness
 

    3.  Mental and Emotional Effects of Stress

                 You may be able to recognize the 'stressed-out' feeling you get when you're overwhelmed. In addition to that feeling, here are several other ways that stress can affect your thinking, behavior and emotional state.

    * Anxiety
    * Emotional Eating
    * Feeling Overwhelmed
    * Cognitive Impairment
    * Psychosomatic Illness
    * Anger and Your Health
    * Rumination--Obsessing About Stress

     4.  Stress and Your Lifestyle

                  Just as stress can be the result of certain lifestyle factors, stress can contribute to certain habits and behaviors. Here are some stress-related lifestyle factors that may be affecting you. Learning about the role that stress plays in each of these areas can help you to create a healthier lifestyle.

    * Poor Sleep
    * Inadequate Nutrition
    * Imbalanced Lifestyle / Being Too Busy
    * Burnout

 




     5.  Stress By Demographic

               Stress affects everyone in a slightly unique way, and different types of people face certain types of stressors. This section addresses the effects of stress and stress management needs of specific categories of people.

    * Women and Stress
    * Men and Stress
    * Children and Stress
    * Student Stress
    * Stress On The Job

 Measuring stress

               Levels of stress can be measured. One way is through the use of the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale to rate stressful life events. Changes in blood pressure and galvanic skin response can also be measured to test stress levels, and changes in stress levels. A digital thermometer can be used to evaluate changes in skin temperature, which can indicate activation of the fight-or-flight response drawing blood away from the extremities.

               Stress management has physiological and immune benefit effects.

Positive outcomes are observed using a combination of non-drug interventions:


    * treatment of anger or hostility,
    * autogenic training
    * talking therapy (around relationship or existential issues)
    * biofeedback
    * cognitive therapy for anxiety or clinical depression.

 

5-Minute Stress Relief Strategies

                  Stress comes from many areas of life, and stress relief comes in many forms. While some people like using one favorite tool for stress relief, many experts feel that the most efficient approach to stress relief is one that attacks stress from several different directions, utilizing an overall 'plan of attack' for stress relief.

                An important first step in this stress relief plan is to have one or two quick stress relief strategies that can help you relax your physiology or de-stress your mind, to reverse your body's stress response so that you can think clearly and avoid the negative effects of chronic stress.

The following are some quick and effective stress relief strategies that can help you do just that: these stress relief activities, once mastered, should enable you to de-stress in under 5 minutes so that you can move on to the next steps in your stress relief strategy or immediately face the stressors at hand.

Here are several strategies to try:

Breathing Exercises

           Stress relief breathing is one of the most popular ways of calming down quickly for good reason: breathing exercises can be done by anyone, at any time, with little training, and at no expense! Breathing exercises can also be combined with other stress relief techniques (such as guided imagery or meditation) for added benefits and ease of use. Learn more about breathing exercises and learn a quick stress relief breathing technique.

PMR 

             Progressive Muscle Relaxation, or PMR, is a technique you can learn that, with practice, enables you to completely relax all of the muscles in your body quickly, thereby releasing tension from stress. Like each of the techniques that are mentioned in this article, PMR helps you to reverse your body's stress response quickly. It can also be done at virtually any time or place, once you've learned the technique and practiced it. (It's especially useful for when you're trying to get to sleep.) Learn more about how to practice PMR.

Mini-Meditation

              Meditation is gaining status as a stress management mainstay because it brings so many wonderful benefits, including (after consistent practice) resilience against future stressors! Many people shy away from learning meditation because they think they don't have the ability to learn the technique or the time to practice regularly. Actually, meditation can be very simple to learn, and even 5 minutes of meditation can make a difference. Learn more about the benefits of meditation, and how to practice 5-minute meditation.

Aromatherapy

              As far as ease of use goes, aromatherapy is about as easy as they come! Studies show that certain types of aromatherapy can be effective for stress relief, and once you have the aromatherapy going, it's passive stress relief--you don't have to do anything except go about your regular activities as you normally would! (Combining techniques can provided added stress relief, but isn't necessary.) Learn more about the research on aromatherapy and find ways to use aromatherapy for stress relief.

Quick Burst of Exercise

               Exercise is an excellent stress relief technique because it's great for your whole body and brings physical benefits other than those experienced because of a reversed stress response. Exercise can provide distraction, endorphins and an outlet for frustration. Unfortunately, it's not always practical as a 'quick' stress reliever, as the full benefits of exercise are often not achieved until sustained exercise has occurred, and that can leave you sweaty; therefore, you may not use it in a class or at the office, or when you're meeting with clients and under stress. However, in situations where it can work, even a quick burst of exercise (like a quick run up several flights of stairs, or several sets of push-ups) can be useful for stress relief. (Always check with your doctor before starting any exercise program, of course.) Learn more about the benefits of exercise and how to use exercise for stress relief.

Have a Good Laugh

                Maintaining a sense of humor can relieve stress in several ways. First, there are specific benefits that you get from laughter that can help you relieve stress and even stay healthier in your life. Also, laughter connects people, and social support is good for stress relief. More, it's hard to stay stressed when you're laughing. And maintaining a sense of humor reminds us that our stressors may not be as menacing as they seem, and probably have solutions, too. For these reasons, laughing in the face of stress can help you feel better in a matter of minutes. Learn more about the benefits of laughter and how to maintain a sense of humor in the face of stress.