Stress Management

Stress can affect your immune system and make you more vulnerable to health problems. Keeping yourself healthy can increase your resilience to stress.

• Eat healthy foods, and drink water

• Avoid excessive amounts of caffeine and alcohol

• Avoid using alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs to cope

• Get enough sleep and rest

• Get physical exercise

Recognize signs of stress

• Notice your own personal warning signs of stress

• Signs of stress may include tensing your jaw, grinding your teeth, headaches, sleep problems, or feeling irritable or short-tempered

• How have past experiences affected how you handled your thoughts, emotions, and behavior?

Identify causes of stress

• It is easy to plow forward, day after day, without taking a step back and identifying what is causing you stress. Identifying stressors is the first step to doing something about them.

Use problem-solving

• Sometimes the situation causing the stress can be changed, for example, by getting an extension on an assignment or work deadline, changing jobs, or asking for assistance from colleagues. Problem-solving involves identifying the problem causing stress, writing down a list of solutions, working through the pros and cons of each, selecting the best one and trying it out, and evaluating its success.

Change the way you talk about yourself

• When we are stressed we sometimes say negative or self-defeating things to ourselves over and over. Unhelpful self-talk might include things like, “I can’t cope”, “I’m too busy to deal with all this”, or “I’ll never get this done”. Negative self-talk can make it more difficult to manage stress.

• Notice your self-talk and work on using helpful, soothing and calming self-talk, such as, “I am coping well given what I have on my plate”, “Relax, this stressful time will pass”, or “This is a stressful situation, but what is one thing I can do to help me get through this?”

Keep things in perspective

When we are stressed, it is easy to see things as worse than they really are. Rather than imagining the worst-case scenario and then worrying about it, ask yourself:

• Am I overestimating the likelihood of a negative outcome?

• Am I overestimating how bad the consequences will be?

• Am I underestimating my ability to cope?

Organize your time

Research suggests that good time management can decrease stress, increase work and life satisfaction, and improve health.

• Time management strategies include setting goals, prioritizing and planning tasks, writing to-do lists, using a diary, setting reminders for jobs that need doing, delegating tasks that can be done by others, and grouping similar jobs that can be done together.

Use practical ways to relax

• Relax your body often by doing things that work for you—take deep breaths, stretch, meditate, wash your face and hands, or engage in pleasurable hobbies.

• Practicing relaxation (such as autonomic relaxation, meditation or mindfulness) has been found to decrease stress. Meditation and relaxation techniques, if practiced regularly, can help reduce stress levels by allowing the body and nervous system to settle and readjust to a calm state.

• Pace yourself between stressful activities, and do a fun thing after a hard task.

• Use time off to relax—eat a good meal, read, listen to music, take a bath, or talk to family.

• Talk about your feelings to loved ones and friends often.

Create a better work-life balance

• People sometimes become stressed when they devote too much time and energy to one aspect of their life, at the expense of other important areas.

• Think about how satisfied you are with different life areas (e.g., relationships, work, recreation, health, exercise) and whether you are devoting the amount of attention you would like to each. If not, think about how you could improve your work-life balance, making more time for some, and putting boundaries around others.