stress free=freedom~~~

Stress Management - Avoiding Unnecessary Stress

Because stress is unavoidable in life, it is important to find ways to reduce or prevent stressful incidents and decrease your negative reactions to stress. Following are activities to help you do this.
Managing time

Time management skills can allow you to spend more time with your family and friends and possibly increase your performance and productivity.

This will help reduce your stress. See:

Stress management: Managing your time.

Build healthy coping strategies

It is important that you identify your coping strategies. One way to do this is by recording the stressful event, your reaction, and how you coped in a stress journal.

With this information, you can work to change unhealthy coping strategies into healthy ones-those that help you>> focus on the positive and what you can change or control in your life. to see how you respond to stress.

Lifestyle

Some behaviors and lifestyle choices affect your stress level.

They may not cause stress directly, but they can interfere with the ways your body seeks relief from stress.


Try to:
· Balance personal, work, and family needs and obligations.

This can be especially hard during the holiday season. For help, see:

Quick Tips: Reducing Holiday Stress.
·

Have a sense of purpose in life.

*without Dreams & Vision man will perish*>> atomginna dun waanna disappear into the thin air~!
·
Get enough sleep, because your body recovers from the stresses of the day while you are sleeping.

· Eat a balanced diet for a nutritional defense against stress.
· Get moderate exercise throughout the week.
· Limit your consumption of alcohol.

· Don't smoke.
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-02march09-

this article i know i need to refer to it.. in TIMES of NEED...
(5years of challenges... Let's do it~!)

social support = " i Need you "
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Social support from family, friends, and the community is a major factor in how we experience stress. Research shows a strong relationship between social support and mental and physical health.
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This type of support includes both emotional support such as love, trust, and understanding, as well as advice and concrete help such as time or money.

Asking for help is not a sign of weakness. In fact, it can bring you closer to people you interact with every day, and it can significantly reduce your stress level. If you are feeling stressed, you can look for support from:
· Family members and friends.
· Programs offered through your school or job (for example, assistance programs or stress management courses).
· Colleagues at work, or people you interact with in other areas of your life (such as people who share your hobbies or other interests).
· A professional counselor. Be sure to see someone who has experience and credentials.
· Members or leaders of your church or religious organization.
· Support groups, if you have special circumstances such as providing care for someone who is elderly or has a chronic illness. Support groups may also be available on the Internet. For more information, see:
Quick Tips: Reducing the Stress of Caregiving.
Changing thinking
continued...
When an event triggers negative thoughts, you may experience fear, insecurity, anxiety, depression, rage, guilt, and a sense of worthlessness or powerlessness. These emotions trigger the body's stress response, just as an actual threat does. Dealing with your negative thoughts and how you see things can help reduce stress. You can learn these techniques on your own or seek help from a professional such as a counselor or specialist.
· Thought-stopping helps you stop a negative thought to help eliminate stress. For more information, see:
Positive thinking: Stopping unwanted thoughts.
· Disproving irrational thoughts helps you to avoid exaggerating the negative thought, anticipating the worst, and interpreting an event incorrectly. For more information, see the topic Positive Thinking With Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy.
· Problem solving helps you identify all aspects of a stressful event and find ways to deal with it.