When fall and winter come many people become very stressful because of reasons that are not important or even ridiculous. I would say that November is the most stressful and apathetic month of the year. Thus, recently I have experienced stress in almost every aspect of my life (studies, family, friends, random people on the street etc.). In all of these cases there were a few things that helped me to deal with stress and bad mood. For example, the simplest thing ever - time. Sometimes one just needs to give time to him/herself in order to organize one’s thoughts. So did I. Some stressful situations just needed a cup of good herbal tea and an interesting film to watch, and probably some silence. Others required more complicated methods to resolve the issue. However, my way to deal with stress is to do things that motivate me. I like to listen to motivating music.
Our popular culture nowadays provides us with the “right” music to listen when you are stressed. There are hundreds of songs in major scale that are created with a purpose to cheer you up, and mostly music videos for these songs include nice pictures and motivating stories to make you forget about things that hold you down or irritate you. It may sound weird but sometimes loneliness is the factor that motivates me. I need to stay alone to restore my energy in order to calm down and continue living my life and enjoying it. From the other side, a very good idea is to go out with your friends. It may be a cup of coffee or a bottle of beer to sit and talk and to tell your friends about the reasons of your stress. When you share your emotions with others it gets easier to deal with them and listening about your problems once again from the point of view of the listener makes you organize your feelings more effectively. Going out with your friends may mean also a real party when you just throw all the negative thoughts out from your head and have fun. It is actually all about having some rest.
I watched one interesting video which made me think that many stresses take their beginnings in overanalysis and trying to deal with too many things at the same time. Thus, I believe that one of the most effective strategies to prevent stressful situations is to throw away all the unnecessary things from your head and stop thinking but start doing. The other strategy is to prioritize tasks and deal with one task at a time. This way the quality of what you do, your productivity, and your internal emotional state will improve.
There are also few techniques that may be useful in case the stress could not be prevented but you need to get rid of it and continue dealing with the situation. My favorite one is to write on the piece of paper a few points that irritate or hold me down, read it again, then tear it to many small pieces and throw away. The other technique I sometimes use it to concentrate on three “buttons“: thoughts, body, and words. If you feel stressed you have to think about something that motivates you or makes you feel stronger (any experience of yours or dreams you have), let your body relax, and repeat three times words or internal mottos that inspire you. It really works! It is also important to remember that many stresses appear to be reasoned by simple tiredness. In these cases you just need to have a healthy sleep and take care of your physical state.
REFERENCES
Cairella Andrea. (2013, July 10). How to cope with stress: 4 Tips to deal with stress. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atjYymAoWAY
