3 Steps Stress Management

In the contemporary life the word "Stress" can be heard very often in every field of life: school, university, sport, at work. The last one, at work stress is very common in most of the professions today. In every business unit there is a certain business objective, limited with time frame and resources, with great expectation of "stakeholders" that this objective should be accomplished. In the situation of pressure toward the goal, pressure of time deadlines and pressure of limited resources, it is obvious that in the middle of this pressuring environment there is the area affected by these forces. The meeting point of these forces is the focal point of stress that influences person who is responsible.

So how can an individual "survive" in this stressful environment? Is he/she will quit job immediately upon being exposed to stress? Or he/she will go to sick leave? Well, normally the answer should be no. The person should already have or try to learn the Stress Management techniques. Some of us absorb and manage the stress easily, but some of us not. Still, the Stress Management is the skill that can be learned. So, the question is what to do in order to successfully cope with stress.

In order to understand the stress-unstress mechanism, observe the following experiment on the simple sponge. Take the sponge in your hand and squeeze it. What happened? The sponge responded to your pressure by adjusting it shape and size to a new "requirement".

Take another example, the carton box. Do the same what you did with the sponge and observe what happened. The box "resisted" to your pressure for a very short time. Then it is being destroyed by your hand. Now, let go back to our sponge. If you release it you will see it returning to its original size and shape.

From this example we can learn 3 basic steps of stress management:

1. Anticipate - There is always some "Force" or "Rule" in any segment of our life that we might be exposed eventually. We must be aware of it and be ready. We can not expect to exist in a perfectly stress-free world. Understanding this and adjusting ourselves accordingly will help us.

2. Adjust - When we face stress situation, we must adopt. If we do not adopt we must learn to do so, or we will be hurt, sooner or later. We will learn to adopt stress by following the rules and by observing others that are coping with stress successfully.

3. Relax - Still, even if we are skillful in handling stress, we must find some time of not being exposed to stress, in order to fully recover. No matter how good we are in managing stress, the best way of managing stress is time when we are not exposed to it.

Of course we can not live in isolation in order to avoid stress. We must live and face the life. The point is to utilize time between stressful periods in a best possible way. These periods recharge our batteries and strengthen us for a new challenges.

There are many ways to relax in these relief periods. Exercise, time with friends and family, reading a book, sleeping, enjoin landscapes, watching the movies or listening music, or even meditate.

Remember 3 basic Stress Management rules: Anticipate stress, Adopt to Stress Condition and Relax well in non-stress periods. These three rules will help you to cope with stress easier and to leave more energy for productive activities.