Stress Management: Changing Your View of a Stressor
Stress Management: Changing Your View of a Stressor“It can be hard to turn that stress off at the end of the day.”As a firefighter and paramedic, Shannon Richter deals with stressful situations every day. Stress affectseveryone differently, so stress management plans have to be customized to what’s causing your stress, howyou respond to that stress, and what will best relieve it. To create your own plan, you have to first identify thesymptoms of your stress.“Headaches, neck strain, high blood pressure.”And how those symptoms affect you.“You’re irritable, you’re snapping at your coworkers, your wife, the kids. It can be affecting yourconcentration.”After identifying how stress affects you, look for relief techniques that will work best for you. Shannon takes amoment to just breathe.“If I experience any stressful event or notice that I’m getting stressed out by something then I take thatimmediate time for myself. Taking some quick breaths and relaxing.”Taking a few slow, deep breaths can also calm you down. That’s a technique Claudine Jackson uses to easethe symptoms of her anxiety disorder and the stress that comes along with them.“The breathing exercise it’s more like a inhale, exhale, slow deep breaths and then blow it out. Slowdeep breaths and then blow it out. And not breathing through your nose, but more so through yourmouth. And it just kind of relaxes your entire your body and makes you feel better.”Another good way to manage your stress is to talk about it in a setting that is designed to help. Shannon’s firedepartment offers a special peer support program to do just that.“We’re supporting each other because we’ve all been here. We’ve all done this. We’ve all gottenstressed out. We’ve all had highs and lows. We’ve all had exciting calls and sad calls, so we’ve beenthere too. We’re going to help you out.”Christopher Wojnar uses another technique to relieve stress, which is a part of his everyday life living withBipolar Disorder. His stress reliever is Positive Self-Talk. It’s kind of a personal pep talk that can help youchange the way you react to a stressful situation.“There are these negative thoughts that just come out of nowhere sometimes. It’s really battling thoseand using positive self-talk and using tools to try and change your thoughts to be positive.”This program is for informational purposes only. Publisher disclaims all guarantees regarding the accuracy, completeness,or suitability of this video for medical decision making. For all health related issues please contact your healthc are provider.HCGN10074B EN StressManagementChangingYourViewOfAStressor.pdf© The Wellness NetworkPage 1 of 2Stress Management: Changing Your View of a StressorBesides going back to school, Christopher is an intensive care nurse, a father, and a new husband. That’s alot to handle, but he says the positive thoughts and supportive family help him stay calm.“Those positive affirmations have been huge for me as well as using support systems andcommunicating effectively, I think are my biggest things.”Meditation is another stress relief tool. Mindfulness Meditation involves taking just a few minutes of quiet timeto focus on what’s happening around you at that specific moment, rather than on the many things that mightbe causing you stress.“Getting away from a lot of past-oriented thinking and a lot of future-oriented thinking. The focus withMindfulness Meditation, we’re trying to help an individual bring their attention and present focus to thepresent moment that they’re in.”Meditation can help you calm those worries or anxious thoughts that might be in your brain. It’s been a hugehelp to Mary Beth Schultz.“Life was a lot different before I could manage my stress. It was. Before I would lose my patience veryquickly. I let things bother me too often. And when that happened, you know, my day was just totallydisrupted.”Mary Beth uses both meditation and yoga to help handle the stress of taking care of her elderly mother andfiguring out her life in retirement. She says it’s important to make the time to clear her head.“It doesn’t take long, 10 minutes, 15 minutes. When I can accomplish that, I find a lot of inner peaceand I awaken in such a way that I feel better.”“It’s quite fascinating that just a simple act of practicing being mindful, being mindfully aware of thepresent situation that one is in, how that can help to reduce a lot of significant psychiatric burden.”Changing the way, you think about and respond to stress is the first step in learning to cope with stressfulsituations. If you feel you need help controlling the stressors in your life, talk to a mental health professional.This program is for informational purposes only. Publisher disclaims all guarantees regarding the accuracy, completeness,or suitability of this video for medical decision making. For all health related issues please contact your healthc are provider.HCGN10074B EN StressManagementChangingYourViewOfAStressor.pdf© The Wellness NetworkPage 2 of 2
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