Stress Management Tips: 7+ Easy Ways of Coping with Stress, Anxiety and Worry Issues (2021)

6 min readFeb 7, 2021

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Introduction: What is stress?

Stress is part and parcel of living in this world. It is your body and mind’s way of responding to highly demanding events or situations. Stress affects us at different times and in various ways. it can destabilize someone’s wellbeing, cause mental health issues or even elevate existing problems. The severity of your response will vary depending on how you perceive your ability to overcome the situation. Some of the heightened stress levels that we experience in our lives emanate from our work places.

General causes of stress at work

Working long hours, excessive hours lead to body exhaustion and mental fatigue.
Shiftwork, in a 24hr day some people work a minimum of two shifts.
Unrealistic targets or deadlines tend to put excessive pressure on an individual
Lack of control and conflicting demands(especially among the lower grades)
Poor management, failures to manage your time can lead to stress issues
Bad relations with other work colleagues this also includes bullying and harassment
Repetitive work, boredom and lack of job satisfaction
Job insecurity, job or organizational change results in uncertainty, worry and anxiety

How to identify stress

The next section looks at ways of identifying stress. Sometimes it takes people a while to figure out when they are under duress. There are common signs and symptoms you can look out for.

feelings of constant worry or anxiety
feelings of being overwhelmed
difficulty concentrating
mood swings or changes in your moood
irritability or having a short temper
difficulty relaxing

Eustress vs. Distress

Regardless, not all stress is bad. Eustress or “positive stress” is motivating and can help you focus, such as a deadline at work. It can energize you and help you to perform at your best. But too much stress, or stress that lasts too long, can take a toll. The negative stress is what is called distress. The pointers in the next section will help you to navigate your way through distress.

TIP #1: Practice Positive Affirmations

In one of my previous articles, I indicated that Dr Catherine Moore, a renowned psychologist defines positive affirmations as positive statements or phrases that are used to challenge negative or unhelpful thoughts. Practicing positive daily affirmations is like physical exercises for our mind and overall outlook. These positive mental repetitions can reconfigure our thinking patterns so that, gradually with time, we begin to think and act in a different manner.

TIP #2: Eat Well and Exercise often.

Most people either eat too much or eat too little when they are stressed. I fall under the latter category. Keeping your body fueled up is necessary to avoid feeling sluggish and burned out. Exercising well is a recommended keystone habit. According to Charles Duhigg, exercise triggers people to start eating better. Additional benefits of exercising regularly include:

Enhanced thinking, learning and judgement skills.
Lessens the risks associated with metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes.
Helps you to both fall sound asleep much quicker and to stay in that state of peaceful rest.
Improves mental health and reduced stress levels.
Strengthens your heart and improves blood circulation.

Exercise also appears to great when it comes to improving mood. Part of the reason may be that it stimulates your body to release a number of hormones like endorphins and endocannabinoids that help block pain, improve sleep, and sedate you. People who exercise also tend to feel less anxious and more positive about themselves. When your body feels good, your mind often follows.

TIP #3: Build a stress relief toolkit

Building a stress relief toolkit means putting together a system that helps you to cope under strenuous conditions. It is effectively your stress coping mechanism.

TIP #4: Build Steady Relationships

Having people to share with your struggles during hard times is priceless. You can never be quite comfortable with everyone but there is always that one person who you can unpack your problems with. They can either advise you or they can just be a listening ear. Either way pouring your heart out tends to have a soothing effect. Those are the people that will never let you quit on the things that matter. They will annoy you to death and pester you for all the right reasons. Make sure your keep those people around.

TIP #5: Prepare your gratitude list

Yes, happiness may appear as an elusive feeling that we constantly chase. We hardly ever acquire enough success, money, material possessions or anything that truly quenches that hunger in us. Each level you reach there is always a new target or goal to be set. It drives us insane and makes us anxious.

There is a simple daily ritual you can do that’s scientifically proven to bring more joy into your life: a gratitude list. In the same way that a vision board may help you achieve your goals, numerous studies have shown that the acknowledgment of gratitude is positively correlated with greater happiness. This simple act helps people not only feel more positive but also improves their health, helps them handle adversity, and helps them build strong relationships.

TIP #6: Find opportunities in life challenges

We all have had seasons in our lives that almost crushed us. It may have been that you had a public fall from grace and had to bury your head in shame for the longest time. You may have trended on social media for all the wrong reasons. Perhaps you have lost loved ones, felt betrayed and was left in a very vulnerable position.

Whatever, the reason you have at some point found yourself lying flat on your back with no strength to carry on. But, you can always turn a bad experience into something worthwhile. The reason why I started blogging came from a place of pain. I wanted to heal people who had to deal with similar self esteem issues, rejection issues and all the other dream killers. In the midst of pain I found purpose. You can definitely make lemonade out of lemons with the right perspective to life.

TIP #7: Learn to Say No and Speak Your Truth

Being honest about how you feel concerning particular matters is hard for most people. We are afraid of disappointing the people whose opinion we value the most. As a result we tend to “go with the flow”. But, that is usually at the expense of our own peace or sanity. Learn to be open about your views without having fear of any backlash. You can never afford anything that takes away your peace. This applies to both on a professional and personal level.

TIP #8: Manage your Time Well

Analyze your schedule and prioritize your tasks by level of urgency. Failure to manage your time destroys your effectiveness and leads to stress. When you’re running behind on tasks it’s hard to stay calm and focused. There are various effective time management techniques that one can apply. For instance, time blocking is a well recognized time management tool which enables you to schedule numerous tasks sequentially.

TIP #9: Try the “Avoidance Strategy”

If someone consistently causes stress in your life, limit the amount of time you spend with that person and be more aware of your reaction to them. Your reaction is thankfully something you can control. This usually applies to the people that we cannot cut off completely from our lives such as family members. Apply this strategy as last resort after “talking things out” has failed to yield any results. You are allowed to switch off your phone, spend some time away from social media if that helps maintain your balance. However, it should be temporary and not sustained. Just long enough to regain the necessary composure.

TIP #10: Look for Alternatives

Identify how you can limit stress in a particular situation e.g. if grocery shopping makes you stressed do your grocery shopping at a less busy time or make a list. If driving to work stresses you out find a less busy route or cycle.