Stress Management and Prevention

Stress can be a threat to your well-being.  This book will cover the causes of Stress and how to control it with some Simple Techniques in order for you to live a stress free life, be it at home or at work with constant peace and happiness.

Text Copyright © Celine Oneill

All rights reserved. No part of this guide may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

Legal Disclaimer

The information contained in this book is not designed to replace or take the place of any form of medicine or professional medical advice. The information in this book has been provided for educational and entertainment purposes only.

The information contained in this book has been compiled from sources deemed reliable, and it is accurate to the best of the Author's knowledge; however, the Author cannot guarantee its accuracy and validity and cannot be held liable for any errors or omissions. Changes are periodically made to this book. You must consult your doctor or get professional medical advice before using any of the suggested remedies, techniques, or information in this book.

Upon using the information contained in this book, you agree to hold harmless the Author from and against any damages, costs, and expenses, including any legal fees potentially resulting from the application of any of the information provided by this guide. This disclaimer applies to any damages or injury caused by the use and application, whether directly or indirectly, of any advice or information presented, whether for breach of contract, tort, negligence, personal injury, criminal intent, or under any other cause of action.

You agree to accept all risks of using the information presented inside this book. You need to consult a professional medical practitioner in order to ensure you are both able and healthy enough to participate in this program.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 – Basics of Stress.

How to Detect Early Signs of Stress?

What is Stress Management and Prevention?

Chapter 2 – What Causes Stress?

The Common Causes of Stress.

Chapter 3 – Unhealthy Ways of Stress Management.

Looking at the Unhealthy Ways Some People Cope with Stress.

Chapter 4 – Seven Healthy Ways of Stress Management.

Simple Ways to Manage Stress.

Chapter 5 – Prevent Stress with Time Management.

How to Optimize Time Management?

Conclusion.

Introduction

People generally use the term STRESS when they feel that they have reached their breaking point and everything seems to be too much for them to handle. Anything that becomes a threat to your well-being can be called stress. Some stresses are not bad for you. At some point, you might feel that they are good reasons for you to change or push forward and move ahead. However, if the stress damages both your mental and physical health, then it becomes dangerous.

In this modern world where everything is fast moving and people are always on the go, stress is part and parcel of everyday lives. No matter how hard you try, it cannot be avoided. Stress is present in all facets of life: from work, school, and family and even in relationships. However, stress is not all bad because it can be a moving force that provides spice to your life. Without it, life can be boring and redundant.

Congratulations and thank you for purchasing this book Stress Management and Prevention. Inside you will learn and discover the ways on how to manage stress with positivity. You will understand why there is stress in your life and its causes. Learn to cope with stress and make use of some simple techniques to manage stress.

It may seem hard to go through with this process initially but eventually with sheer self-determination and a positive outlook in life, you will overcome stress and prevent it.

At the end of the day, everything lies in your hands. Only you can make the change to control your life. Go ahead and start reading this book. Start your journey, be stress-free, be happy and enjoy life!

Thanks again for downloading this book, I hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 1 - Basics of Stress

Stress will make you suspect that everything around you is demanding including your boss, your family, and friends. But they will not understand what you are going through unless you have already recognized that you are in a state of stress. Understanding stress will let you face and deal with it head on.  You can change your lifestyle, but managing stress takes greater effort.

How to detect early signs of stress?

Changes in your normal behavior can be a sign of stress. You have to be mindful of your physical and mental behavior to identify key indicators of stress.

Below is a list of questions that you can answer to help detect early signs of stress.

Do you have problems getting enough sleep?

After a day’s work, you need to get enough rest, meditate and enjoy your free time.  When you lie down on your bed and you are continuously thinking about your unfinished workload, money matters or life, in general, your mind is not in good shape. You are being anxious about a lot of things making sleep difficult. This eventually leads to disrupted sleeping patterns.

Are you stress-eating?

Do you binge on the food you do not normally crave? People under stress usually find comfort in chocolates or sweets, chips, salty food and fatty food. Eating habits are affected when under stress and the amount is unreasonable consumption. For example, your usual meals are breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a small snack between meals. However on the days that you get anxious with a lot of things and when work is problematic, you indulge and add more snacks between meals and even after meals. Disordered sleeping patterns give you another reason to eat more because you have been awake for hours thinking too much.

Are you spreading yourself too thinly?

Have you been doing multiple tasks at the same time? Spreading yourself too thinly over major tasks assigned to you, shows that you have been accepting tasks that are not reasonable within your skill. You can always say no when people ask you for favors. Make commitments with reasonable deadlines. If you keep pushing yourself to finish more tasks that you cannot handle, you will end up thinking about all of them simultaneously until you cannot decide what to finish first. Eventually, all the tasks will be finished but at a lower quality.

Do you procrastinate a lot?

On stressful days, people tend to procrastinate by giving themselves time to rest. Unfortunately, rest does not come with reasonable time. You end up watching movies or TV series longer than you intended to and you may feel even more tire than resting. You go out with friends and enjoy their company while you have tasks on your plate. You spend more time doing unnecessary things like scrolling all day on your social networking sites or just doodling on a piece of paper, making it look like you are having your own therapy session. Procrastination is a sign of stress. If you are giving yourself more time to rest but keep overthinking instead of resting, you are in a lot of pain and more mental stress.

What is Stress Management and Prevention?

Stress may not be friendly to some people and they need ways to handle it better. Stress needs to be embraced and felt. For a person to cope with stress better, it needs to be understood.

Stress Management and Prevention is a simple guide to understanding stress, manage it and prevent a person from being further stressed about how life is coming at him or her. This may differ from one person to another since people generally have different coping abilities about stress.

Overall, in order to manage and prevent stress, you need to:

- Understand stress on your own or seek help from others

- Exercise more, have a proper diet and enough sleep

- Practice simple self-meditation

- Make time for fun and relaxation

Other suggestions include a self-help journal with questions you personally assessed whilst discovering your stress points. If you can manage your stress by yourself, you will be in good shape in no time. But if you prefer help from an expert, be confident about it and reach out completely.

The detailed information on how to prevent stress will be discussed in the succeeding chapters.

Chapter 2 – What Causes Stress?

The common causes of Stress

Now that you have read the first chapter, wherein you knew how to detect the early signs of stress and what stress management and prevention are, this chapter focuses on what causes stress. It is important for you to know what could induce stress in order to apply the proper stress management required to prevent it. Stressors are the common term for the common causes of stress. Take note of them by identifying whether you have been experiencing them either by grabbing your pen or listing them mentally!

Emotional stressor

Emotional stressors are the reason why you deviate from your normal mentality; it causes you to feel depressed or change your view on things. Some examples of this are anxiety (worry and nervous) and pessimism (thinking and believing the worst will happen).

Change stressor

Change stressors are outputs of the major changes that happen in your life such as starting a new job, going to a new school and entering into a married life within a new living environment.

Family stressor

Getting into a quarrel with your husband, not being in good terms with your parents or siblings, your teenage son or daughter beginning a rebellious phase are some examples of family stressors.

Work stressor

Examples of work stressors include delays in your salary, too much workload in a short period of time, not meeting your deadlines, unreasonable job assignments.

Social stressor

Social stressors involve socializing such as attending parties, events, dates and other activities that involve many people. Not being invited to a social event or something terrible happening during such an event can cause stress.

Death, heartbreak, losing your job, incurring a disease, feeling of not belonging, pressure due to a sudden increase in obligations were more examples that may result in stress.

Religion or beliefs also play an important role. This may induce stress when you encounter someone that is close to you and has different beliefs than you because you feel challenged.

These examples are some of the incidents that happen around you that may cause stress due to the changes of emotions.

Chemical stressor

Consuming illegal drugs, drinking too much alcohol, smoking, and other drugs are usually the main causes of chemical stressors.

Physical stressor

Physical stressors affect your body such as not getting enough sleep, skipping meals, over-exercising, doing the same thing all day such as standing or sitting.

Environmental stressor

Environmental stressors relate to the environment you are moving in or are being involved with and experiencing, such as the cold weather, the various seasons, the heat in summer, pollution, and other adverse environmental factors.

Pain stressor

There are two types of pain: acute and chronic. Acute stress lasts for only a short time while chronic stress tends to last longer. Examples of acute stress are sudden motions that shock you or a bad comment on your internet post. On the other hand, examples of chronic stress are job or life dissatisfaction and feeling the life-long struggle in every action you make.  Dissatisfaction, the feeling of unhappiness or disapproval, can be caused by your job. This may include long working hours, too much hard work, poor time management and insecurity with your colleagues, inability to make your own decisions, being discriminated or bullied by your co-workers and a lack of moral support from your closest ones.

Decision stressor

Making decisions with a large impact on your life often bring large amounts of stress which is why they are called decision stressors

Other contributors to stress that are also regarded as stressors include the following:

Internal Factors

Your feelings, attitudes, and expectations are some of the stressors that are classified as internal factors. This factor starts from inside you. This could be induced by your environment or it could be the way you think. Research suggests that optimists, people who have a positive outlook in life, are less stressed than the pessimists, who in contrast have a negative outlook in life. Fear, uncertainty, unrealistic expectations and a sudden change in your life may also affect your stress since they may lead to an extreme feeling of sadness and anger.

Traumatic Events

Very difficult or unpleasant experiences of being robbed, loss due to natural disasters or war often cause someone to have a mental or emotional problem for a long time. Most people who have experienced such events may suffer post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. PTSD among Americans is about six percent of the population occurring commonly in women, veterans, and abused survivors. Because the traumatic event may be difficult to cope with or may be haunting them while they are sleeping, it gives survivors long-term stress.

The effects of these causes differ depending on your personality, how you see things, and how you respond to situations. Some people do not worry much about these things, but others worry too much. Worriers, the people who think about problems or fears more often than others, tend to have higher stress levels than others. The practices on stress management and preventing stress will be empowering to this type of people.

Chapter 3 – Unhealthy Ways of Stress Management

Now that you are aware of the things that cause stress, you may be thinking what you should do to deal with it.  Since stress is not easily eliminated, you have to learn to cope with it. Coping with stress is a way of trying to live with stress without letting it overpower you. The main problem is that there are unhealthy ways to coping with stress. Do not worry, once you figure out the way to deal with stress, you can easily evaluate what you should be doing to cope with it.

In this chapter, we shall go into more details on what are the unhealthy ways that some people used to cope with stress.

Looking at the unhealthy ways in coping with stress

Sometimes, people who are going through hard times or dealing with too much stress are not capable to properly evaluate the actions they make and the ways they cope with stress. Because of this, they sometimes cope with stress in an unhealthy manner. Below are some of the unhealthy ways to cope with stress. Try check if you are doing one or more of them as you go down the list.

Smoking

Some people, especially smokers, find smoking makes them feel relieved of their stress or whatever is bothering them as long as they can smoke. While this may feel good, it is not long-lasting and is extremely bad for your health and that of a second hand smoker.

Drinking a lot of alcoholic beverages

Similar to smoking, drinking seems to soothe the aching emotions of the drinkers and makes them forget their worries. Like smoking, drinking is extremely dangerous for a person’s health and can lead to serious illnesses.

Procrastinating

In order to cope with stress, some people let time go by without finishing the work they should be doing finalizing it at the last minute. The problem with prolonging work is it shoots your stress meter higher.

Sleeping way more than normal

Sleeping is a good way to cope with stress. However, too much sleep is counter-productive and will also cause you headaches and backaches.

Drug-usage

One of the major resorts to cope with stress is to use illegal drugs. This is very unhealthy making the person’s mind unstable and increasing risks to cancer and other internal diseases. Due to the effects of drugs, you may sometimes do something foolish which you will regret for a long time.

Overthinking your daily life problems

Life is simple and short.  Some people tend to deal with stress by trying to find a solution for it. The problem here is they tend to over think and in the process of doing so, it only complicates the situation a whole lot more.

Harming yourself

This is one of the ways to deal with stress that is very dangerous to a person. Harming one’s self can be a way of releasing stress or pain but it should not be done. It is very unhealthy both physically and mentally.

Eating too much

Overeating is more commonly known as stress eating which people often use to manage stress. When someone is stressed, food can definitely be the most comfort. Unfortunately, overeating can lead to obesity and further health complications.

Impulse buying and over spending

When a person is stressed, he or she may want to go shopping and relieve some of that worry. This is known as retail therapy and is financially unhealthy since stress can make you spend more than usual and you tend to buy things out of a whim.

Viewing pornographic materials

For most men, viewing explicit materials can be relaxing. Pornography is unhealthy and increases the possibility of addiction.

Chapter 4 - Seven Healthy Ways to Stress Management

Stress is inevitable and we have to admit that it affects our daily lives if we experience it. Sometimes, you may feel that there is nothing you can do about stress. In the previous chapter, we were given a picture on what causes stress.

Continued exposure to immense levels of stress definitely has a negative effect on the brain and worse can damage it. To keep your brain healthy, it is important to manage stress effectively.

We may not be able to totally eliminate stress from our lives, but we can certainly manage it. Most people have been successful in managing stress and have learnt how to deal with it.

In the preceding chapters of this book, you will be able to learn and understand the basics of stress, what causes it and the unhealthy ways people often use in coping with stress. This chapter focuses on how to make stress work for you instead of against you. It is all a matter of perspective, right? You can definitely turn something negative into something positive. How you deal with a situation is always your choice, you can either let it make or break you.

Here are the seven simple ways to manage your stress:

Besides unhealthy ways to stress management, there are also healthy ways to cope with stress. These are the things you might want to do to get good results from stress without having after effects that you might regret. Once you have realized that you are stressed, what can you do? There are effective defenses to fight chronic stress. They are physical activities like exercise, socialization, learning to adapt to new things, relaxation, positive outlook in life, loving and taking care of yourself and communication.

Below are seven simple ways on how to transform stress into something productive.  After reading the following, you will understand that these simple day to day techniques you may have already been practicing but did not realize it.

1.  Move your body and be more active

One of the best ways to cope with stress is through physical activities like exercise. It is a known fact that exercise improves physical condition and helps fight certain diseases. Physicians highly recommend staying physically active to prevent sickness and diseases.

Exercise has long been established as vital in maintaining mental fitness and reducing stress. Studies have shown that effective exercise reduces fatigue, improves concentration and alertness and enhances overall cognitive functions.

Because of the brain’s multiple nerve connections, the rest of your body will feel the impact when stress affects it. That means that whenever your body feels good, so does your brain.

Exercise and other physical activities normally produce endorphins. Endorphins are the chemicals in the brain that serve as natural pain killers and improve your ability to sleep which in turn reduces stress.

Massage therapy, acupuncture, meditation and even breathing deeply may cause the production of endorphins making you feel relaxed and less stressed. It is well known that even low to moderate exercise can make you feel healthy and energized.

Aerobics, another form of physical activity, has been proven to decrease levels of tension, improve sleep, stabilize mood and improve self-esteem. Even a short aerobic exercise for five minutes can positively impact your anxiety level.

If you have not started an exercise routine yet, here are some tips to get you going:

- Do 30 minutes of the following three to five times a week: biking, dancing, jogging or brisk walking.

- Frequency is more important in exercise and workouts. For this matter, start with small goals and make sure to do it on a daily basis. It is always better to walk for 15-20 minutes every day instead of waiting for the day when you can do a three-hour workout or marathon.

- Look for an exercise that you enjoy and have fun. There are people who prefer joining a class or group activities whereas others prefer to be alone or have a solo pursuit.

- Whilst exercising, listen to good music from your iPod or any other portable music player. Many people find exercise more enjoyable if they are listening to music.

- Look for an "exercise partner." Sometimes you will find it easier to stick and focus to your exercise routine if you have someone to do it with. An “exercise partner” helps with commitment and may be a friend, colleague or partner.

- Patience is a virtue. Make sure that you are patient enough to start a new program of exercise. Most people who have not done any exercise in the past will require four to eight weeks to feel coordinated and in shape.

2.  Socialize, enjoy and go out more

Socialization, going out and enjoying the company of other people, is an important aspect of stress reduction. Chatting online, joining a club or organization, calling your friend on the phone and even hanging out with your family and loved ones are perfect examples of socialization. These activities improve your sense of belonging, safety, enjoyment and security while decreasing a sense of loneliness.

Support from your family, loved ones, and friends seems to have an impactful effect on balancing your hormones. Sufficient amounts of social support are correlated with an increase in levels of oxytocin, a type of hormone that decreases the levels of anxiety and improves the calming down responses. It also stimulates your eagerness to look for social contact and stimulates your sense of attachment to those who are important to you.

Studies show that stressed people who have enough levels of social support receive an oxytocin boost, which eventually lowers anxiety and stress.  It also helps you feel more confident with your capacity to cope with stress.

If you are concentrating on reaching out to others, there will be a temporary distraction from your own pain, stress, and circumstances. Those who reach out and seek help can rely on those people for emotional assistance when they need it.

Here are some tips on how to increase socialization:

- Initiate interaction with family and friends. You may invite them to your place for a party or a get together. You may eat out at a restaurant, attend an exhibit or watch a movie.

- Introduce yourself to your neighbors, the other parents at your children’s school, their teachers and other people that you frequently have contact with.

- Join groups and clubs or take special classes that interest you. It may be a dance class, an art class, religious and civic groups or exercise groups.

- If you are single, create a profile on a website that is exclusively for dating. You may put your real identity or you may sign up anonymously. Those interested in you may initiate contacts such as email or even a phone call. The internet can be risky at times so please be cautious to avoid being scammed.

Bear in mind that in reducing stress, it is always better to have a small group, say two or three close friends or confidants, rather than having a large group of strangers. For this reason, it is essential that you cultivate the relationship that you have established with friends or confidants.

Another main ingredient in maintaining a healthy relationship is to practice the give-and-take attitude. You need to balance being listened to with listening, being given and giving, being supported and supporting and being understood and understanding.

In the light of socialization, you should also learn how to say no to family and friends, when needed and when appropriate. If they start making demands that are unacceptable and unreasonable, you may find yourself inducing stress rather than reducing it. If you feel this starts to become another stressor instead of decreasing your level of anxiety and stress, think twice.

3.  Learn to adapt and accept the things that are beyond your control

Your body reacts to how you think and it has a profound effect on your levels of stress. Each time you muse something negative about yourself, your body reacts as if it is in a very stressful situation.

Be in control by starting to change your attitude and expectations to stressful situations.

Things you can do to adapt to stressful situations:

- View any stressful situation with a positive perspective. If you get caught in a heavy traffic jam, do not fume. Think of it as an opportunity for you to enjoy listening to music, talk to friends who are with you or simply enjoy being alone.

- Look at the bigger picture. Assess yourself on how important it will be in the long run. Will it be a month, a year perhaps? If you answer no, then focus your time and energy on other things.

- Do not be a perfectionist. Striving for perfection is one of the major causes of stress. You have to accept the reality that there are things that are imperfect. You need to adjust your standard, making it more reasonable. It will not hurt if you learn to be fine with "just good enough."

Accept the things that are beyond your control. There are situations in your life that you cannot control – serious illness, death in the family or national recession. One of the best ways to cope with stress in any of these situations is to accept things the way they are. Acceptance may be very difficult; however, it will be easier in the long run. You should not dwell too much on things that you cannot change.

Avoid controlling the uncontrollable. There are definitely a lot of things in the world that are beyond our control particularly other people’s behavior. Instead of stressing yourself over them, try focusing on what you can control. This may include how you react to any situation or problem, be it at home or at work.

Look at the opposite sides of the coin. If you are faced with a major circumstance that bring you stress, look at it as an opportunity for personal growth. You may choose to laugh at the situation, move on and learn from your mistakes. If you keep dwelling at the same spot, you will not move away from it and you will not be able to move ahead in your life.

Learn to Forgive. We live in the world that is full of imperfections. People make mistakes and they may hurt you, one way or another. Learn to forgive and let go of all resentments and anger. Free your mind and free yourself from all negative energy by forgiving your family members, friends, and colleagues. Having a genuine intention to forgive someone of all resentments will bring internal and constant peace.

Apart from this, you should also learn to forgive yourself. You are not perfect and you may make mistakes. It is important that you learn to accept your mistakes, move on and be a better person.

4.  Relax, Meditate, and have Fun

There are different forms of relaxation including meditation, yoga, tai-chi or simply walking on the beach or garden with your bare foot and enjoying the natural earth energy flowing through your body. Some of the benefits of relaxation include lowering your blood pressure, preventing perspiration and releasing muscle tension

You do not necessarily need to treat yourself to a spa or attend a weekend retreat to relax. Here are some tips to relieve your stress through relaxation:

Meditation.

Meditation, if done daily, may change your brain's neural pathways. It develops your resilience to stress.

The following is a simple way to meditate:

- Make sure to sit up straight:

- Close your eyes.

- Focus your attention to reciting (silently or out loud) and say a mantra of positivity, "I love myself and I feel at peace."

- Place one hand on your belly and make sure that while reciting your mantra it goes at the same time you breathe. Say, for example, while reciting “I love myself”, you inhale then exhale saying those words.

- Let all forms of distractions float by and clear your mind.

Slow down. Focus on one behavior with awareness for five minutes. Try to notice how your feet feel while they rest on the ground, how the air feels when it touches your face. Enjoy the taste and texture of food while you eat.  If you try to do any of these, spending time and focusing on your senses, you should be able to feel less tense.

Take time to tune in to your body. Scan your body mentally so you can have a feel of how stress affects you every day. Try to notice how your body feels, starting at your toes and working your way up to your scalp.

Take note which part of your body feels loose or tight without changing anything. Imagine each breath as it flows to that specific body part. Repeat the same process while moving your focus up your body. Pay close attention to the sensations you feel in each part of your body.

Always laugh out loud. A good and perfect belly laugh does not only make you feel lighter mentally, it also lowers your body's cortisol, stress hormones, and boosts the brain's endorphins.

Tune in to your favorite comedy show, watch funny videos, read comics or chat with someone that really makes you smile and laugh. It does magic to ease your stress level!

Listen to soothing music. Listening to soothing music lowers blood pressure, anxiety and heart rate. You can create a playlist of soothing songs like nature sounds (bubbling brook, the ocean wave, birds chirping) and let your mind focus on the various instruments, melodies or even singers on one piece.

Express gratitude. Being grateful for all the blessings that you have received cancels out all the negative thoughts in your mind. Keep a gratitude journal to remember all the good things in your life and what you need to be thankful for. Use this to enjoy good experiences such as a child's smile, good health or a sunshine-filled morning.

When you feel like you are becoming stressed, take the time to look through your notes reminding yourself of the things that matter.

Find and do something you love. Doing something you love is one of the best ways to cope with stress. Once you find something you love and start doing it, you will find yourself forgetting all about stress. Embark on a journey to find something that you love to do. Do not contain yourself in a box where everyone is looking at you and you are forced to conform. Find what you are most passionate about and act on it!

Read books. Books can take you to places you never knew and it never hurt anyone.  Why not get a chair, sit in a comfy position and grab that book you have longed to read.

Have fun. During fun times, stress becomes an unknown feeling to you. Do something fun and release yourself from stress.

Discover a new hobby. Hobbies can help you de-stress and relax. When you do your hobbies, you get to release the stress and channel it into doing something productive. In stressful times, give yourself a break and do something you enjoy and find relaxing. It might be cooking, painting, drawing, writing, reading or embroidering. The point is to give yourself a timeout from stress and do something to prevent it or forget about stress for a while. Remember that you can always develop your hobbies or even discover new ones. Discovering a new hobby is always exciting. Do something different. Do something new. Do something you have never done before but have always dreamt of, thought about or wanted to do. No, it doesn’t have to be something big. It can be as simple as learning a new sport even if you are not a sports person, or writing your heart out in a journal even if you are not the journaling type. Try something that is not in your usual scheme of things. Rest assured you will feel good after doing and learning something new.

Take a short vacation. Planning is never counter-productive. Highly productive people are planners. When you find yourself feeling stressed, plan your next vacation whether it is solo or with loved ones. A short vacation will calm your nerves and rejuvenate yourself. Ask people or surf the internet to find interesting places where you can spend your holiday. Never feel guilty about giving yourself a break, especially during holidays, or spending quality time with yourself and your loved ones. Planning your next holiday getaway does not only give you something to look forward to, it also allows you to make use of your time efficiently and effectively instead of letting that stress creep in.

5.  Communication is the key to making you feel less stressful

One of the cores of good communication is being assertive. It can help you control and manage stress and anger as well as help you improve how you cope with stress.

Being assertive includes standing up for your point of view and beliefs and being able to express your opinions freely, respectfully, politely and confidently.

Being assertive will help you boost your self-confidence and earn other people’s trust, confidence, and respect. This can help you manage your stress because you will be able to ask for help when needed.

Through proper communication, you will also be able to say “No”, if you feel you already have a lot of responsibilities that you may not be able to handle at home, work, in community services or in public places.

One of the most common causes of stress is having too much to do and too little time to do it. Learning when to say "No" to unimportant requests will certainly help you reduce your stress levels.

6.  Always have a positive outlook on your life

Positive thinking not only helps you with managing your stress but also improves your health. It means approaching any unpleasantness in a more positive and very productive way. You think that the best is always going to happen and not the worst.

Positive thinking usually starts with self-talk, an endless flow of unspoken words running through your head.  These thoughts may either be positive or negative. Some of them may come from reasons that are logical and others may come from misconceptions that were created from a lack of information.

There are times when the noise inside your own mind becomes your biggest stressor. When you feel negative thoughts racing through your mind, say, "My mind is calm." By repeating words that are calming and soothing, we affirm to ourselves that we can feed our body with mental energy.

When any negative thought pops up in your mind, stop and replace the negative thought with a soothing, positive thought. Think about what you are wishing for were true, state it over and over again as if it were totally true.

Here are some examples of positive thinking that will help you feel empowered and less stressful:

- Say, "I am strong," every time you exercise.

- Think, "I have a perfect weight," every time you pass by a mirror

- Think, "I can finish everything," when you are given a difficult task.

- Think, "I have full trust in the process of life," when you feel so overwhelmed.

7.  Love and take care of yourself more

Loving yourself more by making sure that you are healthy increases your resistance to stress. Bodies that are well-nourished are better prepared to handle stress. Because of this, you have to be mindful of what you eat. Begin your day with the right mindset and a proper breakfast, followed with nutritious meals throughout the day. This will keep your energy up and will keep your mind clear of any stressors. As opposed to eating too much, eating healthy foods may actually reduce your stress bringing results that you actually want. It can make you slimmer or improve your skin texture.

Try to reduce your intake of caffeine and sugar

Caffeine and sugar will provide you the “highs” that you need, but they are temporary. Most of the time, you will end up having a mood crash and lower energy levels. By reducing your coffee and sugar intake, you will be more relaxed and sleep better.

Stress management is important since the absence of stress will give your body increased alertness. Remember, that high levels of stress can lead to serious health problems or worse, death. Do not wait until stress creates a negative effect on your health and relationship. Start today to practice different stress management techniques and make sure to sustain it.

Remember to consult a medical professional if you feel that none of these techniques work for you. It is best to take care of the problem while it is still in a controllable stage.

Get a new lifestyle

A new lifestyle does not mean that your current lifestyle is boring. This is only an option that you might want to try to see if the change is what you need to cope with the stresses in life. As the cliché goes, change is as good as a holiday.

Get enough sleep

If you feel continuously stressed, sleeping is the best cure. Sleeping does not equate to procrastination. Sleep replenishes and reenergizes the body after a long day. It strengthens your immune system and boosts your brain function.  Do not regret that fifteen-minute, half an hour, or even an hour of sleep because it definitely makes a big difference. Always make sure to practice good sleeping habits of at least seven to nine hours a day to keep you well rested

Be careful of oversleeping since that becomes abnormal, unhealthy and counter-productive. Your brain and body deserves that much needed sleep. Aside from feeling better, feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, sleeping can make you look younger, better and more mentally alert. No matter how busy you are with your life, never deprive yourself of sleep.

Relax and stay calm

A healthy way to cope with stress is to take a break from all the hustle and bustle of the world by taking a deep breath, closing your eyes for a moment and being calm.

Make your choice

These are some tips on how to make use of your energy instead of spending time stressing about things. By following the above simple steps, you will be able to redefine yourself, feel more relaxed and in control of your life in no time at all.

Now that you know the healthy and the unhealthy ways to cope with stress, you must choose between continuing with the unhealthy ones or change them. See for yourself if you are able to make the change and how it affects you.

In the end, it is still up to you to decide whether you make the HEALTHY CHOICE in coping with stress.

This chapter only made you aware of how you cope with stress and how you can control stress.

So make that wise decision and start Preventing Stress Today!

Chapter 5 - Time Management Prevents Stress

Now that you know exactly what stress is, how to cope with it and manage it, the next step is to look at the important role time management plays in preventing stress.  So let us start this chapter off with a blast! Sit back and relax, soon you can live a stress-free life.

How to Optimize Time Management?

Time management is a skill that is important to the management of stress. It requires firm boundaries that come out of a place of love, respect and honor for yourself and others.  By managing your time effectively, you are able to say no to unnecessary stress, feel empowered, and be in control of your life.

Learn to Say ‘NO’ or be Assertive

Being assertive is one of the habits that really help you avoid those stressors! Always saying yes to people robs you of the choices you have in life bringing an increase in stress. This is why starting from today, you must learn to express yourself, be assertive and decline the offers you do not wish to accept. Being assertive and saying no to people doesn’t have to be rude since it requires firmness and politeness.

Avoid procrastination

Meeting deadlines are really hard especially when you tend to do things at the last minute. One of the ways to avoid being stressed out due to procrastination is effective time management. Resulting in you happily skipping the drama whilst everyone else is stressed out. Being able to meet your deadlines will bring a sense of accomplishment and give you a good reputation with your boss. It is a win-win situation.

Learn to control your time

You need to be the master of your time, the captain of your boat or whatever it is that you are riding. This reduces stress since you will never be late, you need not rush, you work with confidence and everything runs smoothly for you.

Do one thing at a time

Doing one thing at a time often makes life easier for most people. One big problem about tasks is that often, they are too many and you just want to finish and complete them all simultaneously. This is where most people tend to go wrong and why they become stressed. The key here is to do one thing at a time and do it with excellence.

Learn to set proper limits to prevent stress from affecting your life

In order to completely eliminate stressors set limits. By setting limits, you will find it easier to avoid stressors and stop them from affecting your life. Here are some aspects you need to set limits to.

Commitments

Reduce commitments. If you know you will not be able to handle too many commitments, prioritize the ones you know are the most important.

Expectations

Lower your expectations from people, from your pet, from anything and anyone at all. We all have our limitations and by lowering your expectations, you become less stressed out.

The path towards the stress-free life is now wide open for you. Remember these steps and you will surely achieve what you want in a peaceful manner. Good luck!

Conclusion

You have reached the end of this book. By now I think you already have a clear vision and an idea on how to cope with everyday stress and prevent it. Do not be afraid to face stress head on as you have the utmost control on what is happening in your life. Instead, have the confidence and strength to face the challenges that lie ahead. Keep in mind that stress varies in form and some of them, at one point in your life, you have already experienced.

Do not be afraid to admit you are experiencing stress since the more you deny it, the stronger it becomes. Know that you always have your family, friends and loved ones who will always be there to help you stand up when stress drags you down. Every person experiences stress, but how you handle it will set you apart.

Having a stress-free life is a never ending process. It is a journey where you will experience occasional set-backs. However, it should not prevent you from improving. Thus, always maintain a positive outlook in life and let things happen at their own time. Instead of looking at stress like a problem, let it serve as a reminder that life is not always filled with the sunshine. There will be times that you will experience heavy storms, however, there is always a rainbow afterwards. Only you can help yourself to control your own life destiny.

Finally, if you enjoyed this book, would you be kind enough to leave a positive review for this book on Amazon.  It would be greatly appreciated!  Thank you!

Enjoy your life to the fullest, Good luck and be Happy Always!

Celine Oneill – Author

Table of Contents

Text Copyright © Celine Oneill

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 - Basics of Stress

Chapter 2 – What Causes Stress?

Chapter 3 – Unhealthy Ways of Stress Management

Chapter 4 - Seven Healthy Ways to Stress Management

Chapter 5 - Time Management Prevents Stress

Conclusion