How to Reduce Stress in Your Life Before It Hurts You!

Everyone suffers from stress now and then; however, there are things you can do to reduce stress, especially if it interferes in your daily activities.

To reduce and manage stress, it is important to take charge of your emotions, thoughts and the way you look and deal with problems. Managing stress begins by finding out what the sources of stress are in your life. Many things cause stress such as not knowing how to handle certain situation, worrying about your work or putting off things that need to be done. To find out what is causing stress in your life, look carefully at how you handle problems and your daily habits.

Many have found help dealing with stress by starting a stress journal. By keeping a stress journal you can keep track of what is causing you to be stress out, how you acted in response to the stress and what you did to make yourself feel better, more relaxed.

There are many ways that unhealthy when coping with stress such as smoking, eating too much, using pills to relax or sleeping too much. It is important to note that there are healthy ways to manage stress such as avoiding the stressful situation or person, alter the stressor, adapt to the stressful condition or accept the stressful condition or person.

There are several effective ways to reduce stress such as learning to say no and not taking on any more than you can handle, avoiding those who stress you out, taking control of your environment and avoiding stressful topics such as politics or religion.

Another way to reduce stress is to express your feelings, be more assertive, compromise when necessary and manage your time better.

When a person is running behind and has too much to do, it's difficult to stay calm. However, by planning ahead and making sure that you don't overdo, you can lower your stress significantly. For instance, if you know that have an important assignment due or an important meeting coming up where you need to prepare and have certain documents at hand, organizing your plans and procedures will take away unnecessary stress and strain from the day.

Most importantly, if you find that you can't change a stressful event or procedure, see if you can change who you are. By changing a negative attitude into a more positive attitude and lowering expectations that may be too high, you can lower stress. Instead of getting nervous and stressed out with situations or people, focus on what you can control; especially how you react and handle problems.