6 Ways to Avoid Unnecessary Stressors for Your Health

Everyone experiences overwhelming demands and pressure occasionally. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reports that stress impacts mental and physical health, potentially leading to various conditions including headaches, depression, stomach disorders, cardiac disease, and strokes. Search Canadian Pharmacy Meds for discount medications that treat these and many additional ailments. Explore six tips from experts on avoiding common yet unnecessary stressors that aren’t worth your time and energy.

1. Replaying Intense Incidents

Rehashing distressing memories doesn’t help you overcome them and may make you relive the traumatic stress, warns health and wellness expert , Ph.D. Your brain can’t distinguish what’s happening from your thoughts. So when you dwell on negative encounters from your past, your body recreates stress reactions. Conquer this unhealthy habit by adjusting how you think about certain situations. Replacing destructive thoughts is easier than stopping them. Gruver advises developing affirmations about troublesome occasions. Concentrate on optimistic statements such as “I’m well and healthy,” “My immune protection is powerful,” and “I’m moving forward into a positive future with confidence.” Encouraging assertions will supersede your never-ending sequence of negative thoughts. Meditation also can help halt unwelcome stress responses. Concentrate on breathing slowly and deeply while internalizing “I am” during inhalations and following with “at peace” while exhaling.

2. Financial Fixations

Worrying about spent money is another way of repeating your past mistakes in your mind. Criticizing your own bad financial habits just boosts your current stress level. Unfortunately, you can’t reclaim depleted money, notes Gruver. To prevent this stressor, life coach and educator Diane Lang, M.A., suggests concentrating on what’s within your control like making better monetary decisions ― starting today. Become more responsible with your finances by accepting that money won’t buy happiness. Choose to socialize privately with friends instead of going out to spend more money than you can spare. Or curb your temptation to overspend by leaving your credit cards at home.

3. Doomsday Thinking

Emphasizing potential negative outcomes of certain situations — like whether you’ll have a bad time on a date or if working with your new supervisor will be difficult — propels negative possibilities into your future. Worrying about situations when you can’t know what will occur may make you suffer twice, Gruver cautions. Instead of dwelling on worst-case scenarios, Lang advises considering if they’re realistic. Determine if they will still disturb you after a couple of months. You may realize that perceived problems aren’t big deals but smaller issues that you can handle. Gruver suggests focusing on the present. During daily tasks like washing your hands, take time to smell the soap, feel its creaminess on your skin, or watch the bubbles glistening in the light. Enjoying simple observations will keep you from obsessing over the past while encouraging you to be mindful of your future.

4. Aggravating Relationships

, Ph.D., advocates using a stress journal to identify what’s causing any undue stress. Record tense incidents with causes and ways you dealt with them. Duplicate notations should help you pinpoint recurring stressors. Some may be preventable just by regulating your environment. Making minor changes such as not listening to office gossip or ignoring calls during dinner may be effective. Try avoiding controversial topics like religion and politics or cut your ties with aggravating individuals if necessary.

5. Procrastination

You can have many reasons for postponing things. Maybe you put off tasks that are overwhelming or scary to accomplish. This can lead to frustration as well as stress. Instead of undertaking challenging projects collectively, Lang recommends devising plans to tackle them in stages. Start with long-term, overall objectives. Then set a series of smaller targets to achieve along the way. When you divide broad tasks into smaller, bite-sized chunks, multiple accomplishments become celebratory motivators to reach your end goal. Gardere recommends time management to help determine which duties are vital and the ones you can postpone or remove from your to-do list. Prioritizing your responsibilities frees up more time for the things you enjoy. It also helps you balance your work and personal lives. The love and support of family and friends in your off hours are valuable stress defenders.

6. Tardiness

While you may have a multitude of explanations ready for whenever you’re running late, some instances truly are beyond your control. You aren’t responsible for tardiness causes like a malfunctioning alarm clock, bad weather, and traffic congestion. HHS counsels that your only option in such unavoidable situations is how you choose to react. Rather than chastising yourself for keeping others waiting, emphasize positives over negatives. Your safe arrival and upbeat attitude can calm potentially stressful emotions and situations. According to Lang, you may justify lateness as fear of visiting certain places or agreeing to do things when your schedule is too tight. These circumstances can cause anger and increase the stress that already exists over not being punctual. Lang recommends deciding if you can fit all obligations or events into your busy routine before accepting them. Learning when and how to decline invitations will help you avoid unnecessary future stress.