Your experience of stress is because of chemicals in your brain called adrenaline and cortisol. These chemicals help you focus to accomplish whatever you need to. In the case of deadlines or completing work promptly, stress helps us work hard and/or focus at the moment to overcome the challenge we are faced with. If we do not use the stress that our body creates for us to use, fatigue, worry, sadness, and fear set in. So the key to managing stress is to use stress to your advantage.

If you find yourself stressed or unsure about how to manage your stress here are 4 ways to use stress to your advantage:

1. Write out a list of all the things in your mind: Your brain can only hold 5-7 pieces of information at one time, so if you have an overwhelming amount of “To-Do’s” or thoughts, feelings, responsibilities, philosophical thoughts, thoughts about lunch plans, vacation dreams, etc, you can really only hold 5 or 6 pieces of information. When you add more pieces of information to your juggling act, it takes exponentially more energy to keep all the tasks straight. Try writing them out so that you can get a sense of peace/clarity.

2. Do some cardiovascular exercise: This means moving around where your heart rate exceeds 100 beats per minute. Get outside, walk up a hill in your office park, or your neighborhood. Try working out or going for a run if you can. This will help your body refocus on breathing and may give you a sense of clarity and creativity to tackle your problems. Also, here is an interesting article from Business Insider that identifies the role of exercise in being creative.

3. Talk to someone: Getting some empathy from a friend can help you feel secure in the work that you need to do. This can also be a loved one, mentor or other special relationship in your life. Whoever this person is, allow them to encourage and validate you because you are more than your work/performance.

4. Put time limits on yourself: This may sound backward, but to exercise good boundaries with yourself will prevent stress from destroying important parts of your life (like vacations, sleep, soccer games or casual conversations). Working for 15 minutes on a specific task can help you measure progress or project how long it can take you to finish. You can also get fatigued from working too long on the same project/task, so mixing things up will be helpful to your long term productivity.

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Disclaimer: Grayson’s credentials are noted in the footer below. This blog post is not intended to replace therapy or counseling services. While this post may represent psychoeducational content that brings clarity or helps you personally, Grayson encourages you to process your findings and concerns with your mental health counselor and/or other trusted people in your life. If you have questions, comments, or concerns about the content of this post, or want to start counseling please contact Grayson directly.

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