Skip to main content

Part 2 of Stress Management: Beyond Self-Awareness



When you are aware of how stress affects your thoughts, emotions and behaviors then you are better positioned to manage it. Stress management is also a journey where you learn to manage your life through self-training. In the process be patient with yourself. Below are a few points to consider as you learn to manage your stress:

1. Thought management: We are all wired to think, therefore thinking is a very normal and an important process in our brains. However a challenge happens when we overthink, over-interpret, generalize and personalize situations. This tendency can negatively affect our emotions and behaviors and it can increase our stress levels. Therefore learning to discern and manage our thoughts is important in stress management. 

Overthinking can be resolved by distracting yourself through engaging in healthy behaviors i.e. writing down your thoughts for a few minutes and closing the diary and engaging in something else, with plans to go back to the diary and writing at a later stage. This way trains your brain to compartmentalize and it lessens preoccupation with thoughts. 

A useful practice in managing personalizing and generalizing is to always ask yourself if there is another way of thinking about the situation. You can even challenge yourself to find an alternative and a positive thought or interpretation of the situation. This is a starting point in learning positive thinking. Remember positive thinking is also a journey that involves training and  practice. 

2. Emotional Management: Our emotions can be accessed and managed through our thoughts and behaviors. Our mind is a very powerful resource in this process. Now as you read this, pause, take a few minutes and think about a situation that happened in your life that really made/makes you feel happy and excited. Try and be detailed in your thoughts i.e. when, where and what was happening?How were you feeling and thinking at that time. 

After this exercise notice how you are feeling NOW or even as you were doing the exercise. This exercise indicates that we can access emotions that we want through our thoughts. You can do the same exercise and think about what makes you feel relaxed and spend time thinking about that and notice the impact on your emotions NOW. 

3. Behavioral Management: Engage in healthy behaviors that elicit positive and encouraging emotions. There is a wide range and different strokes for different people. For example I feel good after exercise, I feel good when I sit in the sun for 5 minutes and I feel good after washing my hair. Other people find prayer and music helpful for them. Try and be consistent in engaging in those healthy behaviors. 

4. Problem-solve: Some of the stressful situations that we encounter require us to think and find alternative ways of dealing with the challenges that we face. It may also be useful to seek help and advice from trusted people and friends. This may help you in deciding and implementing an appropriate solution to the challenges that you are facing and in the process alleviate your stress levels.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Notes on Self Management: Few Ideas for Women’s Network

Why is self management important? Self management is important because it has an impact on our personal growth and reputation as it also influences how we are perceived. It is also a broad concept that is reflected in how we manage the different aspects of our lives for example Time, Finances, Relationships, Wellness, Careers, Spiritually etc. What sustains self management? 1. Constant and ongoing review of how you are doing in the different areas of your life.  I sometimes use a self-rating scale: For example let’s look at your financial management currently; on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being poor, 3 average and 5 being excellent. Where would you rate your financial management? 2. Understand the behaviors that are contributing to your current self-rating.  If for example you rated yourself as 2 (close to poor) Ask why? It could be there is no budget in place or even if there is a budget, maybe it is not adhered to.  3. Set goals to improve your ratings in the different ...
1 comment
Read more

The face of Stigma in Mental health

Stigma in mental health reflects our beliefs, attitudes and thoughts about mental illness. These manifest through our behaviour towards people with mental health challenges and the language we use to describe their experiences. THOUGHTS AND LANGUAGE Negative assumptions   People who stigmatise others often hold negative assumptions about those they stigmatise. Such assumptions are often baseless and are driven by a lack of understanding of the person and their situation. The person is often blamed  for their condition through using  statements like  “depression is for weak people” or “depression indicates lack of faith” and “African people don’t get depressed”. All these assumptions leave people feeling inferior and put an extra burden on them.  A belief of Immunity  People who have not experienced mental health challenges may believe that they are immune from such.  As a result they distance themselves from people with mental health challenges an...
Post a Comment
Read more