Fact Sheets > How to Manage Stress

How to Manage Stress

Stress and emotional well being has a bidirectional relationship. On one end of the continuum, stress can cause poor emotional well being, on the other end, poor emotional well being also increase one’s susceptibility to stress. Hence it is important to have a well maintained emotional well being. Here are some tips to maintain your emotional well being:

Let go of the past. Clinging onto the past can result in Depression. Instead of wasting your energy on things that you have no control over, learn to lead a more fulfilling life. Make plans for the future, this will help motivate you to move forward.
Accept that our society is always changing, and we need to keep abreast with technology and be flexible to changing attitudes.
Choose to find the positive of life experiences, focusing on the negatives can be depressing, and threatens one’s self-esteem and competency.
Temporarily walk away from a situation that you find difficult to control. This will allow you some space to cool down and helps your brain to function more efficiently.

In addition, we often encounter events and incidents at our workplace that result in us experiencing signs and symptoms of stress. While some stressful events are beyond our control, other stressors in our workplace can be removed or reduced by practising effective stress management.

Effective stress management are not as difficult to practise as most people assume. Some simple stress management techniques which most people can practise easily include:
Try to get along well with people. Smooth working relationships with practically everyone in the office can help get work done more quickly and efficiently.
Keep a neat workspace. This helps to reduce the overwhelming or work overloading feelings, and helps you function more efficiently.
Exercise at least a little everyday. Even a 10-minute walk is helpful. Exercise helps to release muscles tension, and release emotional and physical stress. Some office stretching during the day can be beneficial in reducing tension, and make you more clearheaded when making decisions.
Find out about your boss’s expectations of you, by meeting your boss’s expectations, you may be able to get ahead and hence reduce a possible cause of stress. The boss can make or break your career and greatly affect your stress levels.

Other general tips to help you manage your stress

1. Identify cause of stress, and your associated emotional and physical responses.

2. Determine the actions to reduce your stressors and take measures to reduce your stress levels.

3. Overwhelming emotional responses are destructive to your physical/mental health. Learn to eliminate, if not reduce the intensity of your emotional responses.

4. Physical responses such as increase blood pressure can be deadly. Learn to moderate your physical responses.

5. Strengthen your body against the negative effects of stress. This includes exercising regularly.

6. Strengthen and build resistance to emotional vulnerability. This may be in the form of joining social groups which offer activities that you are interested.