Stress management

5 things you should know

1. Reducing stress has many benefits, such as improving sleep, concentration, and lowering the risk of health problems like heart disease, headaches, and anxiety.

2. Stress is your body’s reaction when it thinks something is a danger. This is called the “fight or flight” response. If you don’t see something as dangerous, you will not feel stressed.

3. To lower stress you need to remove the danger, either by changing the situation (for real dangers) or by changing the way you think about the situation (for self-created dangers).

4. Relaxation strategies can help reduce stress in the short-term. These include deep breathing, meditation, visualization, listening to music, getting a massage and many other strategies.

5. Long-term ways to manage stress involve learning skills to deal with the problem causing the stress (e.g. problem-solving skills, communication skills, budgeting skills, etc.), or using cognitive strategies like cognitive restructuring to change the way you think about the situation.