Yesterday started out great. The sun was shining. The dogs were well behaved and I was heading off to do some live teaching on how to be more civil in the workplace. Since it was such a beautiful day, I decided to park at my husband's worksite and walk the 10 minutes up the hill to the speaking engagement.
The seminar was well received and I was feeling quite energized. As I walked back down the hill to my car, I contemplated all the tasks that I had time to tackle in the afternoon. And, I was feeling really good about life in general.
Then, I arrived to find this ....
Had I been already having a challenging day and not an uplifting one, this could have completely derailed me.
My plans for the afternoon changed significantly as I spent several hours on hold waiting to file an insurance claim. The waiting on hold may even have compounded an already disrupted day. Instead, I practiced what I preach and stayed calm and professional in spite of the long cue.
All the stress-reduction techniques in the world are of little value if your stress is compounding and you are not aware of the triggers for it.
You could exercise until you pass out, but if you still can’t make your mortgage payment, no changes will happen for you. When you find out the cause, you can take steps to help yourself reduce the stress.
Taking the example of not paying your mortgage, you want to find a solution quickly. But, you don’t want to use a solution like those online loan services. They charge exorbitant rates and the interest is calculated on a daily basis. Taking advantage of any of these services will increase your stress and will leave you stuck with a higher payment.
Your stress may be caused by someone you work with. Perhaps they are lagging behind in their work, and it is bringing your whole team down. One solution is to help the lagging member with his or her work. But, try to show them ways to get work done faster, so it doesn’t happen again in the future.
If your stress is caused by you procrastinating on something important, you need to reverse that immediately. The situation is likely to get worse. For instance, if you let a slow leak in your home keep building, it’s going to make it tougher to handle when it becomes a large leak. If you are not capable of fixing the leak yourself, hire a professional.
From the above scenarios, you would have dealt with the actual cause of the stress points. You could try meditating and participate in extreme sports. Those will help you reduce your stress to some degree. But, it wouldn’t do much to eliminate the situations. Only by finding what is causing the stress and taking actions based on that, would you be able to eliminate the stress it caused.
Stress reduction techniques not related to the cause can still help, however. They can help you relax, which can get you to think about solutions to the problem. The
techniques can also help to lower your blood pressure and heart rate. When you
are calmer, you will find solutions much quicker than when you are harried and
stressed out.
In most cases, you’ll be able to determine what is stressing you out. There are
situations where you become anxious, and you are not sure why. Hopefully, it is
a temporary condition. Should it become more long-term, consider getting some
help before it gets out of control.