Ways People Deal With Stress - Essay Example

However, when the frequency and/or the intensity of bombardment cross a certain threshold, it severely affects the mental and physical health adversely. Nonetheless, it is possible to deal with stress and make life worth living. This demands internal and external efforts often called cognitive-behavioral stress management techniques; optimism, staying happy and healthy, liking what you do and being less prone to external pressures help reduce the effects stress can have. ‘Stress, is the outcome of the demands made on an individual beyond the capacity of his potentials to cope with the situation… ability to cope with a task dealing with the situation is inversely related to the degree of stress’ (Shrivasta, pp. 17). Some people can work ten hours a day easily while others find it burdensome.

Some people can submit a twenty five page report due on the weekend without taking any painkillers during the course while others suffer from severe migraine and insomnia. It is widely observed that in the race course of life, a few individuals are more prone to tumbling on every hurdle and hurting themselves. A huge factor which may lead to such a performance is lack of self-belief. It is highly essential for an individual to recognize the entity that they are and acknowledge all that they are capable of; without such recognition a person is likely to underestimate their self frequently and harm their personality.

An ‘I can do this’ attitude keeps the person moving ahead with determination while an ‘I don’t know how I will ever do this!’ attitude forces them to stop intermittently and get frightened by minor difficulties which causes stress (Shrivasta, pp. 23-25). Therefore, believe in one’s self helps a person fight with the stressful forces they encounter and leads to a stress-free life. Moreover, willingness to do a task and enjoying it contribute positively to stress management. Stress is usually caused by ‘stretching’ activities which require more than one’s regular output or productivity.

Enjoying what one is doing automatically increases the level of efficiency and makes stretching activities fun rather than arduous. For instance, a person who likes writing will enjoy their career as a journalist and will take up new demanding projects with a positive vigor; on the other hand, anyone who lacks the ability to write will be facing difficulty and stressing their selves at every step of their work life. Therefore, doing what one enjoys highly reduces the level of stress they will experience (Shrivasta, pp. 29-32). Many a times, when coming across individuals of different natures, we experience a type of people who cannot refuse or cannot say a ‘no’.

Such a behavior leads situations where they find themselves trapped. If one is not comfortable with doing something or finds a task totally beyond their capabilities, they should refuse to take the offer rather than mentally suffering from their own actions. For example, if a girl opts to teach calculus to her friend everyday in her already-hectic life, just because the friend asked for it, she will over-burden herself and may get stressed (Bennet, Zeller, Rosenberg, and McCann, pp. 6-8). The friend and her incapability to refuse will be her stressors.

In this situation, if she refused to teach, she could have done well to herself as well as the friend who could have now taken help from someone who has the time and a willingness to teach. The most important thing is to have a positive outlook on life; happiness and relaxation should be on the to-do list every day. Studies have found that laughter may reduce stress by causing a decrease in stress hormones and improve natural killer cell activity (Bennet,