Stress, and how to cope with it.

Stress. Everybody has it, to some degree or another. Stress can actually be a good thing, in that it can give us that extra "push" to keep going and completing the set tasks we have before us. However, TOO MUCH stress can have the opposite effect. We feel tired and frustrated all the time, we can't cope with things as well as we would like, and we often tend to not show off our best selves when we are under too much stress.

Just look at the following pictures and see just what having TOO MUCH stress can do to you:







Not a pretty sight, is it?

The Study Guides and Strategies website gives us some really good tips on how to handle stress. Some of the tips they suggest that I highly recommend are these:

* Don't overwhelm yourself - I have learned (well, I'm actually still learning), not to take too many tasks upon myself and trying to do it all at once. One should take their time and manage tasks step by step. Have the courage to say "no" when you know that you already have too much on your plate.

* Learn how to best relax yourself - Remember that it's OK to take some "me" time, time to collect your thoughts and meditate. For some people, exercise and physical activity helps them reduce stress and helps them feel more relaxed.

* Get enough sleep - it can be stressful enough as it is dealing with just one thing at a time, let alone trying to deal with one thing at a time and having to cope with lack of sleep on top of it.

These tips are ones which I personally do not follow all of the time, but I do know that when I indeed follow these tips, they really can help reduce stress.

For more ideas on how to best cope with stress, you can visit the Studies Guides and Strategies website at http://www.studygs.net/stress.htm