Coping With Stress

There are many techniques for coping with stress, but here are some of the more important ones.

• Healthy Adaptation means that you recognize the stressor, and you do something positive about it.  Ignoring the problem, denial, or escapism are unhealthy responses in coping with stress.
   
• Proper Planning and Organization.  These steps are required to determine what it will take to accomplish a task before you begin.
   
• Positive Mental Attitude.  Don't be anxious about the future; take one day at a time.  Worry tends to incapacitate, but seeing the problem as a challenge motivates and helps us in coping with stress.

• Commit to a cause that helps others and is approved by God.  Isaiah 58 is one of the Bible's most sublime prescriptions for health.
   
• A Healthy Lifestyle.  It's difficult to seriously damage a healthy body with stress.  You can help protect your body against the harmful effects of stress with the simple inoculations listed in the table following this list.
   
• Think on Elevated Themes.  What we see and hear is under our control--movies, radio, TV, magazines, newspapers.  Madison Avenue is  successful because they use these mediums to focus attention on what we do not have, thus making us discontent.  Remember:  "The man who has little and wants less is richer that he who has much and wants more."  Being content with who you are and where you are is a big plus in coping with stress.
   
• Trust in God will provide a buffer against stress and a hedge against anxiety.  Trusting God involves complete confidence in a personal God who understands and acts in our behalf. 
   

  Healthy Inoculations for Coping With Stress

  Engage in regular active exercise for al least 30 minutes a day.  Exercise produces endorphins, the feel good hormones that protect the body against stress.  Sunshine and fresh air also produce endorphins, so outdoor exercise is doubly beneficial in coping with stress. A simple plant-food centered diet.  The body handles such a diet with great ease.  The result is increased energy, efficiency, and endurance. No cigarettes, alcohol, caffeine, or other harmful drugs.  These substances all chalk up substantial "pay-later" debts, often beginning the very next day. Adequate rest.  This includes a good night's sleep and regular times for relaxation and recreation.  Liberal use of water inside and out.  Drink enough water to keep the urine pale (6-8 glasses a day).  And start your day right with a hot and cold shower in the morning. Stable life anchors.  A religious faith, a loving home, a job that makes you feel worthwhile, inspiring friends, a purpose for living - these are all vaccines against stress.

Stress and burnout are 2 words that can describe our fast paced lifestyle.  Contact CHIP to learn about reducing stress with lifestyle change.  "Be Healthy by Choice, Not by Chance!".