Common Stressors and Easy Ways To Beat Them
Stress is like an unexpected visitor who not only forgets how to knock, but also makes you anxious because now you have to entertain them until they leave. To make matters worse, sometimes it’s not just one unexpected visitor, but several, with some of them coming in the worst time of your life.
Stress can be a real downer and if you let it, it can negatively affect not just your everyday life, but also your health. To help our readers cope with everyday stress, we made a list of the common stressors the average person faces every day and a few quick and easy ways to cope with them.
1. Traffic
Perhaps one of the most common sources of stress, getting stuck in traffic no matter how seldom you go out is always a bad experience. This is an everyday occurrence for those living in the big city, but some rural parts also get their fair share of heavy traffic especially if there’s a long holiday weekend or if it’s a tourist spot.
You can’t exactly leave the car you’re riding while in traffic, so one of the best ways to cope with heavy traffic is by listening to your favorite podcast. Podcasts can help distract you from traffic stress as well as teach you something new in the process. There are thousands of podcasts out there and there’s a show for everyone.
2. Deadlines
Whether you’re a student or a veteran in the field, deadlines will always be stressful. The best way to handle deadline stress is to simply do the job early, but if you’re caught in a situation where doing things earlier is impossible, the next best thing is to take a step back and relax.
It may sound counterintuitive, but not working on an urgent project for a few minutes can help you think clearer. This pause can help “unclog” your brain from stress which can translate to better work efficiency.
Breaking the project down into mini milestones can also help you cope with deadline stress better than dealing with the entire project at once.
3. No internet connection
Everyone is quite literally connected to each other through the internet. For those who rely on their smartphones for almost 24 hours a day, losing internet connection can be a nightmare. It can be crippling, especially because it’s not within your control.
The first thing you can do is to first confirm what’s causing the internet outage. Is it something you can do on your end or is it happening to everyone in your area? Knowing the how and why of your situation can help calm you down, especially if the technician tells you they’re working on your connectivity problem.
In the meantime, this could be a good opportunity to work on “offline” hobbies you’ve been sweeping under the rug. If you find something that seems to eat your time away, you might not even notice the lack of internet connectivity.
4. Being sleepless
Even if you slept early, there are certain things that can make us have sleeping problems, causing us to wake up tired. Treating the following day as if you got a full night’s sleep can be really tough on a person, especially if their work involves lots of manual labor or complex problem solving.
One of the easiest ways to cope with sleeplessness is to simply catch a one-hour nap. This lets the brain rest and essentially “reset,” allowing you to function much better after waking up. If sleeping throughout the day is not possible, the next best thing you can do to cope with sleeplessness is to chew gum.
Chewing gum has been shown to help reduce stress plus it helps keep you awake, especially if the gum is a bit minty.
Takeaway…
The ways to cope with stress doesn’t have to be expensive or elaborate. You can reduce stress by listening to music or podcasts, taking a break, napping, and even something as simple as chewing gum. The idea is to either distract the brain from a stressor or help it reset so you can handle the stressors better.
