What should be in a stress management plan

Between struggling to meet work and family demands and worrying about the state of the world, most of us deal with it occasionally. As I explain here , the persistent exposure to stress over a long period of time is known as chronic stress, and it can lead to health problems like anxiety, insomnia, and high blood pressure.

But, short of going off the grid completely, what can you do to be less stressed? Try this one week stress management plan. Start your week strong by making time to work out. In one study , the brains of mice who were allowed access to an exercise wheel for six weeks actually adapted to better handle stress. Ever take a deep breath during a stressful moment and immediately feel better?

According to a New York Times article on the power of controlled breathing, experts believe taking slow and steady breaths activates your parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for slowing heart rate and promoting calm feelings. Aside from how well they work, the beauty of breathing techniques is that they require no special equipment and can be done anytime, anywhere.

By changing your expectations and attitude, you will regain a sense of control while facing stressful situations. Try to view things from a positive perspective. Take time to enjoy things you like to do or enjoy alone time. Ask yourself how important this stressful situation really is.

If it is not very important, focus your time and energy elsewhere. Set reasonable standards and goals for yourself. Being a perfectionist sets you up for failure.

Learn that it is okay to not always have everything be perfect. Take a few minutes every day to reflect on all the things you appreciate in your life. This will help you to keep things in perspective. Recreation and Wellness. Stress Management Plan Stress management starts by identifying the sources of stress in your life. Start a Stress Journal A Stress journal will help identify the stressors in your life, as well as helps you find adequate ways of dealing with them. Write down: What caused your stress make a guess if you're unsure?

How you felt, both physically and emotionally. How you acted in response. What you did to cope or feel better. Evaluate your Coping Strategies Think about ways you may cope with stress. Finding effective ways for dealing with stress will help you in the long run. Your Key to Stress Management Your Key to Stress Management Strategy 1: Avoiding needless stress It's not healthy to avoid situations that need to be addressed, but we can eliminate a number of unnecessary stressors in our life.

Learn how to say "no" Taking on more than you can handle often leads to stress. Avoid people who stress you out Limit the amount of time that you spend with people who may have a negative attitude or tend to stress you out. Take control of your environment Try to avoid environments that make you anxious such as watching the evening news or sitting in traffic.

Replace these activities with others Avoid hot-button topics If you get upset from talking about certain topics or repeatedly argue about the same subject with the same people, stop talking about it or excuse yourself from the conversation when the topic arises.

Analyze your to-do list Review your schedule and distinguish the "shoulds" from the "musts". Strategy 2: Changing stressful situations If avoiding the stressful situation is not possible, altering may be the best option. Express your feelings instead of bottling them up. Be willing to compromise. What is the surest way to teach children of any age to make healthy wise choices? For a stress management plan to work, it must be comprehensive and offer a range of different strategies to pull from.

Each of us handles stress differently. This tool was designed with input from young people. There are two critical things we can do to manage stress before getting into specific strategies. First, we have to manage how we react to stress in order to realistically think about and frame our stress in a way that empowers us to best address it. Second, we must recognize that there is no stress management strategy that is as powerful as reaching out for support from others.

An effective stress-management plan should include a wide array of strategies that prepare teens to:. There is no set order to approach stress. Rather, we need plenty of ideas to draw from at appropriate times. For example, some strategies require a lot of thought, making them unhelpful at times of severe stress. During these extremely stressful times, it may make more sense to exercise to burn off the stress hormones before attempting to resolve the issue.

Each of the strategies includes a variety of ways to manage stress. Young people should pick and choose those methods that best match individual needs. It is also important to remember that effective strategies must change with circumstances and over time. Considering how best to manage stress in our lives takes ongoing work and continued thought. Building resilience in this way is more effective than telling them what not to do. Take a look and see what may apply to you.

As we manage our own stress, we model successful strategies for teens. For more on Dr. Ginsburg visit www. Creating a Stress Management Plan. Managing Stress and Coping with Challenges The choices adolescents make to manage stress heavily influence their health and well-being — even their safety, now and throughout their lifetimes.

Combat Stress Stress makes us uncomfortable. Stress and Coping Cycle Stress Management Across Ages It is never too early, nor too late, to help young people develop healthy coping strategies. Young Children We should offer young children opportunities to learn how to feel emotionally healthy and physically strong. Pre-Adolescents and Early Adolescents Young people in this age group may be more likely to listen attentively as they are taught stress reduction strategies.

Mid and Late Adolescents Older adolescents may not want to hear about stress reduction from parents, but will likely still be receptive to guidance from other caring adults or professionals. Model Effective Coping Kids of all ages will learn from watching us. Build a Plan For a stress management plan to work, it must be comprehensive and offer a range of different strategies to pull from. Stress Management Plan for Teens.

They can build their own plan. Everything they need is right here. Suggest they get started today! Start plan. A Wide Range of Strategies An effective stress-management plan should include a wide array of strategies that prepare teens to: Effectively problem-solve Maintain the best health both emotional and physical possible for managing stress Manage or avoid! When we address a problem, we diminish the source of stress. We gain hope and empowerment when we clarify what the problem is, divide it into smaller pieces, and commit to working on only one piece at a time.

Doing so decreases the crushing sense of being defeated and increases our control.