by Ove Heradstveit – psychologist
Life is filled with ideals, dreams, and expectations, while daily life is packed with tasks and demands. For many, this can create constant pressure that develops into stress.
People who experience a lot of stress often struggle to prioritize what’s most important. When every task feels like a top priority, it’s an easy way to invite stress into your life.
Often, we must make choices, and every choice means letting something else go. It’s important to accept that this is a natural part of life and to remember that we’re not superheroes. We need to allow ourselves to set some tasks aside and simply take time to enjoy life.
Need help managing stress?
What happens in the body during stress?
Stress involves a number of physical changes in the body. What happens is that the brain sends out signals that trigger the release of certain hormones/substances into the body. One of these substances is cortisol.
As long as cortisol is released into the bloodstream, it leads to changes in blood flow, a slowed metabolism, and a hyper-focused attention. This, in itself, can be both positive and negative.
When Stress Can Be Positive
The positive side of the stress response is that it puts you in “fight-or-flight” mode, preparing you to take action. Stress, in moderate amounts, enables you to perform at your best.
When faced with something difficult or challenging, your body naturally responds with stress to help you handle the situation.
Over time, too much stress can be harmful.
Stress can quickly turn into something negative and lead to anxiety. For example, this can happen when you feel that the challenge is “too” difficult—when you don’t expect to be able to handle it. In such cases, stress becomes uncomfortable and can even feel like anxiety.
Stress refers to when the “fight-or-flight” response is activated. It’s completely natural and harmless, but due to frightening thoughts and interpretations, the entire physical reaction is experienced as negative, overwhelming, and perhaps even as proof that “something is wrong with me.
On this basis, we understand that treating anxiety largely involves gaining a different perspective on your own reactions:
- Anxiety treatment is about understanding what happens in the body during stress and learning to think differently about it while the stress response is active.
- You need to learn to think in ways that are less frightening and that create opportunities for coping and mastery.
- You need to learn to “face” the difficult situations, rather than avoiding them.
In summary:
Stress is a natural part of the body’s response to challenges, but when stress feels like anxiety, it often comes down to how we interpret and understand our own reactions.
Take control with breathing exercises
Stress can make it difficult to ever relax
Another way stress can negatively affect us is when it lasts for a long time – when the body doesn’t have time to “calm down” after a stressful experience. This happens when the “fight-or-flight” response, which is supposed to be temporary, is activated for extended periods.
We call this allostatic load, which means that over time, the body struggles to return to balance after stress. In practice, this often happens when we are not just stressed during a challenging event, but also beforehand – because we worry – and afterward, as we dwell on how we handled the situation.
When this pattern continues, it can lead to stress becoming a constant state in the body. What originally is a short-term survival response can then become chronic and exhausting.
5 Simple Principles – Master Stress in the Short Term:
- Find a balance in what you invest your energy in, so it’s not all about obligation.
- Learn to prioritize activities simply for the joy of it.
- Take care of close relationships – make time for them in your daily life.
- Learn a form of mental relaxation – for example, mindfulness techniques.
- A certain level of physical activity is also beneficial for relieving stress.
New Thought Patterns – The Key to Lasting Stress Management
To manage stress over the long term, it’s important to challenge how you relate to yourself and life’s challenges. A completely new way of thinking can provide invaluable help.
An example is changing how you interpret situations, like the well-known “half-full glass”: Do you see the glass as half-full or half-empty? Both interpretations are correct, but focusing on either limitations (half-empty) or possibilities (half-full) affects how we experience and handle life.
Our thought patterns shape how we perceive ourselves and our abilities. For example, if you are convinced that you can’t manage daily life, you will automatically notice situations that confirm this. This creates a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Be your own supporter
If you want to become a less stressed person in the long run, it’s crucial that you stop convincing yourself of your inability to handle daily life with all its challenges!
You need to become your own supporter, someone who focuses much more on the opportunities you have than on the limitations you face.
If you constantly convince yourself that you can’t handle life’s challenges, you will notice everything that confirms this. But if you start focusing on your opportunities and strengths, you can gradually build a more positive and supportive inner dialogue.
For example, instead of thinking, “I’m an unorganized person who never gets anything done,” you can say: “I’m working on finding better routines, and I’ve already taken some small steps in the right direction.” This shift in focus helps you see progress, not just challenges.
Another example is when you encounter stressful situations. Instead of thinking, “I can’t handle this,” ask yourself: “What’s one small thing I can do right now to gain more control?” Small steps can often be the start of bigger changes.
Also read: Mental strength training: Self-care for personal growth
When something more is needed to lower stress!
However, there may be situations and life circumstances that are so overwhelming that the only way to reduce stress is to take action on the external situation you’re in.
Control is a key factor – the more control you feel, the greater the demands you can handle before stress makes you sick.
Some situations are bound to create stress, and research has also been done on which events have the most traumatizing effect on people.
Living under traumatic conditions, such as being married to an abusive partner, experiencing various forms of abuse, or being bullied and harassed, creates an insecurity that keeps the stress response running at full speed. It would be inappropriate to offer relaxation techniques or suggest new ways of thinking to people in such situations.
What they need first and foremost is help in regaining a sense of control! This means that a wide range of measures and support can be crucial for you, depending on what the loss of control is related to.
Examples of situations that can cause a lot of stress include poverty, an uncertain life situation, bullying, having an overly difficult job, relationship problems, challenges with parenting, having children/spouses/family members with disabilities or special needs, substance abuse in the family, and much more.
No matter what is causing you stress, it’s important to know that there is hope for you to calm down and experience your daily life as less stressful!
Mindfit can help you find balance – download now and try for free.
