Stress Management

No one is without stress. Yet some are able to manage better than another in the same situation. What is their formula? What is yours?

Also not all stress is bad. Consider the athlete who trains for health and fitness and who works out regularly. There is a higher positive objective to seek and they recognise the need to put in effort because the objective is a worthwhile one. Its likely to be a need(s) satisfier(s). These needs according to William Glasser would fall into the following:
1. Biological - Survival
2. Psychological - Love and Belonging
3. Psychological - Power or Self Esteem
4. Psychological - Fun
5. Psychological - Freedom

Typically, stress can come from so many sources:
a. the work or effort in the workplace, school, office, factory etc.
b.people e.g. friends, colleagues and family

Typically the stress that is associated with negative energy involves activity which does not fulfill a want or satisfy a need. So it goes against our desires and our intentions and the analogy is like one swimming against the current, going against the flow. To do so requires extra effort and extra effort means stress.

And Stress has to be managed.

How one manages stress?:
1. Mitigation - to look for ways to lessen the stress source.
2. Adaptation - changing the way of doing things

Lets use health and fitness training as a case study.
The objective is to participate in a triathlon.
And what is the end in mind: to complete a triathlon event swimming 3.8 km, cycle 180km and run 42 km sometime in the latter half of 2009.

1. Mitigation
Each one of us can take a level of stress. This is unique to your person i.e. what is my level is not the same as for you. Mine may be higher or lower than yours. Management is deciding what level that you can handle at this time.

And so we begin with a specific aim e.g to begin with a 5km run, 2 km swim and 10km cycle if that is what you can handle. You may give yourself improvement targets to beat but important here is " to build" not "to hurt". To do this over a longer period of time if you require a longer lead time to get to where you want.

Rule : to do what you can manage.

2. Adaptation
Refers to finding different ways to doing these activities. One could do this either on the road or in a controlled environment of a gym. To build the same muscles but with different apparatus e.g. a static cycle, a treadmill, playing water polo. Using other ways to develop and achieve the same end results of strength and stamina. These alternative may prove to be more fun too and breaks the monotony of routine.

Rule : there are alternatives that one can apply.

There is a key word in Stress Management. It is the word "CAN".

Really, we can only DO WHAT YOU CAN AND NOT WHAT YOU CANNOT. At first read, it sounds very logical and yet there are so many of us who do not so do. Why? Simply because they CHOSE NOT TO.

Are you choosing to stress and choosing not to do anything about it?

What about you?