Stress

By: Federose O. Nieva

“Within you, there is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.”

Hermann Hesse

Every single person is bound to experience stress and it is normal because it helps every person to learn and grow. The factors that causes stress may be the schoolworks, workplace, environment, family and friends, etc. These can affect your productivity and how you live each day of your life.

According to the medical definition, stress is a physical, mental, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension. Stresses can be external (from the environment, psychological, or social situations) or internal (illness, or from a medical procedure).

It may be normal but untreated stress can be worsened and may result to serious illnesses both physically and mentally. Like anxiety, depression, heart diseases, asthma, and etc.

Stress management is very important to everyone and it is said to be the set of techniques and programs intended to help people deal more effectively with stress in their lives by analysing the specific stressors and taking positive actions to minimize their effects.

Here are several ways on how to manage stress.

• Pray and ask for our God’s guidance. It is very important to communicate with God and let Him guide you throughout your decisions because He will help you reach the outcome that you want. He is also the greatest reliever we could ever have.

• Seek a support from loved ones. Family, friends, special someone, and even your pets can be your support for all the stress that you are going through. Just a bit of your time to have this light or deep conversation and hanging out with them will help you to lighten up your mood and it will make you more motivated.

• Regular exercise, meditation, or any other relaxation techniques. Exercising, meditating, or any of your relaxing techniques will help your blood circulation works smoothly and your body will be able to release the tension caused by stress.

• Do your hobbies or the things that you want to do. Doing what you like or your passion will help you to divert your attention and ease the tension you are feeling; it can be dancing, singing, writing poems, playing instruments, etc. You can also go to a place where you think you can find peace and comfort like in a forest, seashore, etc.

• Avoid taking alcohols, drugs, cigarettes. These are usually the way of other persons in coping up with their stress and these actually worsen the stress and can make you more reactive or sensetive to further stress.

Most of all, there should be willingness and determination of a person to get better, to make the changes, and be stressed-free because everything should start to oneself.