How To Cope With Stress Better
Posted by: Uticopa in stress, self help, self esteem, mental health on May 22, 2008
Work on your Confidence and Self Esteem
Having good self-esteem provides a robust support system that enables you to deal well with day-to-day problems that can otherwise have a negative and in some cases detrimental effect on your emotional and physical health. Confidence and self esteem is something that you can work on and there are number of therapy and life coaching techniques that can help with that.
Make sure your expectations are realistic
Your expectations and judgement of a situation are very important when trying to create a healthy outlook and perception of any given situation. In psychology it is called ‘appraisals'. Situations such as ‘long queue at the Post Office' or a ‘traffic jam' aren't a problem unless you perceive them as such. When your appraisals are realistic, then you will be able to respond to daily challenges better and keep a sense of perspective.
Irrational Belief Systems
The ‘appraisals' you make come from your long formed belief system. If you have rigid and unrealistic belief system, then your judgement might not be suitable for the given situation. An indicator of the rigid belief system is when you often use ‘musts' and ‘shoulds' or ‘have tos', stressing importance of perfection, which is often difficult or impossible to accomplish (especially if your idea of perfection is distorted). 'I must be looking immaculate all the time' or ‘I always have to be liked by people around me'.
There are small things that you can start doing yourself to challenge your reactions. For example when seeing someone being abusive, instead of immediately judging them as ‘horrible', try asking ‘I wonder what made them so outraged?' and notice how your reaction towards them might change.
It is possible to challenge your belief system and replace your unrealistic expectations with a form of ‘alternative appraisal'. This requires conscious effort and sometimes some help and guidance from a professional. Developing a better coping system and having a healthy belief system can definitely help you cope with stress better.
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