Practical Tips for How to Deal with Stress

Stress is the way your body reacts to a difficult or threatening situation. One may have strong and lingering reactions to a traumatic event they have experienced or be filled with anxiety about something in the future. When a person feels threatened, anxious, or does not know how to deal with stress, it may affect a person both physically and emotionally. The symptoms of stress can vary in intensity and can be completely debilitating in some situations.

Common Reactions to Stress

When people don’t know how to deal with stress, common reactions to stress can include feelings of sadness, frustration, and helplessness. The loss of control caused by a stressful situation can feel paralyzing, while a person’s emotions may be intense and fluctuate wildly when they are stressed.

When a person does not know how to deal with stress, their mind may be consumed by the situation they are experiencing, and this can make it difficult to concentrate or make decisions. Additionally, stress resulting from a traumatic experience can also cause someone to experience shock, disbelief, and numbness.

There may be a strong desire to avoid dealing with the difficult situation or the resulting emotions and people at times try distracting or numbing themselves by overworking, binge-watching television shows, or scrolling endlessly through social media. Or they may try to numb themselves by smoking or turning to alcohol or drugs.

Physical symptoms of stress include headaches, back pains, and stomach problems. A person may experience a loss of appetite or find themselves compulsively overeating. They may have trouble sleeping or may find themselves wanting to sleep the days away.

How to Deal with Stress: Healthy Ways to Cope

Take care of yourself physically.

A first step to coping with stress in a healthy way is to take care of yourself physically. When God sent an angel to help Elijah after he had fled the murderous queen Jezebel, his priority was to have Elijah eat and drink and then he let him sleep (1 Kings 19).

In the same way, when life feels out of control and you are feeling stressed, make sure to give yourself the nutrients you need to keep going by focusing on eating healthy food and drinking lots of water, as well as making sure that you are getting enough sleep.

Get active.

As well as contributing to the general health and wellbeing of your physical body, getting some exercise will also help to reduce the emotional intensity that one lives with during times of stress. Getting the heart pumping through a short burst of exercise will help release endorphins that help you to feel better by reducing the perception of pain in the brain. Also, finishing a workout can add a sense of accomplishment, which helps to counteract the feeling of being out of control.

Avoid unhealthy habits.

Try to avoid unhealthy habits that you may be tempted to turn to in order to numb the pain. Avoid alcohol and drugs, which while they may seem to help in the short-term can cause other problems and end up making things worse. Instead of overeating the less healthy foods, make sure that you have healthy snacks available. Instead of binge-watching shows or mindlessly scrolling on social media, take a walk out in the fresh air to clear your head a bit. Getting out in nature can also be very calming.

Take a break.

When one is feeling stressed about a situation that is all over the news, it is helpful to tune out and take a break from following the headlines and updates in the news. Take time off social media and away from places where you will be faced with the same stress. Take care of yourself by stepping away from the situation as much as you are able.

If it is work that is causing the stress, see if you can take a few days leave to take care of yourself. If it is a relationship that is causing stress, you may need to step out and take a little time for yourself, whether by going out for coffee with friends (or alone) or away for a weekend. Allow yourself the time you need to get a little distance from the stressful situation so that you can clear your head and begin to gain a little perspective.

Take time for yourself.

Set aside some “me time”, a chance to refresh yourself. Make sure you schedule it in and make a habit of doing something that helps you to be replenished. For some, this can be as simple as an uninterrupted bubble bath or an afternoon where the children will not disturb, for others it may be investing time in a hobby or out in nature. The point is to prioritize making time to refresh yourself, whatever that may look like for you.

Try to be positive.

This can be a hard thing, especially if your personality leans more towards the melancholy, but it worthy of pursuing. In 2 Corinthians 10:5, we are told to “take every thought captive to obey Christ”. This reminds us that we do have the power to influence our own thought life and that our thoughts need to be honoring to God.

The Bible speaks often enough about our propensity to worry, and the command to not be afraid is just as prolific. We can do this by fixing our minds on Christ (Colossians 3:2) and all that is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, or praiseworthy (Philippians 4:8).

A key way of doing this is by taking our concerns to God in prayer and thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6-7). We can also start a practice of listing three things that we are thankful for every morning or evening.

Focus on what you can control.

Accept the things that you can’t change and focus your energy on the things you can control.

Consider the ancient prayer:

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;

the courage to change the things I can;

and the wisdom to know the difference.”

The feeling of loss of control can be a major contributor to stress. By taking control of smaller tasks throughout the day you can begin to regain that feeling of confidence and capability. Some ways of taking control include working on your time management and making schedules and lists of things that need to be done so that you can have a plan for prioritizing and working through some of the tasks on your to-do list.

Work smarter, not harder.

When you know what needs to be done you can prioritize the tasks and focus on the ones of more importance. Permit yourself to not finish everything all at once by accepting that there will always be more that needs to be done and some things of lesser importance may not need to be done at all. Allowing yourself permission to let certain things go can be liberating.

Challenge yourself.

Learning something new can go a long way towards building your confidence and helping you face whatever is causing you stress. This could be doing anything from taking up a new form of exercise and pursuing fitness goals to taking up a new hobby.

For some, the challenge may be to meet new people or to sign up for a class at a local college. Choose something new that you would like to try or an area you would like to improve in and create smaller achievable goals that will give you a growing sense of accomplishment as you reach them.

Perhaps you could find a way to help other people, like volunteering at a food pantry or homeless shelter, which would both create a personal goal as well as help you to gain a little perspective on your own life.

Talk to others.

We were never meant to be isolated beings and we need to connect with people even when all is right in our worlds. When going through a period of intense stress, the need to have personal connections with others becomes even more important. Often, just being able to meet up with a friend to chat can provide a fresh dose of perspective and encouragement that you need.

A friend is also someone you can call on when you need help in a more practical way, whether around the house, bringing you a meal, or going with you to get some things done on your to-do list.

Recognize when you need help.

You also need to acknowledge when you may need more help. Sometimes you may need to talk with someone like a pastor or counselor who can help you process the situation you find yourself in and help you find ways to cope and move forward through it. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you are feeling overwhelmed.