Everyday Stress Management
The best way to manage stress is not to let it build up inside you and get out of hand. This may be easier said than done, but it is well worth it. Stress has been associated with diseases such as high blood pressure, obesity, stroke, high cholesterol, migraine headaches, lupus, and more. It is vital for your physical health that you learn to manage your mental and emotional health. Stress management helps you do that.
Family Stress Management
Don't let family stresses build up. Hold regular family meetings with your household where each family member is allowed to tell the family what is on their mind and what they are feeling stressed over. Maybe your kids' time is overbooked and they would like to have one less activity to go to during the school year. Maybe your spouse would like to have more quality time alone with you.
Once these feelings are expressed, figure out a way to mediate the differences among family members before they get out of hand.
Workplace Stress Management
Most of us have stressful jobs, but it is important that we discover stress management techniques that help us deal with all that stress. Some workplaces recognize the value of stress management, and they offer programs for dealing with stress, or stress management training. Some workplaces have partnered with a gym or health club to make it easy for employees to work out. Others will reimburse employees for yoga or fitness classes. If such a stress management program does not already exist in your workplace, suggest it.
When stress management in the workplace is recognized as a valid need and created as an employee benefit, productivity goes up and absenteeism and health problems go down.
Financial Stress Management
Money problems are the number one source of stress in a marriage. Don't stick your head in the sand like an ostrich to avoid your money problems. Deal with them. There are many books, television programs, and web sites that can help you do this. The basic premise is to list all your debts, and the interest rate you owe on each of them. Start paying them off by making more than the minimum monthly payment, starting with the highest interest account. Investigate how you can shift the high interest debt into lower interest debt.
How will you come up with extra money to pay off these accounts? Start now by keeping a diary of every cent you spend. Within a week or so, you will be able to pinpoint how you are spending your discretionary income. Giving up some of those discretionary items will be a sacrifice at first, but the rewards for paying off high interest debt will be worth it.
