5 Stress Management Tips
1. The first step to managing your stress is to identify what your stressors are - that is, the things in your life that are causing you to feel stressed. It's a good idea to write them down, rather than just keeping them in your head.
2. It's important to also identify what your coping mechanisms are - they may be positive coping mechanisms, like exercise, or they may be negative coping mechanisms, like smoking. Make two columns on your piece of paper for this exercise. Ideally you don't want anything in the negative coping mechanisms column and lots of things in the positive coping mechanisms column. This exercise gives you an idea about the changes you need to make.
3. Now ask yourself if you have enough support in your life - do you have family and friends around you who are supporting you? If not, how can you communicate your needs or boost your supportive relationships? Or do you need professional support?
4. Try to let go of daily time wasters that take time and energy out of your day that you could be putting towards relaxing. For example, if you check your emails three times a day, you could check your emails twice a day and spend the remaining ten minutes doing some deep breathing or another activity you find relaxing. What is one time waster you can recognise to work on?
5. Take the time to organise your life - you want to avoid becoming like a dog who is chasing its own tail - try to step outside of your stress for a few minutes and think about how you could get organised to deal more effectively with your life. For example, taking the time to make plans, write in your diary and get places on time will help you to feel less stressed in the long run.
