Image: jupiterimages.com

There are different ways of handling stress. Based on my experience in dealing with all the stressful situations that I’ve been through over the years, I have come up with, and strongly recommend, a three tiered approach to handle stress.

The three tiers are:
1. Responsive
2. Adaptive
3. Preventive

In this article we will have a quick look at how I define each of these three tiers and some simple essentials to help achieve each of them.

1. The immediate response to a stressful moment

The first is the immediate response to a stressful moment, which is very crucial for ensuring that you do not lose your nerve right at the onset.

Here are a few techniques that I use as an immediate response to beat stress.

(a) Count to 10 before you respond. It is very easy to immediately respond to a stressful situation in a manner that does not sound thoughtful, for example, through the display of frustration, arrogance, dejection etc. First things first, count to 10 in your mind – no need to say the numbers aloud – and that might just help you avoid an unintended response that you might regret after it is too late.
(b) Breathe! Take a deep breath. Seriously! Let the air fill in your lungs as well as stomach. Then, make a conscious attempt to continue to take deep breaths. It is said that shallow breathing could indicate stress. Did you know that we can use this conversely and overcome stress by breathing deeply?
(c) Do not react, just act. Counting to 10 and taking a deep breath helps set the foundation to act sensibly. This is when you should quickly analyze the situation and try to capture the aspects that are not immediately and easily perceivable. And based on the analysis, which should be as objective as possible, you should act, not react, to handle the situation.
(d) Desire to beat stress and get going! The most common response to a stressful situation is to give in to it and feel depressed. It is important to know that you are the best person to get yourself out of any stressful situation. Desire to beat the stress, and take action!

2. The adaptive tier – Handling of the stressful situation

The second tier is about the things that you should do while dealing with the stress after it has sunk inside that you are in a stressful situation and that you have to now get out of it.

(a) Go out and take a brisk walk. I practiced this just a few days back, and I intend to describe that in detail in a later article. For now, remember that this might seem very much unnecessary, I know, because I used to feel the same way too, but when you actually take the walk, things change dramatically. You start looking at things from totally different perspectives than those you thought were the only choices back in the office space. Just get out and take a rapid walk for at least ten minutes. Sweating a bit helps! Then get back, and see the difference for yourself in your actions that follow.
(b) Tackle the things that you can. Do not worry about the things that happened, and those that are out of your control. Just do what you can do now, and you will see that it was not as difficult as it seemed after all!
(c) Take frequent breaks. When stressed, attention span reduces significantly. Moreover, it is easy to get irritable soon and feel all the more stressed. Hence, it is important to take a break as soon as you feel your nerves tightening up, which would be happening often until the situation changes. Feel free to take the breaks, as they are very much needed.
(d) Replenish your body with enough fluid. The brain responds immediately to intake of fluid through opening up to fresh ideas and by responding through a thought process that is on the positive side.
(e) Fuel up! Some people, when stressed, try to give in all their time and energy to bringing the situation under control. How would an engine run without fuel? The brain tightens up further and the situation just gets more stressful in doing so. Though it might seem that taking, for example, the lunch break would be an utter waste of time in the critical situation, it is extremely important to get over that temptation. The engine cannot run too far on reserve fuel.
(f) Delegate. When things start charring down, you need not be the only one trying to put out the fire, even if it is you who was responsible or accountable for it. Delegate tasks to those you can. Get the team involved. When things can be done in parallel, get them done that way!
(g) Consult your close friend or mentor. If you feel that you are in a situation that you have never been in before, a little advice may go a long way. Consult those who you think can advise you on the course of action to take. Ask for all the help you can. It surely helps boost up one’s morale, just knowing that there is someone who is seeing things from a different position and does not think you are totally off the road.
(h) Meditate. This is one of the most effective techniques to relax your mind, if you really put your mind to it. Many people have aversion to the word meditation due to various reasons, and I will try to address those some other day. For now, I will just say that meditation is as simple as sitting down with your eyes closed, relaxing yourself in body and mind, and sorting out your thoughts and letting go off those that are not good for you. The benefits of meditation are immense!

3. The preventive tier – beating stress through lifestyle

Remember that the most of the points that have been outlined above as being techniques for the adaptive tier of handling stress are also to be used on a regular basis as part of the third tier. Likewise, some of those mentioned below can be applied in the second tier as well.

The third tier is about the things that you should do on a regular basis, irrespective of whether you are amidst stressful days or not, as they are crucial towards living a healthy and successful life, one that is well charged in order to be able to deal with stress easily and swiftly.

(a) Prioritize the tasks and handle those that are most urgent plus important. Do you know about the four quadrants of tasks based on urgency and importance? If not, watch out for the article right here! It’s coming soon.
(b) Eat regularly. A schedule is best! In our quest for success, we should not forget our very basic needs. Doing so brings in stress naturally into our life. If you experience tiredness and especially mild headache for not having taken in food for several hours, it is time you feed your body. The best bet is to stick to a schedule of food intake that ensures you are keeping your body well fueled to help drive you through the day, and night.
(c) Exercise daily. Exercise need not be heavy; we are not talking about building muscle mass here. Just stretching the body daily is all you need to do to ensure it functions well and keeps the brain cells developing too.
(d) Stop complaining! Everyone has problems, and you are not the only one stressed. Complaining about the problems only helps amplify them. Decide right now that you will not complain about your problems to everyone. If you do need to, then speak about the problems to someone who can help you overcome them, rather than just lend you a sympathetic ear.
(e) Prepare in advance. Beware of procrastination. Stressful situations usually do not pop out of nowhere. Half of them would probably be seen coming well in advance if you are alert enough. You can act on mitigating the risks before they turn into problems. Remember, procrastination of remedial actions even after seeing the storm coming is a sure way of welcoming stress into your life.
(f) When good enough is good enough, settle for good enough. If you haven’t already read my article on this, you can read it here.
(g) Have a hot shower immediately upon returning home from office. This one helps me get over the tiredness from office and feel refreshed and charged up for a fresh part of the day. Water has a healing effect on the body and can act as a good stress reliever. Let the shower be the first thing upon returning home from office, by all means, certainly before the television.
(h) Pursue a hobby – preferably sports. A hobby triggers the body-mind connection. It helps you enter the special areas of your being that can bring you inner peace and joy. Like most other stress busters this one too seems like a difficult thing to do when time is the last thing that you can spare.
(i) Reward yourself. Most of us go through life never even acknowledging our own achievements or any other good work. Rewarding oneself for the hard work helps build the self satisfaction, which boosts the positive thought process and helps in handling stressful situations with more confidence.
(j) Have good sleep every night. Being a workaholic myself, this is one area that I had long been ignoring, trying to make the best use of as much time as I could take out before finally going to bed. Result? Lack of sleep, and increasing stress in daily life. I would stress (pun intended) on this one as one of the most important things to do on a regular basis to help fight stress – Sleep for a good seven to eight hours regularly if you have not already been doing so, even if you feel that it might be a waste of valuable time that you could use for some more important activities. Trust me; the effects of good sleep would be obviously visible to you if you practice it daily.
(k) Consider taking a big break. Catch up on this one in my earlier article here.

A concluding note
These are just a selected few techniques that can help beat stress, and there would be lots more, small and big, which we can think of. Stress in not something that you can overcome once and for all, however, it is crucial to remember that you can handle it effectively. I would not wish you a stress free life, as that is something close to impossible, so I would rather wish you a life in which you are well equipped to handle the stressful moments, a life that you are in control of.