Everyone has stress in everyday life. But not everyone can handle it well – and those who do not have the right stress management (also: stress coping) and are therefore under permanent tension risk consequences for their health. Basically, stress management is a psychological method or strategy designed to simplify the handling of stress factors. With the right stress management, we can better withstand the stresses of everyday life.

Why Do We even Have Stress?

Even though we often associate stress with something negative nowadays, it used to be essential for survival. Because stress is a physical reaction that allows us to perform at our best in the short term – in the Stone Age, this was the only way we were able to decide in a flash whether we should flee from an attacker or face him and fight. This mechanism has been preserved to this day. Stress leads to the following physical reactions:

Blood supply is increased
The hormones adrenalin, noradrenalin and cortisol are released

Symptoms: How Stress Makes us Sick

As long as the stress only lasts for a short time and the stress hormones can be reduced again after the “dangerous” situation, we need not fear any health consequences. However, if we are under permanent stress and neglect stress management, the hormones can no longer be broken down – which can trigger many different symptoms. These include:

Insomnia
Permanent fatigue / exhaustion
High susceptibility to infection
Overload
Gastrointestinal complaints such as constipation or diarrhoea
Tension, resulting in headaches or neck pain, for example
Psychological complaints, e.g. depressive mood up to depression and / or burnout

Beware of These Stressors

There are some stress factors that we encounter again and again. These include:

Private worries, e.g. because of social contacts or for financial reasons
Dissatisfaction / high stress in the workplace

Often several of these stress factors occur simultaneously, which makes good stress management indispensable.

The Best Tips for Coping with Stress

The following stress management methods help to reduce stress:

1. Accept the State of Stress

Especially women tend to always function and suppress the fact that they are actually on the verge of collapsing due to stress. Every person must learn individually to admit to themselves that they are overwhelmed by certain situations or tasks. It often helps to write down all your worries and to have a black and white view of what is bothering you and what stress reactions you actually have.

2. Involve the Social Environment

Once you have admitted to yourself that you are overly stressed and need help, it is time to inform your social environment about it. The first thing most people do is to draw a closely connected person, such as their partner or a parent, into their trust. Depending on which stress factors play a role, it can also be useful to talk to the supervisor if there are any professional problems. This is of course not easy, but only if the social environment is aware of the difficulties can it react accordingly.

3. Consider Your own Attitude

Those who are already deep in the stress spiral tend to acquire negative thinking patterns. These thought patterns should be reinterpreted positively in stress management, so that phrases such as “I can’t” or “I have to” become sentences such as “I can” and “I want to”. In this way, the person affected feels more self-determined and learns that he or she has it in his or her own hands to deal better with stress. This also includes letting go when, for example, one has fulfilled every task in a perfectionist manner and therefore has high expectations of oneself. To accept mistakes and to distance oneself from one’s own perfectionism is a great strength.

4. Learn Time Management

Particularly in the workplace, good time management helps to complete all upcoming tasks without too much stress. The correct prioritization of tasks helps to prevent work from getting out of hand. To-Do lists make it easier to keep track of what is most important and time-critical. You should also divide your working time into small blocks – for example, after an hour of concentrated work you can take a five-minute break and get up and walk around a bit to clear your head.

Just as important: Identify and eliminate the interfering devices. Anything that distracts from the task – such as mobile phones and social media – acts as a disrupter. These should be hidden in the concentrated work block. The mobile phone, for example, is switched to silence and placed in the drawer, and the social medium is blocked.

5. Seeking Balance in Stressful Situations

From the office chair straight home to the sofa, where you can simply lie there until bedtime? Sure, you can do that once, but it shouldn’t be like that all the time. In order to cope with stress, we need a balance to the stress factor. This can be, for example, sports in a club, a weekly meeting with your best friend or a visit to a wellness hotel on the weekend.

6. Learn Relaxation Techniques

There are various relaxation techniques that are recommended for stress management. They help those affected to block out the environment and draw new energy. The programs include yoga, autogenic training and the so-called progressive muscle relaxation. The programs can be learned at home, for example through online programs, but also through coaches or VHS courses.

7. The Right Diet

A healthy diet is essential, especially in times of stress, so that the body is provided with everything it needs. Unfortunately, when we are under stress, our brain would prefer the opposite: simply available calories that can be quickly converted into energy. This is why many people develop a ravenous appetite for sweets and fast food in times of crisis. Better: Drink plenty of water and rely on food that has a blood pressure-lowering effect. These include fresh fish or fruits such as bananas and watermelon. It is also helpful to take vitamin B1, which strengthens the nerves. Meat and potatoes, for example, can be on the menu. By the way, this also helps to increase concentration.

Beware of These Patterns of Behaviour in Stress Management

There is also negative stress management, but this only draws the person concerned deeper and deeper into the stress spiral and does not solve the actual problems. Essentially, the following patterns can occur:

Aggressive: The affected person e.g. tries even harder to achieve perfection, does extra work, uses medication to improve performance or starts bullying friends and/or colleagues.
Evasive: The affected person takes long breaks, refuses and/or skips work and takes refuge in addictions, e.g. nicotine or alcohol.
Resigning: The affected person usually tries to ignore or suppress the problems and does not address the cause of the complaints.

Anyone who identifies these patterns of behaviour in themselves relies on negative stress management and should definitely look into problem-solving strategies.