Stress Triggers and Stress Relief
For some people, acrophobia or fear of heights is a significant stress trigger. While my wife is blissfully relaxed in cable cars and driving on high mountains, I become a quivering mess. My first awareness of this was driving up to a British hill station in north-eastern India. The 6000 feet climb caused me huge stress and I had to figure how high and I could relieve the stress
Each one of us responds differently to challenging or threatening experiences. Some people love to abseil or sky jump - others go into a mild panic when they drive on a road that has a steep drop right next to it or if they have to climb onto the roof to clear the gutters. As I have said, for me, driving on high exposed roads is extremely stressful and I feel anxious and nervous during this part of any journey. I know that heights stress me out so I take steps to ensure that I do not drive on such roads or, if I have to, I drive with extreme caution. My stress relief strategies then are avoidance or intensely cautious exposure.
What are your triggers? What things, creatures, events, meetings, circumstances are your stressors? There are quite a few groups of triggers or stressors that will increase your adrenaline rush and make you feel anxious and worried. Let’s look at some of them and, while you are reviewing my list of triggers, note down any that are a particular worry for you.
You need to work your way through this minefield of potential work stressors to find the best way for you to relieve stress. You might be asked to do jobs for which you were not trained, or to do work beneath your standard, to do endlessly boring and repetitive tasks, or to work with the boss who has limited self-awareness and leadership skills. You might be in a work environment which is psychologically an emotionally unhealthy, one which is discriminatory, harassing, and unpleasant.
I grew up on a farm so I am not particularly concerned about snakes but many people have deep fears about these creatures. Consider your own list of personal fears. Sometimes they are social fears like attending a party when you don’t feel confident or appearing dumb or uninformed. Body shape and being overweight can destroy people’s self-esteem and cause social stress.
Being a family can be a stressful event. If you are a parent, saving up to college, paying your kids dental bills, determining when they should be able to date, unwanted pregnancies - the list goes on. You might be worried about your own relationships and this causes you constant stress. Families do create stress but they also provide stress relief.
Our job is to work out what causes stress for each of us. In therapy, I propose a model called BE CALM. I use this model to help people develop a stress relief and stress management strategy. B is for build, E for examine, C for confront, A for accept, L for let go (forgive, forget), and M for Move on with your life. We can’t let stress manager our lives; we need to learn good stress relief tips and strategies.
