Dr. Slava Shut

Your success is rooted in your mindset. When you’re focused and confident, you’re capable. Decision making, commitment to goals, and self-accountability all occur internally. 

So do depression, anxiety, and fear. 

It’s easy to get things accomplished when you’re feeling confident and capable. When you know things will go smoothly, you don’t have to wish. 

You can play your part to ensure that they do. 

But what if you don’t feel confident in what’s going to happen?

Welcome to Topic Thursday, where we look at something specifically related to business, finance, health, or life in general. Today, we’re going to talk about the difference between stress management and stress avoidance.

What Is Stress?

We’ve all experienced stress in one way or another throughout our lives; psychologically, physically, financially, or emotionally. Think of stress as the result of a negative reaction or strain caused by a perceived change.

Even though something harmless might cause it sometimes, stress, itself, can definitely cause some problems. Too much of it can damage your health and prevent you from reaching your purpose. 

On the other hand, chronically avoiding stress and discomfort isn’t the healthiest tactic, either. 

As a doctor, what I’ve seen is that this type of behavior leads to an inability to handle typical stresses, eventually. 

It’s only a matter of time. Even if you’re perfectly avoiding every stressor in one aspect of your life, you’ll eventually come upon something that isn’t as pleasant or enjoyable as your favorite pastime. Do yourself a favor: choose strength over weakness. 

Develop some good stress management strategies instead of avoiding the sources of your stress.

Strategies For Stress Management

Stress management gives us the tools to navigate changes that we dislike, or are unaccustomed to. 

It’s important to have good strategies for stress management. Luckily, your body and mind already have some built in systems to help you. To protect you against bacteria, viruses, and other microbial stressors, your immune system is constantly at work. Without you even thinking about it, everything you come into contact with, from the things you hear, touch and see to the tiny particles you ingest, make you more able to manage stressors in the environment.

But when you’ve never experienced a certain kind of stress, it can affect you differently than a stressor that you’re more familiar with. Here are some good strategies for preparing yourself to manage stress in a healthy and productive way.

Identify The Stressor

Once you’re able to determine that, yes, you are feeling a little stressed out, you’re on the right track. This part isn’t a given. Stress can control your actions and mindset a lot more when you don’t even know that you’re being affected by it. From here, your next step is to narrow it down further.

Do you know why you’re stressed? It won’t do you any good to try to fix a problem if you’re not sure what it is first. It can be disorienting when there’s something that’s affecting you in a way that isn’t immediately obvious. Here are some effective stress management tools:

Deep Breathing For Stress Relief

When you’re experiencing a stressful situation, there are some things you can do to help alleviate some of the discomfort that comes along with it. Focusing on your breathing is a great way to get started. Deep breaths increase the amount of oxygen in the blood, which provides more to the brain. When it comes to putting your best foot forward with a clear mind, taking 5 – 7 deep breaths can make all the difference between feeling a little uncomfortable and being fully in control.

Take A Break

If you’re spending some time focusing on something important, it’s easy to get a little stressed about the results. It’s a great habit to push yourself to be your best, but it’s also crucial that you recognize when your efforts are starting to get diminished returns. When you’re totally driven to get something done, even a tiny increment of progress can be satisfying.

But when it gets to the point that success comes quite a bit slower, and the milestones your were reaching are getting further and further away each time, it could be time to stop for a little while. When you grind without getting anything accomplished, it can be discouraging – and stressful – in the long term. If it’s worth doing, take your time and do it right.

Have A Plan

Counting on luck isn’t a good strategy.

Trying to accomplish a goal with no clear plan of how to do it is one of the more stressful things you could subject yourself to. I don’t recommend it! Before you get started doing anything, it helps to have a clear purpose. 

Once you’ve established a vision for what you want the future to look like for yourself, you can start to create the path to get there. It might take a little trial and error, a few changes here and there maybe, but your overall vision should endure throughout.

If you don’t have a solid idea of what you’re trying to accomplish, you’re going to build toward a goal that you haven’t set for yourself. Are you ready to stop avoiding the stress in your life, and start managing it? 

Contact my team today to set up a 1-on-1 with me, and let’s solve the problem for good!