5 Ways to Manage Stress

Stress affects all of us and costs us plenty. We lose productive time at work or school and experience strain on our relationships when we are stressed. It exacts a high price on our health, causing premature aging and leading to many diseases. It pays to know various ways to manage stress since we all have to deal with it in varying degrees.

Good Stress vs. Bad Stress

A certain amount of stress in your life is good. With no deadlines to meet, no pressure to pay your bills, or no expectations in your relationships, you would have an unsatisfying existence. Good stress helps us accomplish tasks on time, take responsibility for our obligations, and encourages us to be intentional in our relationships. A little bit of good stress is not harmful, but helpful.

Bad stress, on the other hand, costs us more than it benefits us. There are different types of bad stress. Some stress comes to us without invitation. A tree falls on your house, your spouse is diagnosed with a chronic illness, or your extended family members stir up constant drama. These types of stressors can be managed even if they can’t be prevented.

The other type of bad stress is preventable stress. If you are taking on the job of two people at work, that’s bad stress. If overspending each month breaks your budget, that’s also bad stress. If you procrastinate and then experience friction with your family, that’s another example of the type of stress you can prevent. You can learn ways to head off this kind of bad stress by changing your responses and behaviors.

5 Ways to Manage Stress

You may not be able to prevent all stress in your life. But you can control your responses to stress and work to minimize it. Here are six suggestions for stress management.

Control What You Can

Write out a list of everything that is causing you stress. Label the items as good stress or bad stress, then break the bad stress items into preventable and unpreventable. As you look at the good stress items, choose to see them for the gifts that they are. You can even thank God for the good stress that increases your success.

You can’t do much to control the unpreventable stress items. Yet you can pray over them and shore up your faith so that they don’t rattle you as much as they once did.

The area that deserves the most attention is the preventable, bad stress. Take a hard look at yourself and ask yourself what you can change in those stressful situations. Even if you can only change two percent of the problem, it’s an area where you can gain ground.

For example, you can limit your time with family members who love drama. You can ask your boss to consider hiring more help or reassign some of your workload. You can temporarily block online sites or avoid visiting stores that tempt you to overspend. These are small ways you can begin to decrease your preventable stress load.

Meditate on God’s Word

Meditation is scientifically proven to reduce your stress. As a Christian, it’s important to meditate on the truths of God’s Word, rather than on worldly sayings. You can pick a favorite verse to meditate on when you are stressed. By meditating you can retrain your brain to think differently.

There’s a Bible verse for every problem you face. You may not find the word “stress” in your favorite Bible version, but you can look up the underlying problem to find a meditation verse on it. For example, if you are stressed at work, you could look up the word “work” and find a verse to motivate you. A good one is Colossians 3:23 in this area.

Another angle you can take is to use a meditation verse on what you want to pursue. Many stressed-out people want greater peace in their lives. By meditating on verses about peace, you will be thinking more about peace than your stressors. Try Isaiah 26:3 as a verse on peace.

Meditation is a convenient, pain-free way to deal with stress. Carry your favorite verse with you on a card or make it into your screensaver on your computer or phone. Turn to God’s Word right away when you feel stressed and pray the verse back to him. With repetition, you will be able to overcome stress.

Practice Self-Care

Most people with high-stress lives do not take good care of themselves. If you’re dealing with a lot of stress, you need to put a high priority on self-care. This is how you refuel your soul and brain before re-engaging with a stressful world.

Make a list of activities that bring you joy. Choose to participate in at least one of them daily. A good self-care activity can be a reward that you’ll look forward to at the end of a busy day. Things like taking a bubble bath, reading a book, or playing with your pet are all simple, inexpensive ways to recharge and step away from stress for a while.

Pursue a Healthy Lifestyle

As noted above, stress exacts a heavy toll on your health. It contributes to many chronic and life-threatening illnesses, such as immune system disorders, heart disease, and cancer. The healthier your lifestyle, the better chance you have of reducing the impact of stress on your health.

The number one health area affected by stress is not enough sleep or low-quality sleep. If you improve your sleeping habits, you can significantly minimize stress effects on your body. Develop a nightly ritual to help you relax before bed. Avoid alcohol and blue light from screens, which interfere with sleep. Lower the temperature in your bedroom and consider adding a white noise machine.

Eat a balanced diet full of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein. This type of diet helps your body metabolize stress much better than a diet high in fat, sugar, and salt. It’s also crucial to exercise 30 minutes per day, five times per week to reduce stress. A quick walk outside will help you calm down and boost your immune system.

Make Necessary Changes

You may need to make several changes to manage your stress. Depending on your situation, you may need to end a relationship, find a new job, or hire a financial consultant. It’s wise to get trusted input from others before making big decisions so you don’t end up with more stress than with what you started.

Consider meeting with a counselor to sort out what changes may help reduce your stress level. Since we all have our blind spots, it can be helpful to have a caring Christian counselor give you an objective perspective on what type of stress is preventable and what you can change to manage it. Your counselor can teach you how to set boundaries with others, become more assertive, and learn to say no to activities that are causing more harm than good.

Counseling and Stress Management

Stress management is a difficult problem to manage on your own. By meeting with a qualified counselor, you can learn the skills that will help you eradicate stress from areas that have plagued you for years. With a counselor’s help, you can weed out the good stress from bad stress, then address the root of the problems while discussing the best solutions.

At Newbury Park Christian Counseling, we specialize in helping people manage their stress. We will help you form a strategy for dealing with stress, so it doesn’t cost you so much anymore. Our biblical approach will steer you in a healthier direction, using principles from God’s Word. Give us a call today to set up your first appointment.