What is Stress Management? – Definition, Causes, Levels, Strategies, Tips

In general, stress is a normal element of psychological and physical reactions to the increasing burden of life. According to the American Psychological Association, many Americans experience moderate to high levels of stress from year to year. Stress usually comes as a warning from the brain of the pressure that we live. Usually, after the stress is not there our body will return to normal again. Unfortunately, in this day and age, the alarm will never disappear due to all the burdens in our day-to-day life.

Usually, over time, high levels of stress cause serious health problems for the sufferer. That’s why we need stress management. Without stress management, your body is always alert.

In this article, we will provide a little information about stress management definition, causes, stress levels, strategies, and stress management tips for overcoming pressures.

Stress Management

Understanding Stress Management

Stress management is the ability to use resources effectively in dealing with mental and emotional disorders caused by reactions. Stress management aims to improve the quality of life for a person to be better.

Stress is a form of psychological reaction that normally occurs when the burden of life increases, for example, workload. Stress comes as a warning to ourselves that the brain is under excessive pressure. People who suffer from stress generally feel worried, depressed, tired, anxious, and angry.

In the work environment, stress is easily seen from the expressions of your coworkers or your subordinates when work is piling up. Stress that is not immediately handled in the work environment can result in a decrease in employee’s performance and work may not be completed properly.

In companies, the term stress management is referred to as an effort to deal with stress or pressure in the work environment. Understanding stress management at work is the ability to use company resources more effectively to avoid disturbances or mental stress due to job creation.

In general, stress management means an effective way for someone to deal with mental and emotional disorders or disorders that arise due to responses from both outside and inside.

The purpose of stress management is to improve the quality of human resources who are physically and mentally healthy. Broadly speaking, stress management can be said as a general step in dealing with how to deal with stress itself.

Also read: Understanding the Difference between Stress and Anxiety

Causes of Stress

Things that create stress are called stressors. Threats, events, or changes are stressful. There are two causes for someone to experience stress, namely:

1. External stressors

⦁ Room conditions such as noise, excessive light, and hot air temperatures, and the state of the narrow room.

⦁ Social interaction such as experiencing harsh treatment, victims of a powerful attitude, receiving aggressive treatment from others, and experiencing violence.

⦁ Organizational like organizational conditions that can create stress that is there are rules that are too red tape, and deadline pressure that must be met.

⦁ Important events in life such as birth, death, loss of a job, promotion, and changing marital status.

⦁ Careless daily activities, such as daily traveling with far loot, forgetting to keep keys, and damage to tools or machines.

2. Internal stressors

⦁ Internal stressors can be caused by the choice of lifestyle that is followed such as addiction to drinks that have caffeine content, lack of sleep, and a schedule that is always solid.

⦁ Negative personal conversations, this can come up with a sign of pessimistic thinking, often self-criticizing and carrying out excessive analysis.

⦁ Mind traps such as hoping that never materialize, too much thinking or not thinking at all, or rigid thinking.

⦁ Personal obstacles such as being too busy at work (workaholic) or wanting everything to be perfect (wanting to look, perfectionist).

 

Stress Levels

Eustress

Eustress is positive stress that occurs when the stress level is high enough to motivate to behave to get something. Eustress is good stress, which provides health benefits such as physical exercise or promotion.

Distress

Distress or negative stress occurs when the stress level is very high or very low and the body and mind begin to respond negatively to the cause of stress. Distress on the other hand is the stress that disturbs health and usually makes an imbalance between stress demands and the ability to meet demands.

 

 

Strategies for Overcoming Stress

1. Individual approach

An employee can take personal responsibility in reducing stress. Individual strategies that have been proven effective include carrying out time management techniques, performing physical activities, exercising relaxation, and developing social support networks.

2. Organizational Approach

Several factors that cause stress, especially tasks and roles and organizational structure, are managed by management. In this way, these factors can be modified or changed.

Among the strategies most likely to be considered by management are increased staff selection and placement, use of more realistic goals, workplace planning, greater staff involvement, improved organizational communication, and enforcement of welfare programs.

Stress Management Tips for Overcoming Pressure

In companies, stress management is usually carried out by HRD (Human Resource Development) managers who are tasked with handling the quality of company resources.

HRD relates personally to the company’s human resources so that the most role is to handle cases of stress in the company’s internal.

Some tips for implementing stress management in a company include:

1. Identify behaviors and habits that can cause stress

Stress in the work environment is not only caused by a pile of work that has not been completed. But stress can also be motivated by problems at home such as fighting with friends or family members, being in debt, or other personal problems.

Many psychological theories say that how to cope with stress due to the pressure of personal problems can be overcome by writing or telling stories with others. Human resource managers may not be able to enter the personal lives of their employees but can be overcome by drawing closer to exchange ideas. Psychological closeness can have a big impact on reducing personal burdens.

2. Provide sports equipment in the company

In some companies currently provide fitness facilities for free for employees. This method can be a suggestion for managers to provide facilities that can help overcome employee stress.

With the existence of a free gym, it can also reduce the habit of dealing with unhealthy stress such as smoking. Exercise is also believed to be a way to overcome focus and concentration in order to stay awake while also having a positive impact on health.

3. Socialize with others

As explained in terms of stress management that aims to overcome the pressures in the work environment, then by giving work as a team can reduce stress at work.

Teamwork means that you will interact with your colleagues and indirectly will form high socialization within the company.

In addition, by socializing with others, the body will release hormones that can make the mind calmer. One example that can be applied is to help others.

4. Familiarize yourself with a healthy lifestyle

If the company requires lunch in the office, managers should choose healthy food menus. Providing good and proper food for employees certainly does not directly help increase concentration and focus at work.

This is also a form of appreciation for the performance of company resources. Some of these healthy lifestyles include:

⦁ Do not smoke

⦁ Do not use illegal drugs

⦁ Get enough sleep

⦁ Don’t drink too much alcohol

⦁ Eat healthy food

⦁ Finish work on time

⦁ Use a smartphone as needed

⦁ Face and solve problems properly

⦁ Participate in various activities, both at work and in family and relatives

5. Apply 4A method (Avoid, Alter, Adapt, Accept)

We can predict what causes stress at work. For example deadlines for tasks or jobs with high pressure.

Work pressure like this can be faced by applying 4A method (avoid, alter/change, adapt/adjust, and accept).

⦁ Avoid work that causes stress

⦁ Alter/change the response to the causes of stress

⦁ Adapt to the work that causes stress

⦁ Accept things that cannot be changed

6. Provide time to relax

In addition to sports, leisure and fun activities can also reduce the perceived stress. Everyone must have a favorite activity that they like, by doing these activities in their spare time, stress can be diverted.

There are some other ways to overcome stress, for example by doing yoga, meditation, deep breathing exercise, etc. You just need to find which one works better for you.

Well, there you have it. You’ve learned from this article about stress management, causes, stress levels, strategies, and tips in stress management to reduce pressures. Hopefully, the information given can benefit us all. Thank you for reading.

Stay safe, happy, and healthy.

 

 

 

 

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We Stress Free does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. However, if you need someone to talk to and want to make friends, please feel free to reach me at ferra@westressfree.com. If you would like to REDUCE your STRESS and are interested to do ONLINE THERAPY, you can do so here.

 

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Disclaimer: The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

 

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