We all know that feeling, that tightness in our chest, the racing thoughts, and the sense of impending doom. We all get stressed out about something at some point in our lives. It's a natural response to the things that happen in our lives, but sometimes it can feel like we're constantly under siege by stressors. This blog post will discuss some things that can cause us the most stress and some tips on dealing with stress.

What causes stress?

Stress is a reaction that our bodies create as a response whenever something happens in our lives, whether good or bad. It triggers a fight-or-flight response, making us engage with a situation or stay away from it. Stress affects our physical and mental functions, and it's something normal that happens to all of us. However, it's when chronic stress occurs that it becomes a cause for concern.

Various events in life can cause stress. Of course, it's okay to get stressed once in a while to respond to something that happens to us. However, when our stress levels become too high or accumulate over time due to several unaddressed issues, it can cause various diseases that can affect the body and the mind. In addition, our mental resilience for life's unfortunate or significant events can affect how stressed we can get. Therefore, knowing some of the most stressful life events is a good idea, so you can take action and prepare to deal with such things before and after such events. Here are some of them.

• Death of a loved one
• Getting into an accident and injuring yourself
• Getting into a fight with someone and ending up with a broken relationship
• Unemployment
• Committing or getting involved in a crime
• Having your homes damaged by a natural disaster, such as a storm or an earthquake
• Incurring a pile of debts
• Doing a pile of work
• Going to a different country for a change of residence and employment, or other reasons
• Raising a child
• Entering a new phase of life, such as joining the workforce for the first time or retiring after doing several years of work
• Getting into a conflict with someone
• Urgent deadlines, one after another
• Acquiring a major illness
• Lack of money to buy necessities and wants
• Not having a house to settle in
• Changing careers
• Lifestyle changes, such as having to change your diet due to an acquired disease

Anything that brings significant changes to our lives, especially those we haven't experienced before, can make us experience stress. Adding the uncertainty factor and the lack of skill and resources to deal with the new situation can make us more stressed. However, many events that cause a major life change are unexpected or unavoidable, so it's better to learn how to deal with stress so we won't feel overwhelmed.

Learn to deal with stress

Learning various things about stress management can help us feel more positive and take action to solve whatever is making us feel stressed. The more prolonged stress is left unchecked, the worse it can affect our health. Therefore, the earlier we manage stress, the better our stance will be regarding solving our stressors and ensuring our well-being is not compromised. The following are some ways to deal with stress.

1. Avoid whatever stresses you if you can

Stressors can be anything that triggers a stress response from us. If you can identify what makes you experience anxiety, discomforting feelings, and stress, then do your best to avoid them if they won't benefit you in any way. For example, if you don't handle conflicts well with others, it's best to avoid being argumentative, especially over minor things that shouldn't be an issue. Another example is that getting into accidents and being injured is a major cause of stress, so avoid being reckless and be mindful of your surroundings. As much as possible, try to avoid adding unnecessary stress to your life by not engaging in things that are not urgently needed or don't have any significance in your life.

2. Solve the problem that makes you stressed

Different kinds of problems can be significant causes of stress. If you have an ongoing issue that makes you stressed, try to approach the problem and solve it as much as possible. This way, if the problem is gone, nothing will give you more stress. For example, if you are experiencing financial stress due to unsettled debts, it's time to discipline yourself and find ways to manage your money so you can put more into paying your debts and settle them as early as possible. Prolonging problems and not acting on them will only worsen the situation, especially when other issues start adding to the mix, leaving you with more stressors that can give you headaches.

3. Learn the art of time management

Making the most of your time in your daily life can prove to be a good practice to ensure you handle many things well and give you more room for unanticipated events. The more we spend time doing unnecessary things, the more we can get overwhelmed once significant life events happen, especially if we are unprepared to handle them. Making good use of your time can involve attending to things that will help you get ready in case things happen and resolving any ongoing issues to ensure you always have a clear mind and enough time to deal with things.

4. Establish boundaries

One of the reasons you can be stressed is when you take on too many things at once, such as taking on a new job when your schedule is full or committing to activities you hardly have enough time to do. Learning to manage time well can give you room to do more things, but sometimes it is not enough. You also have to know how to establish boundaries, meaning you have to know your limits and only take what you can do. For example, finish earlier commitments and activities before adding more to your plate. Boundaries also refer to what extent people can pry into your life so that you won't get into conflicts with people that may unnecessarily intervene in your life.

5. Accept what you can control and cannot

Some things that happen in life are beyond our control, such as accidents or the sudden onset of illnesses. One way to help lessen stress is to accept that we can't control the outcome of some things in our lives. It's okay to spend some time feeling stressed over something beyond our control, but it's better to spend more of your time and energy focusing on dealing with the situation and how you can move forward. It may not be easy to pull off, but at least your stress will lessen once you move forward and have dealt with your grief.

6. Learn to take a break

Being too busy can leave you wrecked and add more stress to your life. Taking breaks and having time for rest and recreation are suitable forms of stress relief. No one can work or think long hours without feeling drained and stressed. Breaks help maintain your focus and motivation by giving you enough time to relax your mind and body and perhaps do something else to take your mind away from something stressful. With breaks, you can go back with renewed energy and vigor to work on whatever is pressing you.

Chronic stress is not suitable for you.

It's normal to get stressed sometimes, but being chronically stressed for long periods is terrible for your health. Chronic stress can build up when we let things go unattended for too long without being resolved. Therefore, we must try to solve problems as they go by as much as possible while at the same time knowing how to manage our stress levels for things that somebody can't immediately solve. Identify your stressors and try to get help and support from others if you can. It may be impossible to live a stress-free life, but we shouldn't let stress overtake much of our lives and try to lessen it as much as we can.