Methods of coping with stress......

[taws6]

Hi,

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has suffered from a bit of stress, and I wondered how other cope with the sometimes daily stresses of life.
I personally, have found adopting the 'It could always be worse' attitude to most things seem to helps, and a newish hobby of mine, walking in the country, has help lift some of the stresses off my shoulders.

Anyone else got any input into these moral crushing feelings, that could in a survival situation cause tradagy??

[malente]

there are a few things. (I'm a management consultant, married with 2 little kids, so stress is no stranger to me )

generally, having a balanced diet, mind and body helps.

diet: eat fresh produce, regularly. Five a day and all that. It's amazing how just that can help you become a wee more stress resistant.

body: being overall 'fit' helps too. Jogging, walking, swimming, other sports that you enjoy and can do on a regular basis. Makes a lot of difference as it takes your mind of things and makes you concentrate or just pumps lots of oxygen through your stress-ridden body.

mind: I'm still figuring that out, but surfing BKUK is a good start

you're quite right that also the 'it could be worse' attitude helps a lot.

just my 2c.

Mike

ps: mind: having a mind-jogging kind of hobby might help like sudoku (thst stresses me though) Mine is tinkering with web design

[Cobweb]

Getting away from phone's and email into the woods, even if it's just for a couple of hours is my balm.

[locum76]

mainly what malente said. I personally think that a proper good party every so often helps clear the cobwebs.

[locum76]

rofl. i've nothing aganist cobwebs in general, especially our cobweb. he's not really a cobweb anyway, its all those other cobwebs... umm.

[zorro]

Get a dog, they are very good at listening.

[bikething]

rofl. i've nothing aganist cobwebs in general, especially our cobweb. he's not really a cobweb anyway, its all those other cobwebs... umm.

.. When you're in a hole - stop digging ...

(or She'll get upset! )

[johnnytheboy]

I have 37 staff and they all enjoy winding each other up all day, they are like kids, I'm in the middle of 3 Audits and have two key staff off just now so i'm filling in their positions and 100 customers a week spending between £500 and £50000 to ensure they are all looked after.

Also half way through doing the back garden and the wife is moaning that we need a roof on the house before the winter.

Some time i randomly find myself singing "Dont stop me now" by Queen

But anyway, Fishing and Canoeing, getting away from civilisation bobing about on the loch with great views, crap weather and a rod in my hand, I love it. Its like de-fragmenting, running the virus checker and deleting temp files for the old brainbox.

[Ruvio]

I find as well as the "it could be worse" attitude, a nice glass of wine, or a good bottle of beer at the end of the day, a good book, and a nice fire sets me for the night, and i'm the least stressed person i know
also, wood carving, fantastic stress relief

[johnnytheboy]

Wait till you graduate, then you will know what stress is, i loved uni 16 hours a week, fantastic, never did so much pike fishing in my life.

[TeeDee]

Not an easy skill for some of us.

Be Selfless and Selfish in equal amounts.

Do as much for yourself as you do for others.

[Hoodoo]

My main form of stress relief is through carving wood.

[malente]

Hoodoo that's a funny looking chap. Fantastic wood carving skills

And I like you 'cache' too!

Mike

[Limaed]

Nice carving there Hoodoo!
I think it helps to talk things through both after and often during a stressful situation, you dont feel half so bad if you know your mate is scared too!
Seriously though its good to 'shoot the ****' afterwards whether with friends or collegues, my wife has a good listening ear! Ed

[HillBill]

Hi,

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has suffered from a bit of stress, and I wondered how other cope with the sometimes daily stresses of life.
I personally, have found adopting the 'It could always be worse' attitude to most things seem to helps, and a newish hobby of mine, walking in the country, has help lift some of the stresses off my shoulders.

Anyone else got any input into these moral crushing feelings, that could in a survival situation cause tradagy??

Walking does it for me mate. A good hard slog over the hills is the only doctor/therapist i ever need. Go hard though mate if you want the stress out, gentle walking is ok but it only calms a little rather than eradicates it altogether, thats just my own expierience though.

Physical exercise releases chemicals in your body that basically make you happier...Fact

[AJB]

STRESS – Argh I’ve had a life full, but I think I’ve cracked it.

I started out in a job for the MoD that daily I was faced with sometimes danger, sometimes horrific scenes, sometimes massive work load and always huge responsibility to get it right against the odds – rewarded with redundancy. Then I started a business and was daily faced with staff and clients’ unreasonable attitudes in a high stress high risk business with, as ever, massive work load and always huge responsibility. After discovering what a crook my partner was I walked and left everything I’d built for 10 years. No money equals no Mrs, she left. To pick myself up, I then got a job that I hated, with people I couldn’t trust commuting nearly 200 miles a day. After three years of hell I’m redundant again, I can’t find a job as there aren’t any.

I’ve suffered from incredible stress for over 20 years and it has taken its toll on me in every way. So am I stressed now – NO. I take the attitude now that it’s a huge cosmic joke. I’m warm and dry, full and entertained, I don’t need anything else. I’m skint and stuff is falling apart, but I’m doing the best I can. All that stuff that you have to have and all the things you have to do – you just don’t. Change your expectation, when people try to pass their stress on to you, don’t allow it, you can only do as much as you can do, anything else is down to their bad planning or just it’s a shame it ain’t going to happen. As my MoD mentor used to say to me when a customer said we need this now – you should have come in yesterday. Life is too short for stress, if you don’t accept it, it doesn’t exist.

I was going to say my 2 cents, but I can’t afford to give them away, and Ruvio, if you can afford a bottle of wine every night I want my free stuff back

[Hetzen]

Don't beat yourself up. Take it out on something else.

[Ruvio]

my carvings arent that good...they dont have to be though, i like just, shaving wood

and when you want to calm down, for a man, just shave your face, i find it dead calming

[mace242]

To ease the strees of having to sit in an office all day I like to go into the garden just before sunset, light a fire in the big firepit (no matches here - has to be lit a good way, f&s or friction), make a brew on it, and whist it all gets dark and the fire really starts to show it's light and warmth I just sit there and drink the drink and watch the flames dance. I come in all relaxed and smelling of woodsmoke. Something about making a fire and enjoying it that's so satisfying.

[charadeur]

I'm an IT consultant. As you can imagine doing IT audits does not make you any friends with the full time IT guy. You are going to point out what they are doing wrong and they know it. Half the management does not think your opinion is worth paying for. So stress is part of every day for me. I try to eat right, do yoga and meditate. I know it sounds so 60s hippy but some of what they were promoting worked. And the yoga did wonders for my herniated disk when the doctors said I needed surgery.

[taws6]

Great advise about vigourous walking, I bet I can use that. I like swimming too, that can help relax the mind too.

Sometimes the problem why I get stressed I think is because I don't get the time to do what I want to do, I just seem to spend days sometimes with work / chores etc without a break. Even an hour or two can be difficult to get to myself, thank F@!£ I don't have kids!!!

[He' s left the building]

I stopped drinking coffee at work, I have green tea instead now. My caffeine intake is a fraction of what it once was and I've started sleeping every night (I used to sleep every other night some weeks )

[scrogger]

The outdoors is a wonderful tonic. I also find spending time away form home is what does it for me as I have worked from home running my own business for a number of years.

Laughing, walking the dogs, and dare I say it S~x!!!

All good stress busters.

jmho!

[Shewie]

Sometimes the problem why I get stressed I think is because I don't get the time to do what I want to do, I just seem to spend days sometimes with work / chores etc without a break. Even an hour or two can be difficult to get to myself, thank F@!£ I don't have kids!!!

Not enough hours in the day, not enough days in the year etc etc

I feel exactly the same sometimes, I get bored of doing the same boring job day in day out when there's so many better things to be doing in life.

I have a dream though, it's not much but it's something to work towards.

[Gailainne]

My best stress buster is this place and the people that frequently post here, the people I have met and the people I have yet to.

sometimes, you are sometimes, sometimes, and sometimes but your a great bunch

Cheers

Stephen

[Broch]

As others have experienced I have been through extreme stress that without doubt would have killed me if I had not found ways of dealing with it.

A few basic tools have helped me. Firstly learn and apply good time-management skills. There's nothing more stressful than knowing you've go too much to do so you've got to prioritise. Secondly learn and use some basic meditation processes (no really, not hippy stuff, just some basic methods). The last thing is always have a dream running - a trip planned, a new project, or even a new lifestyle!

I found that the worse time was trying to sleep so I would play over and over again the planning of the dream - it's a form of meditation - and each night I'd get a bit further in the plan. It kept me sane.

I live a much less stressful life now and if I feel a bit up tight I just have to walk out of the back door and into the woods!

Cheers,

Broch

[taws6]

Shewie: "I get bored of doing the same boring job day in day out when there's so many better things to be doing in life.

I have a dream though, it's not much but it's something to work towards".

I have exactly the same, plans, living for the future I guess. The thought that it will all be worth it when/if I/we pull it off. Problems have been huge lately, and it feels as if the last several years hard trying may have all been for nothing, and we might get dumped right back down to the bottom of the heap with nothing to show for it all, you know what I mean?

Broch: "The last thing is always have a dream running - a trip planned, a new project, or even a new lifestyle!"
Exactly what I have been doing, although as I say, my dreams seem to be slipping away lately.
I am off to Latitude festival this weekend, so that's helped me have something different to focus on, and has helped somewhat.
I guess I may need some smaller, easier to acheive goals, problem is I've already acheived most of the smaller ones, only leaving the bigger goals that are more time consuming and difficult to do.....
Talking openly on here has helped a bit I guess, and I agree Gailainne, this is a great forum

[malente]

I too have some big dreams and projects, but they also have a tendency to be very slippery and do slip away more often than not

Alas, one day....

[Broch]

It's not whether the dream becomes reality or not that matters - it's the process of concentrating on it and working through it in your mind that helps with the stress. Each time you dwell on it add a little more detail to the plan. If you find your mind wandering off onto the stuff that's stressing you start back at the beginning again and replan. These can be small projects or big ones - keep a few running at a time to fall back on.

At my most stressfull point in my career I planned to get away from it all and live a much simpler life - I suddenly realized that my plan B was far more interesting and enjoyable than plan A (the stressful career). What is scary about changes in lifestyle is when we don't control them.

Cheers,

Broch

[Leonidas]

Just taken on the implementation of a 40 Million $ piece of business....sounds huge, not really it is just telephone number.
Spent the last two years doing mergers and acquisitions in the billions....

Yes it is important and needs doing well...but it is not 'that' important, do we put the same effort into our down time?

In reality it is all a distraction, the real important thing in life amounts to realizing we are not even a speck on the boil on the ass of the cosmos.

We are just travelling through.
We do not own anything, it is on loan.
As soon as this becomes apparent it becomes time to simply enjoy the journey, or periodically stop what you are doing just to take it all in.

Let the rat's run the race, I've opted out