MANAGING TIME TO MANAGE STRESS

 

MANAGING TIME TO MANAGE STRESS

My life is hectic! I’m running all day – meetings, phone calls, paper work,

appointments. I push myself to the limit, fall into bed exhausted, and get up early

the next norming to do it all again. My output is tremendous; I’m getting a lot

done. But I get this feeling inside sometimes, “So what? What are you doing that

really counts?” I have to admit, “I don’t know.”

Friends, the ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary, so that the

necessary may speak.

Managing stress is all about taking charge of your own life i.e. taking charge of your

thoughts, emotions, your schedule, your environment, your priority to the different task

you have to do and the way you deal with day to day problems. Before managing

stress first let us know what stress is:

Stress:

Stress is a normal reaction of the body to changes, resulting in physical emotional and

intellectual responses. In fact, the human body is designed to experience stress and

react to it. When you experience changes or challenges (stressors), your body

produces physical and mental responses. That’s Stress.

Stress responses help your body adjust to new situations. Stress can be positive,

keeping us alert, motivated and ready to avoid danger. For example, if you have an

important test coming up, a stress response might help your body work harder and

stay awake longer. But stress becomes a problem when stressors continue without

relief or period of relaxation.

Positive Stress – Taking things positively even when you’re stressed. Also called

Eustress, it has the following characteristics:

 Motivates, focuses energy

 Is short term

 Is perceived as within our coping ability

 Feel exciting

 Improves performance

Negative Stress – Reacting quickly for things which could have been taken positively.

Also called as Distress, has the following characteristics:

 Causes anxiety or concern

 Can be short or long term

 Is perceived as beyond of our coping ability

 Feels unpleasant

 Decreases performance

 Can lead to mental and physical problems.

What happens to the body when there is stress?

The body’s autonomic nervous system controls the heart rate, breathing, vision

changes and more its built-in stress response, the “fight-or-flight,” helps the body face

stressful situations.

When a person has long-term (chronic) stress, continued activation of the stress

response causes wear and tear on the body. Physical, emotional and behavioral

symptoms develop. Physical symptoms of stress include:

 Aches and pains

 Chest pain or a feeling like your heart is racing

 Exhaustion or trouble sleeping

 Headaches, dizziness or shaking

 High blood pressure

 Muscle tension or jaw clenching

 Stomach or digestive problems

 Weak immune system

Stress can lead to emotional and mental symptoms like:

 Anxiety or irritability

 Depression

 Panic attacks

 Sadness

Often, people with chronic stress try to manage it with unhealthy behavior, like:

 Drinking alcohol too much or too often

 Gambling

 Overeating or developing an eating disorder.

 Smoking

 Using drugs.

How is stress diagnosed?

Stress is subjective – not measurable with tests. Only the person experiencing it can

determine whether it’s present and how severe it feels. A healthcare provider may use

questionnaires to understand stress and how it affects our life. If you have chronic

stress, your healthcare provider can evaluate symptoms that results from stress. For

example, high blood pressure can be diagnosed and treated.

Identify the Source of stress in your life

Stress management starts with identifying the sources of stress in your life. This is not

as easy as it sounds. Your true sources of stress are not always obvious, and it is all

too easy to overlook your own stress-inducing thoughts, feelings and behaviors.

Further, you generally forget to identify the sources of stress, generated by you, due

to lack of desired skills / knowledge, in the discharge of your responsibilities at home

and work. If you critically examine these aspects and try to acquire the necessary

skills/ knowledge, you gain confidence, which empowers you to deal with the stress

generated by external forces.

Sure, you may know that you are constantly worried about work deadlines. But

sometimes it may be due to procrastination, rather than the actual job demands, that

is leading to deadline stress.

Think about the ways you currently manage and cope with stress in your life. Are you

using healthy or unhealthy strategies, helpful or unproductive strategies?

Unfortunately, many people cope with stress in ways that compound the problem.

How Can I Manage Stress Better?

Identifying unrelieved stress and being aware of its effect on our lives is not sufficient

for reducing its harmful effects. Just as there are many sources of stress, there are

many possibilities for its management. However, all require work toward change:

changing the source of stress and/or changing your reaction to it. How do you

proceed?

i. Manage your time better. Poor time management can cause a lot of stress.

When you are too stretched and running behind, it is difficult to stay calm

and focused.

ii. Focus on the positive. When stress is taking you down, pause for a

moment to reflect on all the things you appreciate in your life, including your

own positive qualities and gifts. This simple strategy can help you keep

things in perspective.

You can’t avoid stress, but you can stop it from become overwhelming by practicing

some daily strategies:

1. Become aware of your stressors and your emotional and physical

reactions

 Notice your distress. Don’t ignore it. Don’t gloss over your problems

 Determine what events distress you. What are you telling yourself about

meaning of these events?

 Determine how your body responds to the stress. Do you become

nervous or physically upset? If so, in what specific ways?

2. Recognise what you can change / control

Accept that you can’t control everything. Find ways to let go of worry about.

situation beyond your control or you cannot change. Can you

 change your stressors by avoiding or eliminating them completely?

 reduce their intensity? So manage them over a period of time.

3. Reduce the intensity of your emotional reactions to stress i.e.

 Are you expecting to please everyone?

 Are you overreacting and viewing things as absolutely critical and

urgent?

 Do you feel you must always prevail in every situation?

 Work at adopting more moderate views; try to see the stress as

something you can cope with rather than something that overpowers

you.

 Try to temper your excess emotions. Put the situation in perspective. Do

not labour on the negative aspects and the “what if’s”.

 At the end of each day. Take a moment to think about what you’ve

accomplished – not what you didn’t get done

4. Learn to moderate your physical reactions to stress

 Slow, deep breathing will bring your heart rate and respiration back to

normal.

 Relaxation techniques can reduce muscle tension, heart rate, and blood

pressure.

 Medications, when prescribed by a physician, can help in the short term

in moderating your physical reactions. However, they alone care not the

answer. Learning to moderate these reactions on your own is a

preferable long-term solution.

5. Build your physical reserves

 Exercise when you feel symptoms of stress coming on. Even a short

walk can boost your mood

 Eat well-balanced, nutritious meals

 Maintain your ideal weight

 Avoid nicotine, excessive caffeine, and other stimulants.

 Mix leisure with work. Take breaks and get away whenever you can.

 Get enough sleep. Be as consistent with your sleep schedule as

possible.

Conclusion:

How our thoughts shape our destiny has been beautifully summed up by his holiness

the Dalai Lama, as under:

“Take care of your Thoughts because they become Words.

Take care of your Words because they will become Actions.

Take care of your Actions because they will become Habits.

Take care of your Habits because they will form your Character.

Take care of your Character because it will form your Destiny.

And your Destiny will be your Life”

As your words/ thoughts are responsible for creating your destiny, your emotions play

an equally important role in managing stress. When you practice taking charge of your

thoughts, gradually you can move towards taking charge of your emotions as well and

in the process you can become ‘Emotionally Intelligent’ as well, and acquire the ability

to be aware of your emotions and the emotions of others and then use this knowledge

so that emotions foster instead of creating stress / roadblocks.

If you can master managing your work, you ultimately manage your time and

therefore live without stress.

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 beyond the original recipient may be unlawful. Any opinion expressed in this mail is that of sender and does not necessarily reflect that of State Bank group.

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