Let’s Cope With Stress
An interesting summary on what is stress as a common phenomenon, how does it effect us and how to cope with it.
What is stress?
There are many different definitions of stress, that even many stress experts use the term in different ways.
For the psychologists, stress is some kind of events that causes worriness and tension.
Some other psychologists describe it as a physical or rather a psychological response of a person towards a certain event.
According to Richard Lazarus, stress is a result of lacking equilibration between queries and resources, especially when their queries are way beyond the resources.
So stress in other words is the mental or the physical response towards certain situations or events which are treating and challenging.
Stress sources
The cause that initiates the stress reaction is called stressor. There are too many stress sources put there in daily life such as changings in life, the disturbances frustrations conflicts, catastrophic events and so on.
Changings in life
The big changes in life such as marriages, divorces, sicknesses, the beginning of a new job, death of a family member etc, etc.
These are important sources of stress.
Not to forget also that a change in life may lead to other changes and as a consequence the level of stress gets raised.
For example, getting married leads to a change in the way you have lived before, the financial status, the place of living and many other things.
All of these together create more stress than a single event.
Daily concerns
Psychologists have studied also the daily smallest stressors effect, that might not seem as very much important but still when they get all together can be a big stress source, such as losing the house keys, the daily chores, shopping, cooking… etc etc.
Frustration is a negative emotional state that on general hinders us towards the goals we aim
Conflicts
Conflicts arise when we have to make choices between two alternatives that may not meet one another.
This may happen also when we might be between two or more alternatives.
It might be that we can really like deeply the two kinds of alternatives so that it would be extremely hard to decide.
But it might also be that we may not like at all the two of the alternatives and still to be obliged to choose between one-another.
Catastrophic events
Earthquakes, terrorist attacks, floods and so on, are known differently as catastrophic events according to psychologists.
They happen unexpectedly and may touch many people in a very short time
Reactions towards stress
Many people react in different ways towards stress because such reactions are products of many factors.
The reactions of stress might be physical, psychological or based on certain behaviours.
All of these categories are not separate from each other.
The human is a well-integrated organism, so the physical wellbeing impacts the way we think and behave
Psychological reactions
Psychological reactions to stress might be cognitive and emotional.
The most common emotional reaction when it comes to the emotional one might be anxiety, which is linked with the threatening towards an unpleasant situation accompanied with a big fear.
So for example, if a teacher walks by in the school corridor and does not greet one of the students, the student might experience anxiety.
The student will start to think that this behaviour of the teacher is due to the bad results in the exam.
So this kind of situation or similar like this cause anxiety.
While the mental reactions include difficulties on concentration, repetitive thoughts, taking the wrong decisions etc…
For example, a girl wants to surprise her father at his workplace, for the fact that she had won a competition and that could make her father feel proud of her, but she does not know what floor of the building her father is.
Physical reactions
There are many people who show also physical reactions towards stress, such as headaches, stomach ache sweating, lack of appetite, lack of sleep etc…
The strategies of coping with stress
Coping with stress is a good try to gain self-control, in order to reduce the stressors.
Many people have individual ways to cope with stress, they know what works best for them.
There are obviously some steps that need to be taken to avoid stress, but still, there are also some events that might be inevitable.
How to cope with stress properly?
There are a few people that may cope better with different stressors in comparison to some others.
The bravest people cope easily some stress events because they tend to see these events as challenging rather than threatening.
They also tend to think and act that they themselves are on control of these trials.
From the other side, social support might impact in a positive way, it may help manage better the negative emotions.
One of the aspects to cope with stress is also going straight to the problem
This strategy is called “Focus to the problem”.
For example, if you feel stressed out about a presentation you have to do in a couple of days at school or at work, you can very easily reduce the stress by preparing very well for that presentation.
The focus on emotions
Another way of coping with stress is also the so-called “focus to the problem kind of strategy
For example: if you feel very anxious or afraid to speak for a certain item on a stage in front of many people you can use some relaxing techniques in order to manage the stress.
You can very well use also the technique of deep breathing.
The stressed person ca. breathe deeply several times with the diagram and to imagine a peaceful scene with their mind’s eyes.
This technique makes the person escape in such beautiful places for a mental break.
It is advised that these techniques and strategies mentioned above be used by everyone.
