How to manage stress effectively

When the time comes to write content for this blog and I lack inspiration (rarely, to be honest!), I tend to look back and check notes I made on the same day in previous years. On this same day two years ago I wrote about stress and managing expectations, especially one own’s. I had just come back from holiday and felt overwhelmed with work – hence decided to put pen to paper (fingers to keys?) and reflected on how I managed stress. Here is what I said:

• Put things into perspective. No one has ever died (to my knowledge) because an email didn’t get a reply within 24 hours. Whilst I have very high standards in what I do and one of my mantras is ‘don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today’, there is another valuable lesson I learnt…
• Managing expectations, especially our own, is key to keep stress at bay. I have learnt to distinguish what is urgent or important from what is neither. I have also come to realise that I am often my worst enemy in terms of setting standards and managing my expectations: it is OK to take a break, it is OK to ask for help and most importantly it is essential to recognise that there are things we cannot influence nor change and therefore there is no point in stressing out about them.
• We must acknowledge that stress is a physiological response to a situation that should only be temporary (a fight or flight situation) and whilst some level of stress is good for us (it helps us improve and feel challenged in a good way), on-going stress is never healthy. As and when I feel I’m heading towards a non-healthy level of stress, I stop, take a break and turn to meditation. I do appreciate meditation is not everyone’s cup of tea, but there are plenty of other activities that can help here: breathing, taking a walk, talking to a friend, drawing, writing a diary, etc.

So today I am revisiting this not just because I was lacking inspiration, but also because the holiday season is coming up and I know that many people find it stressful.

If that is you, just remember to take a deep breath and see if my tips above can help.

Photo from Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash.