Learning how to deal with stress may be one of your most important priorities

This page describes how to deal with stress; including the key points of knowing a definition of stress; the signs of stress to look out for; and techniques for how to relieve stress. It presents an overview of how to cope with stress.

How to deal with stress: 4 key steps that will help:

Stress, in many ways, is in the eye of the beholder and is, therefore, sometimes tricky to deal with. However, there are four key steps that will help to deal with it in almost all cases. Underlying all of them is the empowering effect of possessing knowledge.

Definition of stress:

Know your enemy.

"Stress" is such an easy word to use and apply to almost any situation where we are feeling uncomfortable. However, stretching our comfort zone will probably make us feel uncomfortable although it is vital for self improvement.

It would be self-sabotage, therefore, to loosely say we feel stressed and allow that to be an excuse to cop out of learning and growing.

Step 1 in how to deal with stress: know what stress is and what it isn't (click the link above for a definition of stress).

What are the biggest causes of stress?:

Know the reasons why.

Almost anything may become stressful if we allow it to (e.g. by how we are NOT managing ourselves and our thinking).

But there are, of course, circumstances and situations that for most of us are inherently stressing and it is important to understand what are these biggest causes of stress.

Step 2 in how to deal with stress: know the nature and scale of the major causes of stress (by clicking on the link above).

What are the signs of stress to watch out for?:

Know when you are being "attacked" by stress.

Often the last person to realise that they ARE stressed is the person who IS stressed.

In the same way as it is all too easy to use "stress" as a cop out and mistake valuable personal growth discomfort as damaging stress, so it is sometimes easy to explain away the signs of stress as something else and fail to recognise and realise the health risks involved.

Step 3 in how to deal with stress: know the signs of stress (e.g. click the link above), raise your self awareness, check periodically (including get feedback from others, be open-minded and make changes as needed).

How to relieve stress:

Know what changes to make to relieve stress if you get it. Know how to cope with stress.

There's an old saying: "prevention is better than cure", and if you can avoid getting stressed in the first place, that's probably the best strategy of all.

However, you are likely to get stressed from time to time (it's called "living"), of course, and then you must decide what to do about it.

Choosing to just live with it or to start popping some pills or increased alcohol consumption etc. are usually self-hurting in the long run.

Step 4 in how to deal with stress: take responsibility for your health and well-being and decide to make some changes, especially in your mindset, attitude and habits (click on the link above for some tips for reducing stress and other stress relief techniques).

An easy, enjoyable and very effective way to do this is through self hypnosis and being able to relax at will with various ways to relax; mindful meditation; and other meditation techniques.